Sutcliffe Doesn’t Understand Transit: THE VOTER

11/06/2023

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Long-time Bulldog commenter and respected community activist The Voter responds to Mayor Mark Sutcliffe’s transit video at the bottom of this post:

Mayor Mark Sutcliffe clearly doesn’t understand what “essential public services” are all about.

They are supposed to provide those services including transit that people need when and where they are needed. They are not intended to be a profit-making venture. The city funds and operates transit services so that people can get to school, work, shopping, appointments and recreation. When people can do those things, they contribute to the economic engine of the city and an improved quality of life. They also have an environmental impact by taking cars off the road when people have a viable alternative in public transit.

If people on my street put out less garbage or are driving less often to work, the city doesn’t stop sending the garbage truck to to collect garbage or the snowplow to clear the snow. These services in the public good are maintained for those of us who still rely on them. So it should be for transit services.

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Sutcliffe and OC Transpo general manager Renee Amilcar should check out the blurbs on the sides of buses and elsewhere over the years promoting the switch to transit. The ones about the money you’ll save buying a bus pass versus putting gas in your car and paying parking; about the environmental benefits of the new electric bus fleet; about how relaxing the bus ride is compared to sitting in rush hour traffic; and so on.

Sutcliffe stands on the corner of Maitland and Carling in his video and tells us that Route 116 he used to catch there to get to high school no longer stops there and, in fact, there’s no longer even a bus stop there because it’s not needed. Has he figured out how kids will get to school from his old neighbourhood with the new cuts? That would be more useful than telling us he had reliable transit service to get to school back in the day.

The transit vision statement says “Proud to be your choice to get there”. It should be revised to say “Proud to be the choice for some of you to get there but not you or you or you”.

The Voter is a respected community activist and long-time Bulldog commenter who prefers to keep her identity private.

Investing in Transit | Investir dans les transports en commun