Grandmas Go Green October 14, 2008
Posted by sunlightmyfire in development, family, green living.Tags: American feast, BMW, bus, grandma, Metro, Montreal, Thanksgiving, walk
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Happy Canadian Thanksgiving everyone! What a delicious time to eat- the harvest, when the leaves change colour and turkey consumed at an unabashedly American rate. Perhaps its jealous mimicry for a family oriented, government sanctioned holiday. None the less, it’s as good an excuse to gather as any.
Wearing nice leather shoes and dressed in my woolen finest, I met my grandmother, the not-quite-34 year old troubadour at her humble Westmount abode. Two newspaper articles and a new luggage sweepstakes later, Gram and I ventured across the street to the conveniently located 90 bus stop which took us straight to the Vendome metro. We hopped the metro two stops north and walked 5 blocks to arrive at our Thanksgiving feast. We weren’t the only attendees at the party who rolled up in the BMW. All of the guests took the B-us or M-etro and W-alked to get to the party on time. And no one thought anything of it, totally normal.
Fantastic right?! The greatest role models for public transportation use are those people who use it to facilitate their existence everyday. Great many of our lesser young individuals in the city of Montreal make use of the transportation system devised to enable the great movement from here to there. Buses and metros may run at odd hours, show up late, not show up, run hors service (out of service), but when systematically implemented correctly in a society, they work to make a territory accessible to all.
My grandmother and her good friends gathered for Thanksgiving dinner having arrived by foot from the bus stop or the metro station around the corner. Gram commented on the way over that her dinner friend, at the tender age of 94, took the bus everywhere even though she made use of a cane to help get around. Her family could afford a driver to take her around but she maintains her link to the city using Montreal’s fantastically linked public transportation system just like everyone else. Another shining example of plucky Montrealers and public transportation buffs.
Two thoughts in closing. First, I would pitch the city of Montreal as a great example of the success of a fully integrated public transpiration system. And second, I’m encouraging my grandma and her friends to start the Grandmas Go Green social networking sight. Green living individuals with kids who have kids can organize and pass tips on a variety of subjects. Website forthcoming.
Public Transportation and Ipods September 3, 2008
Posted by sunlightmyfire in business, economics, green living, public transporation, recycling.Tags: broken Ipods, cutting the line, exact change, Metro, Montreal, new bus tickets, new metro tickets, public transporation, Quebec French
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The Montreal transit system recently changed from itty bitty bus tickets to large, coated plastic bus tickets that are 3x the size and non-recyclable. In addition, they’ve provided the reusable microchip card that can be recharged and used for the next 8 years. (If two good ideas are proposed and one is not significantly more expensive and better for the environment, the company should chose the option that is better for the environment.) I bought my rechargeable card as soon as they came out.
Now, in order to recharge your card, you go to the big vending machine thing and put in your money and the machine stamps that many passes into the card which you then swipe through the turnstile. If you don’t have the money to put a strip of passes into the recharge card, you can still dump your $2.75 one-way fair in the bucket. The transportation guy won’t just push his handy turnstile pass-through button and let you go into the metro, he will issue you a single large plastic coated one-time-use card which you have to swipe in order to gain entry into the metro. The plan is good, the execution of the plan sucks. After the one swipe, the card becomes useless and gets discarded.
When I pay my $2.75 with exact change after jumping in front of a very long line of shmucks who are waiting for their passes and change, NO, I absolutely don’t want a wasteful piece of crap plastic to put through the machine, I want you to push the button so I can pass through without a hassle. Understand that I’m in a hurry, that’s why I jumped the entire line with my exact change in the first place.
My Ipod broke about a year ago and I’ve been Ipod-less as a result for a while. Although I have a CD player, I just can’t go back. (Keep looking forward man.) And because I don’t have an Ipod, I’m not going to just drown my furry with classic rock ballads of sex, drugs and rock&roll at the thought of being forced to accept the one-time use plastic piece of crap card that will get me into the metro one, and only one, time. I will, on the other hand, concentrate on just how I’m going to verbally crucify you and your worthless pieces of plastic waste on my blog for the world to read. I paid exactly 2 dollars and 75 cents to get on the Metro, a fantastically green transportation alternative that enables me to get from here to there almost instantaneously without turning on my car. Two dollars and seventy-five cents is exact amount for a ride, not a penny more or less. I paid for a ride, not a lecture. My lack of Ipod allows me to ruminate on the ridiculousness of getting bitched out for putting my exact change in your window and then not wanting to accept your one time use un-recyclable piece of crap plastic card. Do your job, push the button, waste not, and we won’t have a problem.
(And by the way, if you’re going to huff and puff about my line jumping, understand I can’t understand muffled Quebec French through a thick piece of glass. If your words are inaudible, I’m not going to understand you because I’m not going to put the effort into translating information about the plastic card. It’s not because I’m not trying, I’m in a hurry, you have your money, and I’m not waiting around to hear your say something about putting the plastic ticket in the box, just push the button and we can both get on with our lives.) Yes, it bothered me…
