Category: my ramblings

You might remember that I think people who drive less than 2km to the GO station are stupid. I encountered a prime example of this behaviour this morning.

About 10 houses up the street from me, and along my daily walking route, lives a husband and wife who leave for work every morning in separate cars, at about the same time that I happen to walk by in the morning. I’ve seen the wife’s car in the GO station lot often, and she usually takes the same train home as me. This morning I left the house earlier than usual and didn’t see them leave, but I saw them pull into the GO parking lot – both of them. The wife parked her car and then got in the other car with her husband and drove away. So, she doesn’t even take the train to work in the morning, but gets a ride to wherever it is, and then when she takes the train home her car just has to be there for her to drive home. Most days, I arrive outside her house on foot at the exact same time she is pulling into the street. If I could just shake some sense into people…

• TjMSN: http://tjmsn.tomjudge.com/
• MSN2Go: http://www.msn2go.com/
• Imaginario: http://www.imaginarlo.com/

• Karnaaj Rally
• Dr. Mario & Panel de Pon
• Shifting Gears – Road Trip
• Penny Racers
• Guru Logic Champ

Gasoline prices are up about 50% since last year. While that seems like a lot, it’s still the cheapest mode of transportation, in a lot of ways. For example, it would be entirely within the realm of possibility for my wife to take the commuter train to and from her work: both our house and her job are within walking distance of the stations. But at $1.30/L and with a car that gets a modest 8.5L/100km (that’s around 28 mpg), it’s still cheaper to drive compared to the train fare. And, of course, as fuel prices go up, the trains run on diesel engines so fares are raised. Hrm. Does anyone else see a problem here?

It’s facts like this that make me think that even facing these rising costs, we are not yet at the point where people are going to drastically reduce their use of cars. I walk to the train every morning, and at the same time only two or three other people walk from my subdivision at the same time. This number hasn’t gone up. (There’s also bus service, which is only $0.50 to the station, perhaps more people are taking it?) Meanwhile, on the northern part of our street alone, I know five people who each drive their cars to the same station that I walk to, at the same time. I really wish I could talk some sense into these people… it’s only 1.3km to the station for crying out loud! Walk, lazy bones!

I saw workers building this over lunch yesterday, snapped the photo this morning. We’re getting a jungle gym! Hooray!

It was hilarious to watch the workers because there were three fortysomething construction-types, wearing safety vests, hardhats, etc, assembling brightly-coloured metal bits into what looks like a playground fixture, while looking as surly as possible.