Latest / Kvetch & Release / 610 CKTB | Commuter Idealism is on Life Support—and Government Signed the DNR

Transcript

610 CKTB | Commuter Idealism is on Life Support—and Government Signed the DNR · Kvetch & Release

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: All right, every Monday morning at this time, it's another
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: redition of lid Key's got to take John Litke, It
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: joins me this morning. Hey, good morning, buddy, good morning. Well,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: you know a lot of folks who are listening to
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: us could be on a bus, or could be on
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: a train heading into work. A lot of people have
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: to commute back and forth every single day. And this
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: is your take today. Now, we were promised some sort
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: of futuristic green commute. So why does getting from point
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: A to point B seem to be devolving into an
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: absolute circus these days?
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks for that question, for having me on Gene.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: You know, there were just a couple news stories this
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: week that all came together and I said, you know,
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: we got to talk about this because it seems like
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: our commuting is falling apart. And I think the reason
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: is is we were promised this futuristic green commute, you know,
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: but it was a fairy tale. It was sold by
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: politicians and urban planners and tech pros, all who don't
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: use real roads on a regular basis. The entire promise
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: was this seamless eco utopia where we'd zip around on
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: glowing e scooters, hop onto an LRT and effortlessly cut
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: all of our carbon footprints collectively. But instead, I mean
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: here in Ontario, it's institutional chaos. In Windsor, we have
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: organized crime rings running angle grinder e scooter chop shops
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: and alleys, according to the corporation that puts them on
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: our streets. In Toronto, the province in the city have
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: been in an ongoing battle over road paint and bike lanes.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: And in Ottawa, the public Transit operator is spending thirty
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: million dollars on emergency transit funding because the FEDS didn't
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: bother to tell them that they were shifting back to
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: a four day work week and there's going to be
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: an extra sixty thousand commuters, and they said, oh my gosh,
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: we don't have the seats for that or the routes.
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: So we didn't get the future we were promised. We
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: got administrative incompetence with transit cards.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: I know in your neck of the woods, more than
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: the fifty e scooters have vanished, and like you said,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: they're probably in a chop shop. So many young people
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: are getting in on these scooters, and you know, parents
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: and doctors are very very concerned. You know, when you
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: look at these e scooters. You know who's more to
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: blame here?
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: You know, I think, why do we have to choose
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: who's more to blame when it comes to it, Whether
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: it be the city, the company, the riders, the criminals,
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: There's more than enough blame to go around. But at
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: the end of the day, it is the city and
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: the company that put these on the streets. There's a
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: total lack of real world awareness being demonstrated our court
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: here in Windsor, much like many cities across the province
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: and across the country, face real challenges property crime, open
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: drug use, and a glaring lack of mental health addiction supports.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: That's the reality on the ground. Then the city allowed
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: this scooter and e bike operator to drop hundreds of
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: multiple one hundred dollars high tech you know vehicles onto
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: public property, unlocked, untethered, and both act shocked. When criminals
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: do crime, news flash, that happened in this case. They're
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: harvesting the batteries out of them. Now, I used to
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: have a business in our downtown here in Windsor. If
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: I left thousands of dollars in inventory in my business
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: with the door unlocked or on the sidewalk overnight. I
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: wouldn't call the police when it vanished. I would question
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: my own business acumen and judgment. I mean, this is
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: not a sustainable transit model it appears to be. This
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: is an unmonitored hardware buffet for the black market.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Now, in Toronto people will ride bikes. Try to
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: litigate a Charter of right to bikes lane to these
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: bike lanes mainly on Bluer Street in Toronto. Now, are
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: they out of their minds or are they onto something?
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: They're completely detached from objective and constitutional reality. Gene, Look,
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: I get it road safety matters, of course, but arguing
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: the Charter's right to life, liberty and security of the
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: person means the fundamental right to dedicated municipal bike lanes.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: That's an insult to first year law students who know better.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: What's next the Charter right to a function cup holder
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: in the car? I mean, look, the Court of Appeal
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: had to step in as the adult in the room
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: and remind everyone the Constitution exists to protect foundational and
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: critical human rights, not to manage city traffic flows. And
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: if a province can create bike lanes, they too can
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: remove them. Because of course we know, municipalities are creatures
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: of the province here in our country. So if you're
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: suing the government because you don't like cars or you
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: want a bike line, that's not a constitutional crisis. That's
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: performative policy activism being played out in the courts.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, many commuters today in my former hometown of Toronto
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: are calling the TTC subways rolling homeless shelters, rolling washrooms,
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: and rolling drug injection sites. And I know, talking to
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: my friends, it's really really becoming bad. But how did
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: getting to and from work become I don't know, an
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: endurance test.
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: It seems like a gene and you know, for many people,
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: truly is. And I won't try to suggest that Windsor's
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: public transit wo is when it comes to this are
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: the same as you know, Tronta, for example, my hometown
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: or I was born. But every level of government, whether
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: it be cities, the provinces, or the country quite frankly,
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: have passed the buck along the way until the transit
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: car became the default social safety net. When it comes
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: to the unhoused and those in need of those mental
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: health and addiction support, federal and provincial failures on housing,
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: severe mental health and addiction infrastructure forced vulnerable people to
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: seek shelter whenever and wherever it's warm and dry. Meanwhile,
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: transit authorities act as a basic order and passenger safety
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: are outside their purview due to lack of meaningful funding
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: from the cities and the provinces. This is public transit
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: hot potato, and we're all left as the writers or
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: the commuters with burnt hands trying to get from A
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: to B, while provincial and federal ministers are chauffeured from
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: home to work to the airport too. I don't know
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: the United Kingdom to pick up a sword.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Finally, up in Autawa, of the nice's capital, the federal
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: government said you got to go back to the office
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: four days a week. Oh they didn't tell the city
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: their transit just can't keep up with the new demand
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: and in winter their LRT line routinely freezes up. I mean,
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: it's local transit in Ottawa is just an exercise in
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: complete incompetence.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: It is unbelievable seeing those news stories come out of there.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: I have to read the stories two to three times
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: just to understand, like, no, it can't be that bad.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: They can't have actually made an LRT that doesn't run
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: in the winter in Ottawa. But I mean, look, this
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: is a masterclass in joint administrative failure. We have classic
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: federal bureaucratic arrogance. They're issuing a top down return to
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: office directive that forced tens of thousands of workers back
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: to four days o work a week without coordinating with
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: the city transit provider, probably out of a fear of leaks,
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: and then organized labor opposition. On the other side, the
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: local transit system itself though so fragile that they can't
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: add former regular daily commuters and it triggers a systemic crisis,
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: forcing thirty million in emergency funding to patch just to
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: prevent total gridlock. I mean, this is two giant bureaucracies
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: who refuse to communicate, and everyday taxpayers are left absorbing
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: the cost and the delays to get to work at home.
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, final question here, I am out of time. It's
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: going to have to be a yes or no. Is
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: the modern commuter dream dead in Ontario?
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: Dead buried in the battery, was harvested in an ally
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: in windsor.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: Another great take? Thanks Jean, Thank you Jen. Let's Gez
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: got a take. He's back tomorrow morning. Here