Capital Furs

So.

I know a fair number of people here attend University in Ottawa, and I also know most of us are under 27. However I just found out recently that Alex Cullen amongst others are leading a charge to have the age for 'student bus passes' be a maximum of 27 years old. If you're 27 or older, even as a student of a university you wouldn't be eligible for a student bus pass. I'm not usually one to get all riled up about something like that, but given the piss poor service of OC Transpo to begin with, and their love of rate hikes, I have to say this is completely insane. It's a money grab, pure and simple... and it's one that's necessitated by poor financial management by both the council and OC Transpo itself.

Cullen is currently advocating putting 'hand sanitizers' on all the buses, but at the same time is claiming there's so little money for OC Transpo that they need to stop allowing older students from having discounted bus passes. I mean... seriously. This guy is a goofball, pure and simple. I just sent him an email about it and I'd encourage anyone who has the time to do the same. Council gets away with this BS because people let them, and while we may not change the world, maybe we can convince this douchebag that he can't have it both ways. You can't spend money frivolously AND gouge people for money while claiming it 'has to be done'.

Alex.Cullen@ottawa.ca is a good place to start, I also sent an email to my local counciller (Rainer Bloess in my case). He happens to be on the transit committee as well, so even if he isn't your counciller, maybe send him a copy as well.

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Hi,

I just recently heard that the city had, or is intending to, pass a motion concerning transit passes for students. I'm curious at what point this seemed like a good idea to a council that is continually eroding its support from citizens with poor decisions on non-issues while continuing to ignore the issues that are turning this city, slowly but surely, into a second rate burg. Had I known about this previously, you can bet this email would already have been sent.

To put it plainly, a student is a student whether they're 19 or 30. I'm lucky in that this motion doesn't affect me yet, being only 24, but at the same time I feel it easily could have and that definitely doesn't sit well with me. People returning to school at later ages, in this case 27+ are usually the ones that require the discounts on bus passes. At that age there's far more financial responsibility and to force them to pay the already exorbitant transit fees being charged by our less than respectable bus service is insane.

Mr. Cullen, I understand that your favorite pass-time is bringing up legislation that all but ignores anything of value, but this is by far one of the lowest attempts at a money-grab I've had to witness. I can forgive the money you want to waste on hand sanitizers for buses while millions of liters of sewage spill into the Ottawa river every time it rains. I can ignore your focus on the 'Canada geese' problem in Ottawa while potholes grow bigger and I can simply laugh off the bevy of bad ideas I see you come up with (or support), knowing full well that you don't have the best interests of the city at heart, but this is a low blow to anyone thinking to return to school later in life to finish a program they may have dropped out of, or who simply want to upgrade their skills.

I've included Mr. Bloess in this email as he is my area's councilperson and I'd like him to know my thoughts on the matter. This is despicable, I'm ashamed that you'd be so hypocritical as to use 6.8 million dollars to update 178 OCH units in Brittania but feel that the city is so strapped for cash (despite the money thrown away at failed attempts at light-rail and footbridges) that you need to extort money from people trying to better themselves and actually contribute something to society.

I'd be ashamed to say I voted for you Mr. Cullen. I truly would. And while I'm sure you'll look at this email (maybe) and roll your eyes, thinking you know what's best for us, you can be sure that I'm not the only one who feels this way and if you actually had any respect for this city or job beyond your $100k or so a year pay cheque, I urge you to rethink this deplorable idea and look for money where it can actually be spared... namely the hair-brained ideas and total lack of fiscal responsibility that has become this council's trademark.

Thank you,
------------- <--- My name here


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Do it or don't, I'm not going to demand you do. Even if this doesn't affect you though, it might be a good idea to speak up, as everyone knows this council isn't beyond taking a mile if given an inch.

tldr:  City to put max. age limit on student bus passes.  Write a letter.

Meer wrote:given the piss poor service of OC Transpo to begin with, and their love of rate hikes

I disagree, I think octranspo does a fairly good job compared to many other cities, and considering that buses form the backbone of the system, its a wonder it works as well as it does.

I do agree however, that the rates here are quite ridiculous!  Its $2.75 in toronto for a cash fair, $1.85 for students.  On the other hand, monthly passes are much more expensive in Toronto, $109 for adult and $91 for students.  I know this includes the subway system, but I still think its a bit of a rip off.






More on topic:  WTF!?!?!?!?!!??!  Bad move Ottawa... Angry letter writers unite!

tecywiz121 wrote:tldr:  City to put max. age limit on student bus passes.  Write a letter.

Meer wrote:given the piss poor service of OC Transpo to begin with, and their love of rate hikes

I disagree, I think octranspo does a fairly good job compared to many other cities, and considering that buses form the backbone of the system, its a wonder it works as well as it does.

I think that's up to the individual, some people have lower tolerances for ineptitude than others. I draw the line at bus-drivers stopping in the middle of their route to go get a coffee, or kicking people off the bus before the end of their route because they're late for their next run (the 116 to Hurdman once made everyone get off at Greenboro so he could get to his next route on time). Their buses combust as demonstrated several times by Ur's love of that picture (I remember reading about that in the paper, I lawl'ed), they don't put snow-tires on their articulated buses, they continue to purchase buses from a company that should be sued into the ground for THEIR general ineptitude (the recent recall of a whole bunch of articulated buses due to improper construction that left them liable to simply detach... thank god it didn't actually happen)
They raise rates on a fixed schedule, which is never a good sign of having the paying customer's interest in mind. Every 6 months no matter what. It's now $1.15 a ticket, and all the passes just went up by 3 or 4 dollars ($10 in the case of the student semester pass). I've also noticed that now that people have kinda stopped being up in arms about it, they've stopped calling out bus stops as well.

I could go on and on and on about how they fail as a company.

Having previously lived for a year along the Bayshore/Brittania end of the 85 bus route, I have no love for OC Transpo. The ticket and pass prices just went up again (on the 1st of July, I believe) and I can't fathom how much we pay for transit in this city. For an antiquated transit system built on the back of unreliable and inefficient buses, you'd think they'd charge less.

Even in Toronto, the largest city in the country, they have 3 different methods of public transit, all of which cost less to ride than ours does and all of them can get you where you're going faster and more efficiently.

I depend on the bus and I likely will for the next few years. Also, I intend to head to university for the first time either in January or next September. By the time I'm in my third year, I'll be 27 and no longer eligible for a student pass. This is not acceptable.

City of Ottawa... I AM DISSAPOINT.

In almost-related news, but not really even close...

I totally saw you on the bus the other day, Meer.
You may not have noticed and/or remembered me. I was wearing a red dress and got off at St. Laurent?

Scarlet Gypsy wrote:In almost-related news, but not really even close...

I totally saw you on the bus the other day, Meer.
You may not have noticed and/or remembered me. I was wearing a red dress and got off at St. Laurent?

Ha.

I had a feeling that was you. I've only met you once or twice though so wasn't sure. I wasn't ignoring you, was just sitting there trying to decide whether I should say something or not.

Was actually on my way to IK's.

No problem =)
I was on my way to meet Gold for a family dinner.

Scarlet Gypsy wrote:No problem =)
I was on my way to meet Gold for a family dinner.

You totally should have taken a baseball bat to his knee caps then!

Kesslan wrote:

Scarlet Gypsy wrote:No problem =)
I was on my way to meet Gold for a family dinner.

You totally should have taken a baseball bat to his knee caps then!

Who? Meer, or Gold? XD

tecywiz121 wrote:I disagree, I think octranspo does a fairly good job compared to many other cities, and considering that buses form the backbone of the system, its a wonder it works as well as it does.

I do agree however, that the rates here are quite ridiculous!  Its $2.75 in toronto for a cash fair, $1.85 for students.  On the other hand, monthly passes are much more expensive in Toronto, $109 for adult and $91 for students.  I know this includes the subway system, but I still think its a bit of a rip off.

I dunno, Last time I was in Toronto I was able to get from Union station all the way out to Hamilton in little over an hour. Transfering from Subway to bus to Go train then Coach, not to shabby of a system. Considering it takes longer than that to get across Ottawa and only cost me 8 bucks, Id say Toronto's got the better system here.

OCtranspo are a bunch of mooks! They'll do anything for a quick cash grab. A friend of mine got a $150 fine because 2 days before the end of the month OC Gestapo wrote him up for not filling out the numbers on his pass. Complete BS, thats why I drive now.