By Doug Brown
Chair: Accessible Sustainable Transit
September 28, 2014
BURLINGTON, ON
I wasn’t at the recent Ward 6 All-Candidates Meeting – but transit did come up as an issue.
I was very surprised at Councillor Blair Lancaster’s comment that “Council has made serious improvements in congestion and transit ridership, since the introduction of its transit master plan,”
Under this Council, we have seen service cut to northeast Burlington with one hour waits during weekdays between rush hours. Ridership is down and car congestion is up.
Doug Brown, chair of Bfast, wants to see a bus schedule with routes that work for people and not the current bus route set up in place. It doesn’t work claims Brown.
More puzzling still is her comment on the “introduction of the transit master plan” The City aborted the Transit Master Plan before it could be completed, so that the City of Burlington has been without a long-term transit plan.
For the past two years, staff and Council have made extensive arbitrary schedule changes, causing confusion to bus users, and resulting in service cuts to Ward 6 and Burlington’s northeastern communities.
Blair Lancaster – almost holding court with her constituents at a corn roast at the Air Park.
I don’t understand how Councillor Lancaster can talk of the “introduction of its master plan” as Councillor Lancaster was on the Steering Committee for the Transit Master Plan study and was present when staff dismissed the Steering Committee and aborted the study.
Councillor Lancaster also joined her fellow Councillors in voting for a $500,000 annual cut in transit’s share of the Provincial Gas Tax funding, and for the transit service cuts in the “Interim Transit Service Plan”
Action speaks louder than words.
Last June, when a few residents went to Ms. Lancaster with a petition of 16 names asking for the new bus to be removed from their part of Headon Forest, she tried hard to accommodate them.
Shortly after, there was an article in the Spec https://www.thespec.com/news-story/4756523-burlington-residents-lobby-for-buses-to-be-removed-from-street/ with comments such as:
— “Invasion of privacy???? Last time I checked, roads were for the public to use and are paid for by all taxpayers. This is NIMBYism at its worst. These people are completely out to lunch if they think they will get any sympathy.”
— “They’re living on a collector roadway which in turn makes sense to have a bus route. And what ‘invasion of privacy’ is taking place? Are people walking on their lawn to peep through their windows? I hope Councillors and other residents stick to their guns and keep the route just as it is.”
— “”….people that normally wouldn’t come up here.” Those evil, bus taking people. This article makes me ashamed to be a Burlingtonian.
The bus stops were removed August 19th.
Please note the full title of the group is Burlington for Accessible Sustainable Transit (BFAST) you can visit our web page at bfastransit.ca where we will be posting responses to our election candidate survey in the next week.
Blair Lancaster has never bothered to try to get on a bus. She is out of touch. She was when she was elected. She has no record of supporting Ward 6 and no idea what her action or In action has done to her own neighbours.
She should have realized long ago, that in order to do her job, she needs to get out of the spa and live and breathe, what her ward faces daily, Age, gender, commuter, mother, father, business owner. She cannot be bothered who you are. She just wants photo ops to keep up her beauty queen image.
Ward 6 is treated like a ghetto, by her and the mayor. Because we are north of Upper Middle, our votes and tax dollars do not carry the same weight as the other wards. The arbitrary changing of bus schedules is just the tip, Try changing by-laws, nothing in writing, no notice.
She wants Metrolinxs to solve our transit problem. She thinks bike lanes cost $2 Mill a kilometer.
Her math, the mayors math…… are some strange math I have never been exposed too. Her answer and the mayors answer is to hire a consultant.
We need a completely new government that represents the entire city,,,, not just south of Upper Middle Road.