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Okay, so here's the situation. My parents went away for a week's vacation. And they left behind the keys to their brand new porsche .... wait a minute. Wrong rant. ....
Okay, so seriously ... the City of Ottawa will be raising fees of various sorts to allow for this 0% tax hike that was promised to us during the last election. This includes raising the cost of bus passes by, get this, 30% over the next three years (that's 7.5% a year)... So this means that a regular bus pass is going to jump from $73.00/month to $81 as of July 1, 2008. So far there is no mention of the Express pass increasing (though I imagine it will), but the student pass will increase to $62.75/month and Senior's passes will increase to $30.40/month.
Now, this pisses me off to begin with because they are charging us more for less service, but that's not the thing that's getting under my skin. What's getting to me are these holier-than-thou people who start screaming every time someone says "Geez, it's almost cheaper to take my car into work every day".
They start pulling out the numbers. They mention gas and parking, but also throw in depreciation, maintenance, insurance, and car payments. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you pay these things regardless of whether you take your car into work or it stays in your driveway? I mean, last time I checked, I didn't have a choice in paying those things. If I want to keep my license I have to have insurance; if I want insurance I have to keep my car maintained; and if I want to keep all the things I like, I have to pay off my car loan.
But god forbid that I mention any of this to these people, because then I become "Evil SUV Driving Bitch (tm)". I understand that when you add up the increased cost of gas and the cost of parking, you will be paying more than the bus pass (in my case, about $100 more/month), but it doesn't change the fact that if they keep raising taxes there will me little or no incentive for me to take the bus to work instead of Scout.
And isn't one of the points of mass transit to get people to take it rather than personal vehicles?
Okay, so seriously ... the City of Ottawa will be raising fees of various sorts to allow for this 0% tax hike that was promised to us during the last election. This includes raising the cost of bus passes by, get this, 30% over the next three years (that's 7.5% a year)... So this means that a regular bus pass is going to jump from $73.00/month to $81 as of July 1, 2008. So far there is no mention of the Express pass increasing (though I imagine it will), but the student pass will increase to $62.75/month and Senior's passes will increase to $30.40/month.
Now, this pisses me off to begin with because they are charging us more for less service, but that's not the thing that's getting under my skin. What's getting to me are these holier-than-thou people who start screaming every time someone says "Geez, it's almost cheaper to take my car into work every day".
They start pulling out the numbers. They mention gas and parking, but also throw in depreciation, maintenance, insurance, and car payments. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you pay these things regardless of whether you take your car into work or it stays in your driveway? I mean, last time I checked, I didn't have a choice in paying those things. If I want to keep my license I have to have insurance; if I want insurance I have to keep my car maintained; and if I want to keep all the things I like, I have to pay off my car loan.
But god forbid that I mention any of this to these people, because then I become "Evil SUV Driving Bitch (tm)". I understand that when you add up the increased cost of gas and the cost of parking, you will be paying more than the bus pass (in my case, about $100 more/month), but it doesn't change the fact that if they keep raising taxes there will me little or no incentive for me to take the bus to work instead of Scout.
And isn't one of the points of mass transit to get people to take it rather than personal vehicles?
