4Public transit workers okay strike mandate: ‘Bargaining tool’; Might walk if wages remain frozen in ’07 | It’s a safe bet there will be snow on the ground when city drivers walk out. A couple of perhaps-premature scare stories about the idea of a public-transit strike.
4Montreal transit cards sidelined because (oh, Montreal!) they were too confusing to people. The six-trip cards won’t be sold again until September.
4Most cycling accidents are preventable, trauma doctor says | Be prepared to take a header. A couple of follow-ups on the story I posted the other day about the cyclist being dragged under a car on St-Denis.
4Municipal trucks grind up streets | Municipal trucks grind up streets: Overloaded. City fined $16,000 over two years. It’s funny to think of government departments fining each other, but it’s alright by me. I see city vehicles engaged in questionably-legal activities (parking on sidewalks, for example) with some regularity.
4Dansez dehors! Spotted at Montreal City Weblog, some notes about outdoor dancing that takes place around the city, including the Tango Festival.
4Le centre-ville paralysé: A piece about how summer festivals gum up traffic in the city centre. I have to admit I have a hard time feeling too broken up about this. Public transit in the core is fantastic so it’s difficult to understand why able-bodied folks are inclined to drive right down there.
4The bagpiping busker: a cute profile on a busker whose sound definitely doesn’t please everyone.
4Canal cleaning, anyone? While others play, éco-Quartier group channels its efforts: Éco-Quartier Louis Cyr’s “Gar Barge” event endeavours to clean up the Lachine Canal, one soggy piece of garbage at a time.
4The dirt on composting: Fourteen Years into it, I’ve learned a few things about how to turn kitchen garbage into a nutrient-rich spread for the garden. Some possibly-useful insights on urban composting.
4Les revendeurs font la loi à Berri-UQAM: This one comes from the “well, duh” section, you could say.
4Voies ferrées: Ottawa cherche à réduire le nombre de suicides.
4Manifestation au square Saint-Louis: Des citoyens se plaignent des camions. I lived on the square for a few years around ’98-’02 and never had a problem, but new condo projects in the area draw the big trucks. It probably seems even louder because of the echo across the square.
4Plateau-Mont-Royal: déficit de 2 millions à combler à cause du dernier hiver neigeux.
4Careful! Heat and humidity warning for Montreal with a Humidex of 40°C for Tuesday. For those of us without a/c, remember that libraries, theatres and malls are always goosebump-inducingly cold. I’ve chosen this chilly picture for you to meditate on. Sometimes in the summer I romanticize winter — sick, isn’t it?
“Playing in the snow” by Zalgon on Flickr.
4 comments
Re Transit cards Gazette article – The bottlenecks are because it takes a turnstile 3-4 seconds to process these new tickets. The new STM system is slow and counter-intuitive, hardly an upgrade. With all of the good ideas out there – NYC’s MetroCard, London’s Oyster, even BART in SF – the STM has affirmed its image as an organisation too dumb to research, and too cheap to hire a graphic designer.
Or… maybe they’re just really clever and trying to turn us all into all-season cyclists.
I’m not entirely sure what you mean, Andrew. The new Opus cards are identical in function to Oyster cards and the new paper tickets work pretty much the same way as MetroCards, which you also feed into the farebox when you board a bus.
It’s unfair for the STM to point the finger at users when they’ve given us a system that is confusing.
If nothing else, a faster farebox (like NYC) would be nice. Boarding the bus at a busy stop now takes 2 or 3 minutes longer than before. Yes, perhaps that’s just a question of fine-tuning…
I believe Andrew’s point is that the magnetic stripped cards that are inserted into the reader (the one- or postponed six-trip cards) are much slower than NYC’s equivalent Metrocard, and I heartily agree.
The no-contact Opus cards are faster, to be sure.