Keep your cool when things heat up
We've all felt the frustration of being late.
Sometimes leaving at what seems to be a
decent time ends with you missing whatever
time you were hoping to make.
I've felt and seen this sort of frustration on the London buses. There are times where I'm behind because of the overcrowded buses that have passed by me and when I finally get on one, I groan at the words, “Move to the back of the bus, please.” I silently ask, “How many more people can we even physically fit on here?” It doesn't get better when you're the late one to awkwardly walk into class and have to endure some trivial seconds of having all eyes on you.
But let's be clear, London Transit Commission drivers do a damn good job for the most part. I've never really felt that inconvenienced on the bus — at least, not enough for me to personally feel like the bus driver is the worst person on the planet. In some other cases, though, I've seen people scream at the bus driver, verbally abuse them, and use horrendous racial/sexist terms out of their earshot. I don't think anyone deserves that on their worksite. Really, the most frustrating part of a bus driver's job must be dealing with those crabby people who have so little control over their tempers.
Realistically, the bus delaying you is no more inconvenient than your car breaking down or your computer not functioning. Sure, it's probably preventable, but no one is ever going to be able to say that they do not run into problems simply because of their initiative. So many things can go wrong with your day. If you're late, you're late. Your anger isn't going to turn back the clock. It's not going to lighten the mood of anyone who is affected by your delays. It's certainly not going to make the bus ride any better for anyone. For a lot of things, really, anger doesn't solve much. Anger serves as inspiration to potentially get something done, but nothing more than that. Let's not misdirect our anger to other people.
That being said, can the LTC routes be improved? Absolutely. I think there's a serious congestion issue on some of the main routes. I've seen four buses drive by me at my stop because they were filled to the brim. Solving this sort of thing is hard because even though the LTC has taken steps to include direct routes (such as Fanshawe- and downtown-specific buses), we're still seeing them packed to insane amounts and it makes riders quite uncomfortable.
A potential solution for this problem is to have express routes similar to the new 90 route to Masonville that pick up people at the busiest spots and go directly to the school from there. Furthermore, adding more routes that pass through some housing areas might also cut down on congestion on the major lines. Maybe adding more of those fancy caterpillar-looking buses that can hold twice the amount of passengers would be a notable solution.
Though we can consider these options, we can get angry, we can drive ourselves nuts over our inability to control the busy days ahead of us, nothing is going to change so long as the city continues to cut funding for the LTC. The budget for LTC continues to get slashed by the city, which apparently is not aware of these issues or considers them trivial. Compared to the pay raises that the police or building planners have garnered over the past four years, we're seeing this clear picture of what city council's priorities are.
We can argue about the necessity for those services another day, but currently, I think we need to focus our attention on supporting these public systems that are provided to us as students. Let's cool down and start looking at this rationally.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
I've felt and seen this sort of frustration on the London buses. There are times where I'm behind because of the overcrowded buses that have passed by me and when I finally get on one, I groan at the words, “Move to the back of the bus, please.” I silently ask, “How many more people can we even physically fit on here?” It doesn't get better when you're the late one to awkwardly walk into class and have to endure some trivial seconds of having all eyes on you.
But let's be clear, London Transit Commission drivers do a damn good job for the most part. I've never really felt that inconvenienced on the bus — at least, not enough for me to personally feel like the bus driver is the worst person on the planet. In some other cases, though, I've seen people scream at the bus driver, verbally abuse them, and use horrendous racial/sexist terms out of their earshot. I don't think anyone deserves that on their worksite. Really, the most frustrating part of a bus driver's job must be dealing with those crabby people who have so little control over their tempers.
Realistically, the bus delaying you is no more inconvenient than your car breaking down or your computer not functioning. Sure, it's probably preventable, but no one is ever going to be able to say that they do not run into problems simply because of their initiative. So many things can go wrong with your day. If you're late, you're late. Your anger isn't going to turn back the clock. It's not going to lighten the mood of anyone who is affected by your delays. It's certainly not going to make the bus ride any better for anyone. For a lot of things, really, anger doesn't solve much. Anger serves as inspiration to potentially get something done, but nothing more than that. Let's not misdirect our anger to other people.
That being said, can the LTC routes be improved? Absolutely. I think there's a serious congestion issue on some of the main routes. I've seen four buses drive by me at my stop because they were filled to the brim. Solving this sort of thing is hard because even though the LTC has taken steps to include direct routes (such as Fanshawe- and downtown-specific buses), we're still seeing them packed to insane amounts and it makes riders quite uncomfortable.
A potential solution for this problem is to have express routes similar to the new 90 route to Masonville that pick up people at the busiest spots and go directly to the school from there. Furthermore, adding more routes that pass through some housing areas might also cut down on congestion on the major lines. Maybe adding more of those fancy caterpillar-looking buses that can hold twice the amount of passengers would be a notable solution.
Though we can consider these options, we can get angry, we can drive ourselves nuts over our inability to control the busy days ahead of us, nothing is going to change so long as the city continues to cut funding for the LTC. The budget for LTC continues to get slashed by the city, which apparently is not aware of these issues or considers them trivial. Compared to the pay raises that the police or building planners have garnered over the past four years, we're seeing this clear picture of what city council's priorities are.
We can argue about the necessity for those services another day, but currently, I think we need to focus our attention on supporting these public systems that are provided to us as students. Let's cool down and start looking at this rationally.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
