Quote:
Originally Posted by bomberguy
lmao, same here.
Seriously though.. 2020 seems like the year it will be built.
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Back in the early 80s I thought that we'd have LRT in the Southwest by 1985/86 That would have been so cool to be able to travel from River Heights to downtown, or to zoom to Fort Garry and Fort Richmond if I wanted or needed to. Back then I was only 15/16, I was so optimistic, I'd look out my bedroom window and could just see the Calgary C-Train-like LRT almost there. Also back then I didn't have the Internet for insight (through these online discussions) on why rapid transit (so far) hasn't been constructed.
Now that I'm 40 I have a whole bunch of insight to why things haven't moved much in the past 25 years....
- Pseudo-environmentalist BRT Hippies on City Council
- Pro-highway white suburban rural Conservative types on Council
The thing is that while it's quite easy to figure out the pro-highway people, it's not so when figuring out the environmentalists....
The highway people say that we need to "fix our infrastructure" and expand/widen major thoroughfares. They say that the buses can use the same roadways, so to them it's a good choice (cost effective, efficient, etc...). They don't care about global warming and in fact deny that it is the reason why temperatures are getting warmer. They say, "good, I like this warmer weather", and hate the cold.
The environmentalists on the other hand are harder to spot because we both want the same thing: increased transit ridership, faster service, a revitalized downtown with "funky little shops", and we both want to reduce CO2 emissions.
The Hippies of old, with their platform shoes and bell bottom pants are gone, while the ones of today tend to blend in with the rest of us in terms of fashion. I consider Coun. Jenny Gerbasi, former Coun. Donald Benham, and former MP and current U of W Pres. to be Hippies. There may be others. The men wear suits, the women wear nice office-type outfits. They don't have flower power stickers from the 60s. So in a way it can be deceiving on the surface.
They say "we can't afford LRT, that's too expensive". They associate transit with the old VW hippie bus from the 60s. Environmentalists refer to their ideology as "progressive", yet some of what they believe surely has an "anti-progressive" way to it. "Keep things small", "don't build over that river", "use hydrogen (which isn't ready for prime time) instead of cheap hydro electricity because you'll hurt the natural environment or hurt the Native's hunting and fishing land". Eeek! I think it's also connected to being of a certain ethnic nationality, which I won't mention here for fear of being called a racist. You know who you are.
Yet I don't drive a car. I don't want to. I cycle in the Summer and bus it in the Winter. I care about future of the very same planet. I don't want the icebergs in the arctic to melt, and I try and recycle as best as I can.
But for some reason Hippies like (love) buses and don't like trains... I haven't connected the dots on that one, but I'm close. I know now that convincing Gerbasi in favour of LRT or subway would be as successful as convincing Lloyd of the same thing. The BRT Hippies are stubborn people and most likely won't change their ideology.
What we need are good Councillors and MLAs who will, from the outset, already know that LRT and subway is the only viable option for a city the size of Winnipeg. They don't need to be "convinced". I wish Hugh McFadyen, who says he's lived in the big cities of Toronto and London England, would just say this already. What is he waiting for?
Last January I created a web poll on
NewWinnipeg.com and asked the members there "What form of Rapid Transit should Winnipeg implement?" Well, I found that about 56% want LRT or subway, the BRT crowd is small, only 11%. However, the pro-BRT tend to be better organized (they have the backing of big labour) and are into things like "street theatre" to make their point. The pro-rail people of Winnipeg could learn a few things from them.
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