Wednesday, October 13, 2010

The hazards of 'transit fatigue'

More than two years ago, I mentioned the fact that the seeming omnipresence of public transit in the city's news seemed to be building up some level of transit fatigue among citizens in Ottawa. And despite a whole new transit plan, it still seems basic questions about public transit are still being hashed out by local politicians through the media.

And this year's election has done nothing to help the situation. An article on CTV Ottawa had local citizen Liz Bernstein sum up what is likely a common thought pattern among city voters when it comes to the transit ticket:
"Let's just get to it," she says.

"Get something done so people can get out of their cars and and into public transit, whether it's bus or train, going underground or not, so we can get around more easily."
I'll admit, it's something I've thought up before: We've been waiting for so long to see something big happen on public transit, any progress will have to be a step in the right direction. But when public transit has become such a tired issue to the electorate that they've given up trying to have their say for fear of further setting back the process, it's a bad thing for everyone involved.

1 comment:

David said...

Anyone remember this site?:

http://ottawa.econsultation.ca/

Remember what a farce it was? Lots of discussion, lots of ideas, suggestions, etc.

What came of it? Probably a consultation report somewhere and nothing else.

This grand exercise in public participation culminated in being presented with four maps with varying degrees of blue, red and orange lines and basically being told to pick one.

The reason all these questions still exist is because the process by which the plan was developed was quite unsatisfactory, but, despite all the that, the public has largely been ground down by it all and has got to the point where they would support just about any plan, regardless of its merits.