It’s been a while, so let’s talk about transit!
You see, I was going about my business one Saturday morning when I started getting alerts on my phone from Twitter, posts being made by Guelph Transit about how entire runs on certain routes were being cancelled. One of those cancellations had an impact on my plans that day.
Now, the thing you have to understand about transit in Guelph is that one cancelled trip can ruin your whole day. Since it’s a 20 or 30-minute wait between buses on almost every route in this city, a missed bus can put you pretty far back on your heels, especially when so many crosstown trips can take between 30 and 45 minutes.
When I did eventually get downtown that Saturday morning, I think I spotted the cause of my frustration: A long line-up of people waiting to get on the free transit bus taking them out to Guelph Lake for Hillside. Now, anecdotal evidence isn’t the same as data, but I have noticed three times now that when I encounter transit issues on the weekend, it’s usually a weekend where transit services are being used for some special event.
This summer alone I’ve noticed issues during the Guelph & District Multicultural Festival, one of the Beer Bus tour days, and most recently during Hillside. Forgive me if I think I’m starting to see a pattern here.
Theoretically, there should be no problem with the city using buses to promote transit, but I have to confess that I’m uncomfortable giving free rides to people who will never, ever take the bus under usual circumstances, especially as city council and staff continue to insist that transit users pay their share at the fare box. That goes double if conventional service is suffering because transit is being used as a promotional tool.
This plays into a frustration I’ve had with transit policy in this city for a while, the difference between government officials and thought leaders who talk a good game about supporting transit and actually supporting transit by using it and making it usable. Ferrying Hillside revellers to and from the event is the epitome of this tactic, as is using the city’s electric bus fleet. In so much as I like those EVs, I don’t like how they’ve become expensive promotional props to sew Guelph’s green bona fides.
What the City of Guelph needs to do is stop leaning on the expensive props because there are some very cheap props right in front them, and they’ve been there all along. What I’m saying is why not use the people who ride the bus every day going from one point in the city to another?
Whether the bus is diesel or electric, the 50 people on that bus means 50 less cars on the road, which has a measurable and positive environmental impact. You don’t need EVs to sell the environmental benefits, but you do need people willing to speak loudly and proudly about the all-around benefits of taking transit. The environmental angle just hasn’t been a big enough selling point, and that’s because of all the other issues that come with using transit.
Like wondering if you’re bus is going to arrive on time.
Or wondering if the reason your bus is late is because it’s not coming at all.
Or wondering if you’re bus is going to make it back downtown in time to catch your transfer.
Or wondering why a trip that takes you 12 minutes in a car takes you an hour on transit.
Or wondering why it’s easier, and more direct in some cases, to walk 45 minutes to your destination instead of taking the bus.
So now, instead of the cheaper and more direct marketing of happy customers who share successful experiences with transit, the vast majority of posts on social media are complaint driven. Presently, the user rating for Guelph Transit on Facebook is 1.7 stars out of five and given how guarded the City of Guelph is about its high customer satisfaction rating, I’m forced to wonder why they let this very public facing measurement of user satisfaction wallow at subterranean levels.
The simple answer is that they don’t care. Transit is always at the bottom of council’s list of priorities and that was proven last year during the budget when they went further than what was recommended by staff, pausing the rollout of the 10-year route and schedule strategy, and making it a 13-year plan.
But simple is, well, simple. I have no doubt that council and staff at city hall want to make transit a priority, but there’s a glitch in the matrix. Something breaks down during the trip between intention and action.
The good news is that the mayor’s attempt to shave next year’s budget bump down to four per cent will not impact the implementation of early morning and late night on-demand transit service on Sundays this fall. At long last Guelph is embracing the idea that transit users might have to go somewhere after 6 pm on Sunday night and would much rather take the $3 transit ride as opposed to the $20 cab or Uber ride.
But is that enough to start closing the public relations gap?
Living in the south end now, I’ve enjoyed more flexibility with the half-a-dozen different routes available within a 10-minute walk from my home. A lot of that is owed to our student population, which makes some people angry, but if it seems like our transit system caters to students, it’s because they’re paying for half of it with their student fees. The issue isn’t that so-called student areas get preferential treatment, it’s that not all areas of the city get the same treatment equally.
Having lived for years in an area of the city where I was serviced by just one bus route, I’ve been enjoying a new world of opportunity when you have multiple options and more frequency, but I can’t ignore the lingering issues that make my own improved condition still hard to navigate at times when I go to other parts of the city
At some point, I would enjoy writing something that celebrates transit as opposed to just putting down another thousand-word rake out and saying, “Meh, it can be worse…” Because honestly, it can be better. Much better.
