Busing around

I am terribly in love with our new jogging stroller but I still prefer to go to bed with my husband. Sleeping by the way is a very green "activity" because one is not consuming anything else but air. Anyway, with our new stroller we can really enjoy fresh snow since it simply ploughs through the white stuff. That consumes some of my energy but with a few home-made cookies, so I know what's in them, this is not a problem. On the bus I still take the old smaller stroller. 

I take the bus across the city to school now and my colleagues are worried about that. It takes so long and the service is so bad ... amazing what picture there's about public transit in Edmonton especially from residents that never use it. Others think it is just plain crazy to commute so far by bus (45 min). I know mostly stay-at-home-mums and non-working-women-whose-husbands-earn-a-fortune in Edmonton so they don't have to commute at all. In Edmonton these people do not leave their neighbourhood very much because the city is set up so that everything is relatively close-by (malls, leisure centres, libraries, certain medical services). The important word here is relatively because people still feel like they need a car to be able to live in Edmonton due to its sprawl. This is a controversy to me, one I have trouble getting over, too. I have not ever seen such an attitude in any European city before. In fact, having moved to the other end of Ed turns into starting all over again - might as well have moved to Calgary. 

Public transit has for sure an image problem in vast parts of North America. In Edmonton it is for poor people: students, homeless, old and decrepit residents with walkers or crutches, a few weirdos and us. But I’m a European and I don’t see what’s wrong with public transit. Living in a city should not require a car. Apart from driving gas-guzzling cars – I have never seen so many pick-up trucks and vans as in Edmonton - 89% of all drivers in Alberta are distracted while driving. Besides the majority of car rides in Canada cover less than 5 km. So why on earth do people not walk, cycle, and take the bus, if they are not only harming the environment but also endangering their own life and the life of others? It's an addiction that has not made it yet as far as prescription drugs - a professional needs to sign that it's good for you.

Here another attitude in need to be erased. Drivers here think gasoline is expensive, especially for living in an oil-producing country, but happily buy that bottle of water or pop that costs more and by itself has negative environmental impacts. In 2007 having a Cavalier-sized North American car would cause its owner costs of around $9,000 per year (including depreciation), with the average Canadian driving 18,000 km per year. Considering that most households have two cars out the door, this cost is obviously not high enough for city-dwellers to demand better public transit, or at least try it as it is currently. There's a reason why Edmonton Transit advertises "the every day way to save $5500 a year".