It has not been
great month for getting around. Whether it was cyclists, drivers or
transit riders, everyone got wake up calls during May. It’s as if we
were reminded not to rely on any one form of transportation -- each
is as risky as the other.
First, two
people on bicycles were killed in Toronto -- in both cases crushed
under the wheels of trucks. Once again people wanted to know why
there has been no progress on a decade-old request for life-saving
barriers along the sides of trucks.
As I wrote last
week, the 401 was up to its old tricks, periodically seizing up
after serious wrecks. Thousands upon thousands of people affected --
in one case clean-up crews waited two hours for assurance they would
actually be paid to remove a spill.
On the last
Sunday in May, many commuters in and around Toronto went to bed
unaware that some TTC workers were preparing to illegally picket
transit depots, effectively freezing bus, streetcar and subway
service for most of Monday. The work week started with a shock as
some riders strolled blithely to closed subway stations and to bus
stops where no bus would stop.
In between the
anger and frustration came calls to make the TTC an essential
service, or to privatize it and break the hold of the transit union.
The Toronto economy lost millions, roads overflowed and many people
experienced untold inconvenience and discomfort.
Upon scrutiny,
it becomes clearer that neither essential status nor privatization
guarantee a reliable system. New York City suffered a three-day
strike that was so illegal that the head of the transit union spent
four days in jail afterwards. A megalopolis was shut down anyway.
Removing the right to strike also tends to require hefty pay raises
and may even weaken the bargaining rights of management.
Next solution:
privatizing transit. You need either a hard-head to force the thing
through, damning the torpedoes as some furious workers resist in any
way they know how ... like wildcat strikes. I suppose someone may
arise with the deft political and financial skills required to
introduce free-market elements to public transit. Fashioning a new
system that actually works for riders, taxpayers and private firms
would be a gargantuan task, and there are precious few examples
around the world of such win-win-win results.
The weekend
leading up to the TTC strike was no good for drivers either. A
couple was killed when they got in the way of an alleged street race
on Yonge Street north of Toronto. All they were doing was driving
home. Newscasts seemed over-filled with images of seriously smashed
autos, all in collisions that preceded the strike.
A fellow caught
in Monday’s gridlock told me of a nearby driver who had hopped out
of his car just before it “exploded” on the 404. The driver was
fine, and the man who witnessed the event from metres away was
simply glad to be safe and sound, if two hours late for work.
The capper for
me was the TV report that police had closed part of the 401 in
southern Ontario to film a safety video. The site was near where an
OPP constable was killed, and the promo is intended to save more
officers by warning drivers to (safely) steer around emergency
vehicles parked along highways.
A valid cause,
but reason enough to divert cars and trucks on a slow, multi-kilometre
detour?
We can’t expect
complete reliability, but we do need police, road crews, transit
workers and everyone behind the wheel to attend to the job at hand.
Please.
edrass@nationalpost.com