If only taking transit could be as sunny and relaxing an experience as this yumster mural image from Roncesvalles makes it look. In the 1980s we participated in a cultural exchange with a working-class family living in a place called Shittassawgwah. In our thesis paper entitled Marooned in the 905: Stress Family Robinson and the Kapitalist Koncentration Kamp we detailed at length the hideous effects of mediocre schools, boredom, class structure, skewed ethnic demographics, poor town planning and, above all, a dearth of public transit on an otherwise endearing group of individuals. More recently we studied the mind-slaughtering, dream-butchering impact of prolonged travel to the suburbs on the Toronto Transit Commission’s Route 29 bus during winter as it grumbled its overcrowded way from the shores of Lake Ontario to the romantic, low wage vistas of Downsview. Rocket Rider or lost cosmonaut? Perhaps our academic/observational objectivity was weaker in these experiences than we thought and so they help explain our simultaneous affection for, and fascination with, motor cars and public transit. We like them to be glamorous: cappuccino machine-equipped light rail and totally chopped Subarus for the masses! Why can’t we have THE TRUTH about how cities should be a la Jane Jacobs; all those pedestrian-friendly shopping districts, sidewalk cafes, fancy streetcars, bicycle lanes, intriguing sustainable architecture, GO trains with onboard pedicure services along with an immaculately restored E-Type, and maybe a hemi ‘Cuda, at the same time?
And what's with all these bullshit merchants who crap themselves when they find out the street they are on is set for transit improvements? We must be in Toryonto?
editor’s note: Car & Driver’s September 1966 issue found the Dodge Dart GT with a 360 almost as fast in the quarter mile as a Corvette!
editor's note: always assist women with strollers board and exit transit vehicles and negotiate stairs/escalators safely
No comments:
Post a Comment