LETTER

Transport Town Meeting: basics?

 

I have just returned from the Greg Fergus Town Hall Meeting at the Domaine de la Ferme Moore, supposedly about transport in the city.  What a waste of my time and the public's money!

I cycled 13.4 kilometres there.
I cycled 13.4 kilometres back.
There are no cycle lanes on Aylmer Road.
There are no sidewalks down much of it. It was dark. In short, I took my life in my hands to get there.

Rather than the needed discussion on transport issues, like why’s the STO throwing money away, we were treated to a slide show about how nice it would be to dole out even more taxpayer cash to the STO for a tram system... as if STO was not already a bus company for the rich at $4 or so a ticket.  It was like the scene in "The Music Man" where the confidence trickster convinces a mid-western town how much it needs a band.  At the end of this, all of us peons were expected to go into discussion groups:  the decision to build had clearly already been made, and this was just to work out what colour we would prefer the tramcars to be painted.

Afterwards, I pointed out how dangerous it had been for me to cycle there, but Greg Fergus seemed to think that cyclists and pedestrians had nothing to do with issue of transport in the city.  

I also asked Councillor Tremblay, "How is it that the city has wads of money for these grandiose schemes, yet nothing for a cycle lane down Aylmer Road or a sidewalk to Hull?" I have rarely experienced such contempt; he treated me like a scrounger.  He made it clear that different people want different things and that the tramway is important and that the safety of cyclists and pedestrians is not a priority... in fact, not even on the list. 26.8 kilometres on a cycle down dangerous roads just to rubber-stamp a legacy project for a bunch of politicians and their cronies with more taxpayers' money than sense! A truly obscene waste of my time and the public's money.

Robert L Thompsett
Aylmer