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a real NIMBY for jayx1
this is gold, especially the reader comments below the story. the subway rerouting comment is funny.
my favourite part is the woman being quoted saying, "Not to sound like I'm bragging or anything but we have more (influence) than the average person."
hahaha...awesome. talk about an inflated ego and sense of entitlement. "I can't hear my TV". LOL!
| quote: | Route change request sparks bus war
AARON LYNETT/TORONTO STAR
Sandra Cassidy stands in front of her custom-built home on Audley Rd. S. in Ajax as a bus passes by. Cassidy is lobbying Durham Region Transit to reroute the buses, which has infuriated neighbours who rely on the service.
It's riders versus drivers as homeowner wants noisy public transit away from her lake-view home
Aug 13, 2008 04:30 AM
Carola Vyhnak
Urban Affairs Reporter
Every weekday morning Sandra Cassidy wakes up to the sound of the bus carrying her neighbours to work and school.
"It just comes roaring down the road. We can't open our windows because of the smell and noise," says the Ajax homeowner.
Over the objections of residents who rely on the service, Cassidy is lobbying Durham Region Transit to reroute the bus so it doesn't go past her grey stone house on Audley Rd. S.
"We paid a lot of money to have the only custom-built home in a very special subdivision." That included a $100,000 premium to look out over Lake Ontario. "I can't even hear the TV when a bus goes by," she adds, complaining the service was "dumped on us" without warning two years ago.
Her husband Wayne, a "well-respected" architectural technologist who designed the subdivision, has some clout with local politicians who know him through business and charity events, Cassidy says.
"Not to sound like I'm bragging or anything but we have more (influence) than the average person."
Her proposal to eliminate a two-kilometre loop has transit riders fuming. Some would have a longer walk to the bus stop, which they say poses a safety hazard in the winter. Those who live on the existing route dispute claims of excessive noise. And they argue a route change would discourage users who are trying to drive their cars less because of high gas prices and environmental concerns.
"I'm acutely aware of pollution and we're trying to limit our carbon footprint as much as possible," says Dan Dascalescu, whose wife and daughter also use the bus during their daily commute to Toronto.
If a shortcut is implemented, they'll be 600 or 700 metres from a bus stop and might be forced to drive in the winter because snow, ice and howling winds make it "unsafe to walk."
Route 222 was added as part of Durham Region's mandate to provide service within 400 metres of customers. The bus runs every half-hour during morning and afternoon rush hours, linking the subdivision with the GO station 10 kilometres away.
Cassidy believes the bus poses a safety hazard rounding the narrow corner where her house sits. It's also "mostly empty," says Cassidy, who got 75 residents around the perimeter of the loop to sign a petition to reroute the bus.
"I'm sure there are a few elderly people who want it" but everyone in the area has at least two cars, says the mother of four grown children who have left home.
Carol Weese, who has a bad hip and bought her house because of the bus service, waits to see it come down the street before going out to the stop.
"Winter is the worst concern," she says. "The sidewalks become really treacherous." If the route changed, Weese says she'd have to wait up to 10 or 15 minutes in the cold because the bus is sometimes late.
Phil Meagher, DRT's deputy general manager of operations, calls Route 222 a "good performer," averaging 34 riders per hour, compared to the standard of seven to 28.
Dismissing Cassidy's safety concern, he also says the bus creates little pollution and is no more noisy than garbage trucks and school buses.
"It's there to provide service to taxpayers," says Meagher, noting the Cassidys have been calling and emailing local politicians since spring.
The transit commission's executive committee will consider the matter at a meeting Sept. 3. |
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