Candidate rides bus, and it’s not pretty
Ward 5 hopeful documents transit trip on social media with live videos, photos
The voice that’s supposed to announce the stops didn’t work on one bus. The bus schedules were missing at two stops. Garbage was strewn about at two stops. And on one of the hottest days of the year, when the temperature hit 31C and the humidex 42C and there was a heat warning, there was no air conditioning on one bus.
Call it a political stunt, but Ward 5 candidate Joey Wright’s “field trip” on a city bus Monday, documented in live videos, photos and posts on social media, was a smart, fresh way to make his point: that Transit Windsor is “wildly inadequate.”
Wright, 27, who doesn’t have a driver’s licence, set out from his campaign office at Milloy Street and Malta Road to the site of the proposed new hospital on County Road 42 across from the airport. It took two buses, the Transway 1C and Walkerville 8, each way and a total of more than three hours to get there and back.
He readily acknowledges that if the hospital is built, there will be a new bus route there. But, he said, “it’s a snapshot of transit today.” “And as it is today,” he said, “it doesn’t work.”
Wright started on the 1C and transferred to the Walkerville 8. It runs every half-hour — at best. “Yet this is where a lot of development has been taking place,” he said, referring to residential and commercial development around Walker and Provincial roads and North Talbot Road and Sixth Concession.
In the morning, the Walkerville 8 is packed with workers going to the tool and die shops in Oldcastle, but the closest stop is a minimum of 10 to 15 minutes away from the shops. The Walkerville 8 also goes to the airport, but not after 7 p.m. and not on weekends. On Monday, the voice that announces stops wasn’t working on the 1C. Bus schedules were missing at the Walkerville 8 stop at Lincoln and Tecumseh roads and the 1C stop at Central Avenue and Tecumseh. Garbage was strewn about at both stops. The space for advertising at the 1C stop was broken and covered in graffiti. And finally, the air conditioning on the 1C wasn’t on during the return trip.
“I gotta say,” Wright said, looking hot, spent and dishevelled in a video after he returned, “it’s really hot outside.
“When you’re stuck waiting for a bus for half an hour in the heat, in the sun, in areas where there’s no shelter, no shade, it really gets to you,” he told viewers earlier. And when the bus arrives and there’s no air conditioning, “it’s disheartening,” he said. There should be a real-time GPS app for buses and Wi-Fi, Wright said. Can riders charge their electronic devices on buses? asked someone following Wright’s “field trip.” The answer is no. “One hundred years ago, we were the first city in Canada to have electric streetcars,” Wright told viewers. “Now, we can’t even be bothered to ensure that the visual and audio aid system that was installed on our buses is working properly.
“We’re spending three-quarters of a million dollars to restore a trolley from a hundred years ago,” he said. “We’re building a monument to transit, rather than actually building transit.”
Transit Windsor executive director Pat Delmore admits, “Our system needs work.” But, he says, improvements are “on the horizon.”
The city just bought 24 new buses and is erecting 115 new bus shelters across the city. A yearlong review of routes by Dillon Consulting began in June. Public consultation will be a “huge” part of the review, Delmore said. Transit riders will be asked what they need, and those who don’t ride buses will be asked what will it take to get them to ride buses.
“What we envision coming out of this,” he said, “is our roadmap for the future — where routes need to go (including the new hospital) and getting people where they need to go in a quicker, more efficient way.”
A new, free GPS app called Transit that includes Transit Windsor just became available and will be promoted next month. Wi-Fi is “on our wish list,” said Delmore.
A lot more government money, which has already helped pay for current improvements, will be available for public transit in the next decade, Delmore said. “That’s going to make way for everything we want to do in the future,” he said.
In the meantime, riders need to “share their transit stories,” said Wright, whose own story drew almost 1,000 views on one video. “It puts a face to transit, so we can get a good, in-depth conversation on how to improve,” he said. “Members of council — they all drive.”