CTC Accessibility: Fostering Utilization and Growth

Two days ago, we began discussing a talk held on Tuesday, April 24^th, where Steve Cassidy of Edinburgh (ironically of a division of Ontario’s MMM Group) engaged a growing attendance of our region’s engaging citizens. In moving beyond the discussion which chose LRT as the form for our future transportation along the Central Transit Corridor, Steve spurned thinking with respect to the function of transportation. Not only does this require improving accessibility for the able-bodied as well as the mobility challenged, but it needs to target the various sub-groups within our transportation spectrum, attuning the message to their particular needs. To maximize our success, we must make LRT meet citizens where they are, focus on their micro experiences, and adapt to promote their participation and retention.

Engaging Citizens’ Wavelengths

Perhaps the most interesting and inspiring part of Steve’s talk was when he would bring up an example of a transit system somewhere in the world actively adapting to its citizens needs. We may think that, being designed by and for people, transportation systems of all kind must surely adapt to their users, but it is more specific than that.

Take road networks. Once laid out, numerous changes can occur which adapt to use. Where two streets go to similar places, at times they are changed to a pair of one way streets, which is how you can fit three lanes in each direction between Bridgeport and Erb despite two-way traffic on either street being restricted to space that would only give you two lanes in each direction if they went both ways. The 407 toll road and the GTA’s High Occupancy Vehicle lanes have given drivers the ability to control their congestion avoidance by deciding to pay more or move more people. If you go outside of North America, these adaptations seem like child’s play.

Engaging the Pocketbook

Steve brought up many good stories of incentivization. Spitsmijden, which means “Traffic avoidance,” has been used in European cities, where congestion charges mean that cameras note vehicle movement throughout the city, drivers who frequently travel roads about to be reconstructed are offered cash to avoid those segments of road during construction times. The direct cost of this incentive was vastly outweighed by the previous cost of the congestion that otherwise formed.

Similarly, having found that health related motivators seldom worked to help people quit smoking, a more direct method was tried. A local version of Walmart (ASDA) accepted willing mothers into its program, which once a week would swab their mouth to see if they had been smoking. If they came up clean, their ASDA card would be given cash credit, coming from some combination of the government and the store. The health of the mother and baby turned out to be less motivating than the peer pressure induced in groups of smokers which typically keeps them all smoking. In this case, the ability to effectively wave free cash in front of friend’s faces motivated the participating mothers to stay smoke free, and the others to give it a try. ASDA would wind up with better customer loyalty and increased revenues, and the cost/benefit ratio and success rate of the program both vastly outweighed traditional campaigns.

Tuning In or Tuning Out

A second look at how we motivate and communicate with people is needed. When we encourage people to take “the Green option” in taking transit as Steve said, we reach no one, not even really motivating individuals who already take transit. Steve lives car free, but lets it be known that it is not because he is terribly green, an admittedly poor recycler, but because in organizing his life to have transit in it he in fact has a much easier and relaxing life. This is why it would do some good to focus on the numbers already clearly pertinent to many.

When talking of the cost of this transit spine, it would likely impact better with the driving public to tell them that the $24 million in transit fares brought in each year ($5 million for each per cent of trips taken by way of GRT) vastly outpaces the $14 million in gas taxes that our drivers chip in, less than a tenth of their $0.5 million per share, and with room to grow. Add in the multi-year 9 per cent transit fare increase, ask whether drivers would prefer a year-over-year gas tax increase of the same amount, and the important financials are revealed. Just as a home owner sees the sense in putting a larger down payment on their house to have lower mortgage costs and a longer lasting house, so too are we investing in LRT to see a longer lasting system that gets us greater returns.

When we start to also show particular memory filled moments positively affected by transit, say by putting in place buses next to the Canada Day festivities to get not only bus users home from the fireworks, but to get car drivers home on a day when they would rather leave their car at home, or at least parked somewhere other than the traffic trap that is the University of Waterloo’s Ring Road lots.

Bringing Ideas into Reality

It is more than just communication that can be improved. While real-time transit information is everywhere in other countries, it was only by luck that Steve came across a Toronto coffee shop where the owner had a screen showing transit arrival times, so customers knew when they had to leave, if they could wait for their drink, and even letting the owner reimburse them should they pay but be unable to wait for the next hot cup.

GRT is currently working on bringing PRESTO cards to our transit system. Once loaded with funds, they will allow people to travel seamlessly on our systems. With each extra trip, PRESTO only takes as much as it needs, turning a few trips in a day into a daily pass, and a few trips in a month into a monthly pass. This removes the ever-mentioned fear infrequent transit users have of overspending, as well as fumbling with money or losing bus tickets, while integrating us with GO’s network, along with other GTA systems using PRESTO.

As we move forward, we can push into more aggressive incentives. Other cities’ versions of PRESTO allow for their use as a debit card, school card, and even membership card for city facilities, all of which makes it easier to get a card into citizens’ hands, and money loaded onto it. Some have gone so far as to pool the buying power of retirees, allowing them access to better taxi rates in addition to transit use, so that transitioning to a car-less life does not being unable to access one.

Enabling Our Greatest Assets

At times, people feel that students are a liability in this region, but they are also a great asset. The technology companies coming out of our universities, let alone all the residents of our region who have a piece of paper from Laurier, Waterloo, or Conestoga College, continually seek to improve upon countless daily parts of our lives. While schedules for transit are now accessible for digital use, live bus transponders would allow us to better plan our trips around transit, its arrival times, and more. Steve shared with us that his daughters could actually see which bus their friends were on, so as to hop on with them, continuing the social transit rides our own students have known since we first put them on yellow school buses.

Bringing in some of these bigger strategies can help to engage our resourceful students, eager to tackle real world problems when given support. Even smaller opportunities, such as Ottawa’s free evening buses to get people home from Canada Day festivities, reaches out to people when it can make a more lasting impact. What is important is to realize that a reliable and interconnected transportation mosaic, as Steve put it, is not an end goal. Continually improving upon it is what allows to you reap the true benefits of this key enabling resource. Foolish squandering of it always leaves communities with scars lasting longer than anyone can imagine; true activation of its potential helping to positively shape communities in ways deeper than anyone can imagine.

CTC Accessibility: Shaping Lasting Impressions

Yesterday, we began discussing a talk held on Tuesday, April 24^th, where Steve Cassidy of Edinburgh (ironically of a division of Ontario’s MMM Group) engaged a growing attendance of our region’s engaging citizens. In moving beyond the discussion which chose LRT as the form for our future transportation along the Central Transit Corridor, Steve spurned thinking with respect to the function of transportation. Not only does this require improving accessibility for the able-bodied as well as the mobility challenged, but it needs to target the various sub-groups within our transportation spectrum, attuning the message to their particular needs. To maximize our success, we must make LRT meet citizens where they are, focus on their micro experiences, and adapt to promote their participation and retention.

Targeting Micro Experiences

While closing the discussion, a question was asked about the best transit systems in the world for helping the mobility challenged. Steve acknowledged that indeed we all tend to think of ramped and low floor vehicles, with fold-away seats and good handholds, as the visible and obvious accessibility aids. He then pointed out just how individual the experience can be, how the micro experiences we often forget can be the most defining ones for many citizens.

For someone who cannot easily stand from their seat to look around bus riders packed in aisles, wayfinding can be very difficult. When we wrap a bus in an advertisement that covers the windows, even with the perforations, it can become drastically more difficult to determine where on the route one is, where one is trying to get off, and worse still as weather and lighting conditions inevitably stray from the ideal. Experiences like these can sour individuals on even an otherwise accessible transit system; who really feels comfortable not knowing where they are, or if they are about to go down a transit leg (akin to an unfamiliar road or walking path) they have never navigated before?

GRT First Impressions

Steve had peppered his talk with many of these micro experience examples. How easy is it for visitors to use the system, and to find their way to and around important destinations? In other discussions, citizens have mentioned that we will have world-class facilities at the Perimeter Institute and CIGI, but the split layout of the UpTown LRT stops makes it harder to find these places. What concise maps do we currently have at these key transit interchanges currently? What clear, major destination wayfinding aids do we have to help tourists, as well as individuals new to the area as I myself have been when first taking a ride on down into Kitchener and Cambridge, in the form of physical maps or GRT-based mobile and web applications? The answer is none. As these already high traffic areas become even greater destination nodes, not only of transit but continually of pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers, the experience should be maximized both by making navigation to known destinations easier, but also by helping to connect people with other potential destinations that allow them to combine visits to an area, avoiding travelling to multiple destinations when all of those needs could be serviced with fewer legs to their trip.

Some micro experiences, such as those navigation aids, will take more work to bring about. Others will be far more accessible. Steve shared one more example of a seemingly innocent micro experience. A customer on a transit system went to board his bus one day, and as he went to pay the driver gruffly told him that his fare was incorrect. Moments later it became clear that the fare had indeed been properly and the driver went on with the day. Unfortunately, the confronted gentleman had a mental health condition, and this exchange loomed with him for a week, shutting him in his home and keeping him from all the activities necessary for life. Similar exchanges take place every day, when customers look for their payment, when rowdy and impolite passengers are not made aware of their disturbances, when riders ask drivers for help in determining if they are headed on the right path. These challenges will only grow as a separate group of drivers is brought on board for the private operation of LRT recently approved, drivers who may know little of the area or the transit system that covers it, and whose separation from the GRT drivers could promote divisiveness between the two systems so reliant upon one another to function.

Sharing Experiences

At each open house or discussion held thus far, there have been countless Central Transit Corridor folk looking to answer questions and engage in discussions with citizens about all aspects of their transit experience. There have been boards for people to show how they connect with transit, and what their personal hopes and concerns for the system are. Often, one can feel as though their individual thoughts are lost in a sea of politics, but with this key piece of infrastructure set to shape our cores for the next century, affecting all modes of transit throughout the region and the vibrancy of our gathering places, it is in these small details that we can maximize our accomplishments, and by dealing with these personal issues we can connect with citizens in a personal way seldom seen, but never forgotten.

CTC Accessibility: Meeting Citizens Where They Are

On Tuesday, April 24^th, Steve Cassidy of Edinburgh (ironically of a division of Ontario’s MMM Group) engaged a growing attendance of our region’s engaging citizens. In moving beyond the discussion which chose LRT as the form for our future transportation along the Central Transit Corridor, Steve spurned thinking with respect to the function of transportation. Not only does this require improving accessibility for the able-bodied as well as the mobility challenged, but it needs to target the various sub-groups within our transportation spectrum, attuning the message to their particular needs. To maximize our success, we must make LRT meet citizens where they are, focus on their micro experiences, and adapt to promote their participation and retention.

Engaging Citizens Where they Are

In Canada and the United States, cities sprung up around sites of activity such as mines and ports, and were effectively connected by a rail network diving through each of them to enable the exchanges and commerce between them. Later on these networks were followed by highways, tracing similarly efficient networks to connect people with goods and services. Both would reinforce these cities, and the investments made in them.

For Waterloo Region, the transit spine has been laid out, the railway and highway connector on a city scale, connecting key places of exchange. As Steve brought up in his talk, there are two basic types of land within a city: places of transport and places of exchange. To get the most out of our cities, we need to maximize places of exchange, while minimizing places set aside for transport and using the required places as efficiently as possible.

Connections Shaping Exchanges

Think of our highways for a moment. Our region is split by the 401, and where the cities have spread away from this high flow path we have seen highway 7/8, highway 85, and roads such as Hespeler pop up to facilitate transportation access to this major connector. The absence of such an effective connection with the 401 is conversely seen as one of the major transportation issues affecting our neighbour, London.

We have started to maximize the use of space near these nodes. Already they pass through our cores, areas filled with shops, homes, and businesses, and adding them in greater number and density with the coming transit network. But the form is still key. Take the Northfield station in Waterloo. The old NCR lands are to be developed adjacent to it, with reasonable density for business, stores, and even a hotel. But to look at the design, it is an asphalt oasis placed directly between the transit station and the destinations one would hope to access from it. Walking through large parking lots is an incredible way to discourage people from using transit, and that cars get the best access only adds to the insult. We are not surprised when a vending machine at work is used far more frequently than a health food store down the street to get snacks; why would we expect to be encouraging use of this transit station when we design its surroundings for cars, and without thought as to making them convenient for transit users? Developments such as this will become detriments to our community as a whole for decades if we are so foolish as to have our eyes glaze over at the pronouncement of development, willfully blinding ourselves to the implications of it.

Connecting with the Transportation Network

We also work to create more efficient transportation networks. With the transit spine and a rollout of express lines parallel to and interconnected with it, we are moving away from the meandering and far less efficient loop system which all transit networks seem to start, but which does not grow well with the city hosting it. In order to utilize this more effective network, we need to be able to access it, and there again we find challenges.

The Record points out that when you build an efficient transit network, people will walk and bike farther and longer to reach it. Unfortunately, detours at the pedestrian and cycling level impact those users far more than those who drive. Consider a recent Waterloo Council decision to not create a pedestrian and cycling pathway to access a dead end court in the city, as well as not giving the court sidewalks. Without sidewalks, pedestrians feel less safe, especially in inclement weather. Without the access path, which would not add traffic other than the residents already on the court, getting to the same location on the arterial road there now takes 10 to 20 minutes longer, drastically shrinking the area that both pedestrians and cyclists are able to go before the appeal of driving rises too high.

Similarly, there is a development proposed for 155 Caroline, adjacent to the Bauer Lofts. Given the proximity to the core, to the King and Allen transit node, development was sure to happen there. The issue at hand is that the developer wants to alter the Iron Horse Trail, by guiding it down a dark, cavernous alley, to be surrounded by the Sun Life parking structure on one side, and by three stories of enclosed parking belonging to the development. While the trail’s route should not be untouchable, once again we see a car focused development (both underground and above ground stories of parking) occupying space which would be most efficiently used by developments with other approaches, and actively discouraging the pedestrian and cycling connections which allow choice in what Steve referred to as the “transportation mosaic.” One need only look at The Regency at Queen and Weber in Kitchener to see what Iron Horse Trail users would be confronted with on both the trail, as well as the necessary connection along Caroline to Allen. Without the brightest and most perfectly aligned sunshine, this becomes a dark, imposing alleyway, more likely to invite crime than human scale transportation, something local residents may not even be aware of.

Network Turning Point

When we make these connections harder, they simply deteriorate until we have cut off that limb of our transit network, letting it atrophy until death. It’s no surprise that travelling from Waterloo to Cambridge is much easier than going to Elora; despite equivalent distances, Cambridge has been located around networks that connect it to Waterloo, and more effective ones have grown between them over the years to make the journey even easier, adapting to our growth. After attending public school, high school, and university all using public transit in a nearly two decade long journey, I am ready to move forward in life continuing this trend, like countless other youth and citizens familiar with more mature transit cities.

More so than the development, densification, and organization that our transit system is inducing, that human potential is the greatest resource we have, just waiting to be tapped into. Sadly, it is also the one thus far most neglected, and most at risk of being left to wither. The ideas, the possibilities, the mechanisms, all are in place, and just waiting for the will, the push, the clear direction needed to bring about true positive transformation to benefit us all.

Embracing Community Building

It’s the simplest truths that prove the bitterest pills to swallow. We can not rest on our laurels and expect our successes to rest with us.

Change has been working its way throughout the Region. LRT has been approved to build a strong spine and core to support our cities. Our three post-secondary institutions are pushing into new campuses, schools of social work, international law, and medicine. New technology companies are growing and innovating rapidly, and even our troubled stalwart fights to continue supporting our citizens and region.

If we merely sit back and hope for the best, we should not be surprised to find that feeble plans lead us to wasted opportunities. If we mourn the passing of the Schneider’s plant in Kitchener at the expense of supporting our emerging high-tech businesses, we should not be shocked to find ourselves caving in as both Buffalo and Detroit have done by refusing to adapt to a changing world. If we act as though any non-suburban, car-dependent development is a threat to the perfectly acceptable existing outer areas of our cities, we will chase away the innovators who have started developing here due to our re-invigorated cores, and our inventive students as well as our own children who we’ve raised from kindergarten through their last exam to take public transit and embrace community.

The power to create positive change rests in each of us. The opportunity to do so, by turning away from pointless bemoaning of a changing world that brings no good, and toward chances to maximize the benefits of each change our community undergoes, is never far from hand. Last week we celebrated the volunteering efforts generously shared by so many in our community. After years of donating my time to my university, I took my first step to donate my time to this community which has drawn me in with its great heritage and shining beacons of the future. I challenge each of you to find your own calling, be it a new or renewed one, and to give back to your community, to help make it the best community for all of us.

 

Yesterday, my fiance and I faced the sudden passing of a dear friend who was to be in our wedding party next year. Social media has helped us share our grief, seeing literally hundreds voice their condolences, feelings of loss, and celebrations of his life, pouring in from across the globe. Robert taught us that a person can never be judged from the outside, that even the most intense hardships can be battled through to give us the kindest, most caring individuals, that we can touch and brighten the lives of innumerable people from all walks of life, and that through openness and a genuine interest in the happiness of all those around us we can create positive change in the world. In only a few decades of life, you lived more than most would in a century.

You will be missed, but not forgotten, and you will live on in the positive endeavours of every person who carries your love in their hearts. You were too beautiful for this world my friend. The world is a sadder place today without you, but will forever be a better, happier place for the life you shared with us every other day.

The Employee Pyramid, and How our Recovery Feeds its Future Downfall

According to Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, in 2010, unemployed persons looking for work spent many consecutive weeks unemployed before finding a job. It was 20.9 weeks for men, 22.1 weeks for Ontarians, and 22.5 weeks for those aged 25-54. While that leaves me right on track where statistics say I should be, it does give me pause to consider a few things, both frustrating and potentially frightening.

My Challenge in Waterloo

Unlike a small university town, the tri-cities have the size necessary to provide students with not only an education, but with employment options post-graduation. With the still-strong tech sector continually growing and morphing in the region, countless students from the University of Waterloo’s program specialties in particular are able to find opportunities. For someone like myself however, equipped with a degree in mechanical engineering, the opportunities are far more scarce, making my own goal to work, live, and play in the region an always difficult task.

You toy with different possibilities when trying to keep your dream together as much as possible, and so I have found myself applying not only to jobs within our region, but to jobs a good commute away. Some just change the GRT commute I’d prefer into a car trip, but others are even likely to require a four night weekly stay in the city, resting in as cheap a bed as I can find. I enjoy challenges, even ones such as these, and look forward to proving both my abilities and an employer’s faith in me. It’s the future dilemma posed by their root cause that gives me the real chills.

Job Opportunity Dissonance

When searching for job postings requiring a “mechanical engineer,” it is not a completely scarce field. The common stumbling block at this point is that the postings do not match what a typical company should need.

In any workplace, a career level carries two basic factors: the number of positions at that level, and the responsibility at that level. The two are inversely related: the more positions available at a career level, the lower the responsibility, and vice versa. You see this at McDonald’s, where there are many employees but only one manager per shift, as much as you see it at Apple, where there would be countless entry level programmers but only one Steve Jobs. I fear two historically unique factors have changed this.

The Employee Pyramid

The employee pyramid, with many low-responsibility jobs on the bottom, and fewer and fewer positions at each increasing level of responsibility, is not a pure constant. In addition to responsibility, higher levels on the pyramid typically correspond to higher levels of experience, and thus also age. Currently, we have just started to see the twenty year baby boom generation begin to retire. Because of their increased numbers, they “bloat” the supply of employees at any age level beyond typical population growth. In good times, this can allow for a more rapidly expanding industry base, with employees in abundance to fill out new companies. In bad times, this only worsens the problem of oversupply of workers.

Today, we sit in the worst recession in generations. As jobs are lost, it appears as though new distortions are entering the workplace. At the top of the pyramid, companies worried about losing expertise with the retirement of their most-experienced employees are undoubtedly encouraging these employees to stay on longer, this made easier by our continually increasing life expectancies. Employees who would normally begin their experience at this higher level of experience are thus held back, and this problem of stalled advancement chains all the way back down to entry level positions.

Worse, due to the baby boom oversupply, a downward shift is also noticed. I mentioned that job postings don’t match a typical company’s needs. Reading over job descriptions, I most definitely see ones that match my experience and responsibilities through years of co-op experience. The disconnect is that these jobs that should be looking for new graduates with 0-2 years of experience are seeking applicants with 3-5, 5-10 (the overwhelming bulk), and 10+ years of experience, though the job descriptions should speak to lower levels of experience. In hard recessionary times, companies no doubt want to have every level of responsibility in their employee pyramid filled with individuals at or above the expected level of experience, to help mitigate risk. Where normally only the highest quality companies could manage this, the baby boom has made it widespread. Now the youth/new grad unemployment levels, mentioned as being sky high in our recent provincial election, make sense. We are being squeezed out of the bottom of the pyramid.

Pyramid Collapse

While I am confident that I will find gainful employment, I fear the long term effects at play. The stalled progression up the pyramid is hard on employees, especially new ones, during the recession. The real problem waits until it is over. When the economy is starting to turn, the employees held on at the top will retire, just as the need for their presence is reduced. They will likely not be alone, though, as the employees they held back will have reached retirement age before ever having touched the pyramid’s peak. Worst of all, these disappearing employees will be from the baby boom, and the jobs their super-populated generation occupied will be too numerous to fill. Having been held back or out of the employment game for so long, the remaining workers will be both too low in experience and number to shift upward as needed.

What do I hope for? I hope that companies find confidence in their employees, and their employees find it in themselves, enough that the progression need not be stopped as much. I hope that budding retirees say no to holding on to those top posts, and instead offer to work part-time supervising new hires, giving them a less stressful life, letting the pyramid progression continue, and reinforcing the newly hired and promoted with the knowledge and experience they need to soldier on through this recession, and to prevent the loss of that accrued knowledge. I hope that my generation stops being perceived, and acting, as though we deserve every entitlement without having earned a single one. Most of all I hope for my chance to prove myself, for hope to win out over fear, and for that victory to stave off these fears that I have.

Communal Transit Ends, Tangled in a Web of Misleading Means

Just yesterday, I chose to attend a Conversation Cafe put on by Leadership Waterloo Region, a gathering for roundtable discussions on the future of rapid transit. I have always sought to get the facts and the views on rapid transit, yet as essential as my common steps have been – reading the facts, looking at dissenting viewpoints, attending public consultations and council meetings, and reading local letters – true, face to face interaction has been a less common experience for me.

Of course, you fear the worst

You fear that current and future target mode share levels for transit are at 4 and 15 per cent, respectively, and that the remaining 85-96 per cent of the population won’t feel any motivation to support it. You fear that misconceptions about what technologies have been considered in the past decade by the region, and which ones the same engineers that plan our roads have found to be the most cost-effective and consistent with our cities’ ambiances, will be deep rooted. You fear that the community feeling so attractive in our region will disappear.

The truth, it seems, was quite an interesting picture to see painted by the half dozen roundtable discussions.

The priorities of the community seemed united

Everyone wanted flexibility in their transit options, wanted convenience, sought to limit sprawl, and to preserve the community feel so key to quality of life in this region. It seemed so quietly satisfying to hear, until you delved into the details and found the wide webbed tangle of threads each person felt would be needed to connect the hopes of today with the realized dreams of tomorrow.

For me, flexibility and convenience meant a system where I could use combinations of cars, transit, bikes, and walking in order to move around, with my destinations coalescing around a primary spine that’s just a single hop away.

But for others, it meant a system of buses without transfers. This despite the fact that were we built this way, we all name grid systems as our system of choice, based on high frequency service with minimal but present transfers as they are. We also know that cutting any route into two different trunks means doubling the length of time we wait for that transit service, doubling the number of routes we need to memorize, and cutting in half the number of trips that go where we want to go. For every route split.

For me, limiting sprawl meant allowing for population growth to be directed towards the core, allowing for just one double LRT vehicle (capacity: 450) to carry the same commuter load as an hour’s worth of a King St. lane of traffic (region’s stated capacity from Public Consultation Centres: ~500).

But for others, limiting sprawl meant a different kind of transit. On one hand, it meant a disconnected series of aBRT buses, though any visitor to Ottawa can tell you the view from nearly all of their BRT stations is devoid of any intensification. On another hand, it meant pushing GO trains to be the prime mover into Kitchener and Cambridge, with buses pulling people from suburbs to the stations, and then inward commuters from stations to workplaces. Somehow this was proposed, even as the entire room shuddered at the thought of becoming Mississauga, the shining beacon of what pushing inefficient local transit and heavy GO service leads to.

For me, preserving the community feel meant trying to allow us to have choice, to provide as much as possible the ability to live and work in the same city, to allow for the vitality of an urban spine to preserve the peace suburbia wants to maintain and our surrounding greenery so important to the cities and townships alike. It meant that after riding a yellow bus to primary, a special run transit bus to secondary, and general transit buses to post-secondary school, all of that investment in efficient transit and a shared commute community should be paying dividends. We pay so much to see everyone under 25 use public transit, but prevent that culture from continuing on into life.

Somehow there’s a disconnect

This disconnect is deeply revealing of how complex an issue this is, and further reinforcing how much communication has mattered. On such an issue, I put my faith in today’s transit planners, the ones who have overseen the successful implementation of these and other systems elsewhere in North America, and who we already trust to plan our road network for cars.

But sadly, I feel as though this is a fight we’ve already see fail generations. One of the last conversations I had with my fiance’s grandmother had her mention that even in the 30s, cigarettes were called coffin nails. Studies linked them to cancer and health problems in the 50s, yet limiting their ads and making real changes to protect non-smokers took half a century more. Banning smoking or fully collecting its costs to society have never been real options, but now deciding between smoking and healthier personal choices is.

Even as our younger generations are latching on to public transit, car-minimized lifestyles, and walkable welcoming communities, I feel we’re being told that it can’t work. The beauty of a city like Dublin, preserved with a population of half a million and an LRT spine, was not real. LRT will turn us into Toronto, even as its subways that create cities of millions, with LRT meant for cities of our moderate size.

It feels as if I’m being chained to a car, because once you’re forced to design your life for them for 20 years, changing that life is no easy task. But it’s not the life for me. It’s not the life we’re raising any of our bus riding kids to live. This isn’t a war on cars. This is preserving our dreams by abandoning tunnel vision, and reaping the benefits of a generation we’ve raised for decades to use transit.

That’s the gift I want to be giving youth today, children tomorrow, and to better preserve the communities we all cherish.

Criminals and the Cost Disparity of Prevention and Cure

You do the crime, you do the time.

Simple, catchy, and most important of all it resonates. Whichever political stripe you’re of, whether you’re carefree or a truly unfortunate victim of crime, it just makes sense. I am not going to argue with that, and if the 268 Homicide cases we see in a year [Statistics Canada] return a guilty verdict, then long, hard punishment makes sense.

What might drive one to crime?

There were 390,000 criminal cases in our country in 2008/2009. I can’t say I am an expert as to the motivations or intent behind them all, but I can’t find myself imagining that someone truly wants to lead a life of crime. I would imagine that many wind up on that path after losing hope.

Perhaps it is link here. I feel that education and ability to work, earn money, and contribute to society represent the most basic sources of hope for individuals. That might be linked with the fact that, of federal prisoners, 86% had personal/emotional treatment needs, over 30% never finished high school, and over 92% are without a postsecondary degree [Statistics Canada]. We are so often reminded of the advanced nature of our economy by our leaders, let alone here in the Region of Waterloo, and I feel that a sense of hopelessness could come in that situation.

Prevention through hope

Ask around, and you will get some pretty stark numbers relating to education. Tuition fees may be $3,000 per year, and talk of a $30,000 debt after graduation is not at all unusual. Nor is it affordable for some, despite the programs we have in place.

For those who can’t afford it, and wind up in court, sentenced to hard time, it’s the rest of society that suffers. The victims suffer on a deeply personal level. The local population suffers from fear. We all suffer the financial penalty of paying to house this individual, to monitor them after their release, and with the consequence of a member of society who will have trouble ever fitting in or being a contributor to, rather than drain on society. Instead, we wind up paying that $30,000 to house a prisoner.

For three months.

At a cost of $323 a day [Statistics Canada], we can house that inmate for 93 days. The equivalent of nearly every expense imaginable for a post-secondary education. Less if that individual had been able to get the money to get in and was able to work co-op jobs, or take other measures of frugality. To get the over 30% who never finished high school to graduation day, the cost to get those struggling students the attention they needed in ever-expanding classrooms would likely be much less. Similar hope can be found with more and better access to mental health support, a problem that’s one of the most unnoticed and most successful at robbing hope.

It might be frightening to ask a judge what kind of crimes wind up with a university education’s worth of days in a federal prison. What is undoubtedly harder to remember is that this is not about being soft on crime. It’s about trying to stop a criminal situation from ever forming, about trying to stop a youth from winding up in jail for a few months for stealing a television to hock for rent.

Is it easy to ignore the problem? Yes. But costly too. These numbers are so simple, but calculating the value to society of having a productive individual rather than an additional crime and criminal is much harder math, even if you take out the initial $30,000 investment we would make at the start of either.

What we can’t do is forget that it’s about giving people hope, and trying to remove the hope-robbing struggles from people’s lives. For every future crime, there is now a parent with smiling photos of a newborn baby, there is a minister with memories of an exuberant youth at Sunday school, and there is a group of good friends who don’t yet know what will cause one to fall into darkness.

We don’t have to be thought police, who believe that no crime could be prevented and that every individual is destined to be a criminal from birth. We can instead be bringers of the light of hope into the places of flickering shadows, before they become filled with darkness. It’s a choice we too often ignore, and all too falsely believe to be out of our hands.