Driving Can Be Dangerous

I know most of you take Go-Transit but you may be driving to the station.
For this reason I thought I these commandments passed on by the Vatican.
Maybe they could save your lives.

The 10 commandments of driving

1. You shall not kill.
2. The road shall be for you a means of communion between people and not of
   mortal harm.
3. Courtesy, uprightness and prudence will help you deal with unforeseen
   events.
4. Be charitable and help your neighbour in need, especially victims of
   accidents.
5. Cars shall not be for you an expression of power and domination, and an occasion of sin.
6. Charitably convince the young and not so young not to drive when they are
   not in a fitting condition to do so.
7. Support the families of accident victims.
8. Bring guilty motorists and their victims together, at the appropriate time,
   so that they can undergo the liberating experience of forgiveness.
9. On the road, protect the more vulnerable party.
10. Feel responsible toward others.
    
    Source: The Vatican website and
    the Associated Press

Hope these commandments will help you in your day to day travels.

If It Were Not An Election Year .. Ontario Transit Plan

Kudos to Dalton McGuinty for finally realizing the crisis we have in transit. Unfortunately it took an approaching election for him to do it and interestingly enough this will start after the election.

The plan will see $17.5 billion invested in transit over 12 years starting in 2008.

It is unclear form what I have seen what the timeline is other than it will end in 2020. There are some good ideas here, like:

• Adding GO Bus Rapid Transit from Burlington to Highway 401
• Increasing speed and reducing emissions by electrifying the GO Lakeshore line.

Being a passenger on the Lakeshore line I will be keeping a close eye on this. Saving 15 minutes off my commute would be awesome,

Now, if they could do something to reduce the number of times we have to switch tracks that would further reduce delays. I didn't see anything about this in the plan but here is hoping.

Passenger Chaos, No Real Explaination

It all started on June 14, 2007 at 5:19 when the express to Oakville train was scheduled to leave the station. At the last minute all the passengers were sent down to the concourse with no explaination except that there was a Police Investigation. There was no sense in how long we would have to wait as in the past Go Transit had made us wait hours before telling us trains were cancelled for good during the Mimico derailment.

Time passed and more rush hour trains were cancelled so more people started to huddle in Union Station. It was getting crowded and no news except the recording that kept saying. Trains are delayed due to a Police Investigation. It must have been quite serious because it shut down all west end lines. In the past the Milton line was still running so passengers had some alternate.

Around 6:00 service restarted and the 5:19 express to Oakville stayed an express train. At least Go Transit did that right. Get the trains moving and people out of Union ASAP.

I searched the Go Transit site and even Google but it seems whatever happened its now covered up. We can only assume someone crossed the tracks outside union and did not have a safe crossing.

If this was the case it brings up an issue of Go Transit Safety and it starts with us the Passengers. The signs are everywhere and they announce it on every trip. Don't Cross The Tracks. Watch the signs and obey them.

Sometimes people cross the tracks for other reasons. This is a big problem in our society especially since there is really no action plan for the government for teens in this situation. Charities like www.lamplight.org that help teens in crisis has to survive on the help of good people donating and out of the founder's pockets. Its about time the government stepped up and instead of just preserving our world for our future generations how about funding agencies to keep our future generations safe now.

Cash for going green

Its an election year so its understandable that politicians are really acting green gung ho.
Its the season. Here is an article about money being given to municipalities that are going green.

http://www.metronews.ca/story.aspx?id=54964

The question I have is how much of this "green" money is going to help the overcrowding on public transit. If you really want to go green then pump more money in for buses and trains.
Pump money into analysing the Go Transit lines, especially the lakeshore line for inefficiency.

I take the line every day and on the 5:34 train we always wait at the hydro station for a train to leave the station so our train can arrive. We wait for 5 minutes every day. Why not move the other train to track 3 so we can arrive on track 1. It means we don't have to use up 5 minutes of extra fuel every day. Some times it 15-20 minutes if the go bus is late and the eastbound train waits.

If you know any politicians please point this out to them. It only makes sense since more riders want to use public transit instead of taking the cars. While we have to momentum lets improve things to keep them and have them invite more.

Let's get green together. By green I mean environmentally friendly, not green as politicians lining their pockets with it and only focusing on the environment close to an election.