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Boulevard of Broken Dreams
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Phillip Hong
December 30, 2012 |
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While fidgeting around Richmond Hill Centre bus terminal one sweltering hot summer afternoon a few
years ago, a reporter from the local ethnic television station came up to me and proceeded to ask
questions about Viva's newest feature. I then proceeded to try to describe in my choppy chop suey
sounding Cantonese my excitement as a commuter towards that new feature and how it would change the
face of the world, what have you, so and so on.
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I never wound up on the eventual report, probably because I was more than nervous on camera, but the
report itself wound up to be a bit of an embarrassment in the end. The exciting new feature
(on-board wifi) never actually rolled out. And the buses trundled on as if nothing ever happened.
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Ahh, the broken promises of a regional transit system that was supposed to get more people out of
their cars and to their destinations. Instead, we've been left with a bigger tax bill, a string of
transit fare increases with little to prove its worth and "rapid transit" on the back burner for the
immediate future.
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This disgruntled Southern York Regioner remembers how rosy the YRT was. Heck, I was one of the few
high school students who managed to cross all but three municipalities on a regular commute to high
school. The promises of a faster, more enjoyable "cool" ride were cult-forming, and with such a
robust plan it seemed that the improvements would never cease. It felt like an oasis in what would
become a traffic-choked desert.
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September 2005 trundled by. That was when the constant delays should've ended and the sleek cool
new Viva bus made its debut. I jumped at the chance and gambled on the new service instead of taking
GO Transit (which at the time served Yonge Street).
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Turned out to be a mess. I had to get on earlier, winding up later for class and the new ride wound
up slower. Chalk it up to growing pains, but I bet if you took this revolutionary bus right now on
my old commute, you'd be trundling around without the "rapid" feeling.
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The region says putting rapidways (those dedicated bus lanes in the middle of the road) will make
the past feel obsolete. Well... the plan already feels obsolete. If my memory proves right,
advertising during Viva's debut back in 2005 promised to give commuters this improvement in 2010.
Fashionably late. It won't show up at any substantial part of the region until at least 2014.
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Forget the delays in transit. This is some delay in reducing some of the delays in our delay-ridden
transit system!
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What happened to that dream where we could all find a reasonable way to get from point A to point B
without driving? Despite all the hype that has come in Viva's introduction, it seems that transit
hasn't lived up to its own expectations. And it is costing us more.
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Remember we were supposed to be connected to the City of Toronto by snazzy frequent "links"? You
were urged to keep your car at home and enjoy the simple ride to the subway station. Well, the link
from Markham only runs during rush hour nowadays, and the region proposes to reduce the link from
Vaughan to York University instead of the subway station at off-peak times. Not exactly a constant
connection, is it?
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Yes, I do know there are perfectly acceptable explanations (the economy, ridership) and alternative
routes than through Viva. But we weren't just sold a new set of bus routes; we were sold a new
lifestyle that not only took us out of our cars, but would bring simplicity and reliability with a
better, faster ride. Have we been served fairly? Were the promises fully fulfilled? And did we
really get out of our cars to make a difference?
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Well, I've done the opposite. This transit rider started driving and will continue to do so in the
immediate future, thanks to the inconvenience of the transit system - it doesn't go where I need to
go, and it doesn't go fast enough. I've resigned to a cynicism that is made up of broken promises,
and a rapidway that is being built on a boulevard of broken dreams.
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Phillip Hong is a columnist with 148.ca.
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