You Should Work For The City!

On my way home from work this week I engaged in a conversation with a middle aged man who was a fellow user of the public transit system. We started talking about how ridiculous it was that we were the only ones on the bus, at three in the afternoon no less. I asked him why he thought the bus was so empty at a time which is considered part of the afternoon rush? He told me that it was because after three in the afternoon the bridge rush begins and it can take up to two hours on a bus to get across it. For those of you not familiar with the city of Kelowna, a large percentage of the cities population lives on the other side of Lake Okanagan and commute into the city for work, all the commuter traffic creates a large amount of congestion both coming into and out of the city. The man made a very good point in regards to the bridge traffic; I personally would not want to be stuck on a hot bus for up to two hours after a long day of work. I started thinking about how much quicker the commute across the bridge could be if people took the bus so I asked my comrade what could the city do to increase rider-ship when it came to peoples commute across the bridge. His idea seemed so simple but yet could be truly effective, he suggested that the city place a toll for crossing the bridge in a private auto but free for those who were on a bus. It is forward thinking like that demonstrated by my bus buddy which will help to make public transit systems comparable to the private auto. I have read the city of Kelowna’s plan for expanded and improved public transit from front to back, I read the city use the term smart growth over and over and how it might increase rider-ship. No where in the cities plan did it mention the idea of charging a toll to use the bridge as a means to increase its transit systems rider-ship. How can one expect people to just start riding the bus without giving them an incentive to do so, just a little push to get someone to sample their product? It seems that the city is taking a passive role in getting people to give up their car but taking an active role in pretending that they are providing options. You got to hit them where it hurts if they expect their “sustainable” city to become a reality and the best way I know is by putting another hand in someone else’s cookie jar.