I used to purchase sheets of OC Transpo bus tickets to help my offspring get around town if they didn’t have a loaded or valid bus pass.
I would also carry extras with me as a backup plan if my PrestoCard balance ran out or to help out if a bus buddy forgot their pass.
Soon that will no longer be an option.
Ottawa’s public transportation service will not accept paper tickets after April 30th. Commuters will have to have a Presto Card handy and loaded or carry $3.50 in exact change.
So, you could offer to pay for a fellow OC Transpo commuter who has forgotten their pass or doesn’t have the $3.50. You could offer them your backup stash of coin or indicate to the driver you wish to pay for another’s fare with your PrestoCard.
The latter will cost you 5 cents less but require social interaction with two people instead of one and delay others getting on the bus…
I suppose I will use the PrestoCard payment method for a friend instead of offering cash. It’s a matter of me remembering to load enough on my card.
On a related note, I wish PrestoCard would send an email or text to notify you when your balance gets to a day’s value or less.
Gone are the days of the paper passes 😦 and Federal tax credits for using public transportation.
I find this ticket-less system counter-productive and risky:
Low income riders have to jump through hoops to prove their financial status in order to qualify for a Community Discount pass.
Social service agencies can no longer provide bus tickets to their clients so they can get to appointments or related events.
Buses may be carrying more coin as alternate payment rather than paper tickets. This could make for theft opportunities or cause more fuel usage due to extra weight.
Are you an Ottawa public transportation user? How are you adapting to these changes? What’s your opinion on this new system plus the city’s attempt to prepare commuters for the late and over-budget Light Rail Transit system?
Canadian winters… You adapt to the season or you escape to warmer climates.
For those of us who are not beach lovers or sun worshipers, we choose to stay and make the best of it. Sometime after January 31st, we start complaining.
Public Transportation experience
We pop our Vitamin C, D and Omega-3 and absorb the glow from the DayLight lamp while we curse the inconveniences of the season. We get in gentle exercise, cautious walks outdoors, small social gatherings then retreat indoors for quiet activities.
As someone who appreciates the quiet and calm of my humble abode, I make efforts to refresh my living space and head space by performing winter housecleaning and preparation for the Lunar New Year. It’s a valid excuse to add ceremony to housework, to make it fun and hopeful.
Of course, when you share living space with cats, you adjust the placement of items to maintain harmony in your home.
Cats avoiding the cleaning staff
One way I refresh my head space is learning new things, doodling, listening to uplifting music and reading. When you’re a bus mouse, you can get in some good reading time – if you can find a good seat for the long workday commutes.
I Ching Handbook
So as we navigate through and negotiate with Winter, we can remind ourselves that it will soon lead to Spring.
There is hope.
Thanks for reading along! How do you survive Winter in your neck of the worldly woods?
That’s a bold prediction from someone so naturally fair of skin and hair.
I am okay with that possibility.
First, I can say that because I have brown offspring from a mixed marriage. In my eyes and their doting Aunties’, these children were beautiful, intelligent and well-behaved.
I was often oblivious to the colour of my children’s skin yet experienced some strange looks and comments when we were out in public. The most humorous and innocent was when a child at the local park asked if I was their babysitter.
Yes, they have met challenges with finding their identity, their place in society. They adapted. They survived. Some of them identify as Black or POC (Person of Colour). None of them have adopted urban stereotypes nor have they been in trouble with the law.
To me, they are beautiful humans, the next generation. I raised them to be positive contributors to their community and to society. They know how to speak up when they see injustices. They too will make beautiful babies if they so choose or can afford to raise a family in this precarious economy.
In the 90s, I grooved to this song from Michael Jackson. It spoke to me – except for the beginning featuring a loud, dysfunctional family then the parts where MJ is grabbing his genitals, smashing up a parked car and vandalizing empty store windows. Apparently, the main body of the “Black or White” short film reflects the song’s lyrical plea for racial and cultural unity. That message was lost on me into the eight minute mark. I think MJ also wanted to express issues with father figures, the automotive industry, consumerism and colonialism.
You will be thankful I found the shortened version.
My second posit is that my white, blond son from an earlier relationship chose to marry a lovely woman of Asian origin. I see that he inherited the “non-conformist” gene as well as the blond one.
Their children are beautiful. My grandchildren are beautiful.
My grandchildren.
It was comments I heard years ago from a stand-up comedian that stuck with me and inspired me to draft this blog entry.
Quoting Paul Rodriguez, “One hundred years from now, our children’s children… everybody’s going to be Filipino”
(Start at 1:30)
I’m okay with that.
Regardless of their skin colour or which version of the Creator they honour, I have hopes for my grandchildren, my great-grandchildren and those to follow.
I hope the shared traits of humanity such as compassion will calm the fear and hatred of those feeling threatened. Is it possible that the good ole boys are scared? Are they trying to protect their heritage, their culture?
Why did it take public outrage at his initial comments for Tweetle-Dum to finally denounce the white supremacists?
Let’s remember that this continent was occupied by other people thousands of years before those European colonizers and immigrants arrived with their ships.
The first people had a respect for the power of nature, the seasons, the animals they hunted for food. They hunted out of necessity, not for sport. We could learn from the First Nations about living in harmony with nature and planning seven generations ahead.
It’s going to be a struggle but people will learn that harmonious survival of the human race and Mother Earth is more important than skin colour, religious dogma and power. At the basic root, we need to ensure clean air, water and arable land.
Here are some changes i would like to see in our gently blended future:
Muscle cars and air-polluting auto racing will no longer exist. Neither will fossil fuels.
Reusable energy from the sun, wind and oceans will power our needs.
People will be educated, active and civil. We will see a return to public discourse and philosophical discussions.
Artists will be respected and supported regardless of their eccentricities ;-^
The fashion industry will reuse materials and will not be so frivolous and wasteful. We will do away with stilettos, latex and skinny jeans.
There will challenges with how we define culture.
Some people may still want to pierce their body parts, tattoo their skin and dye their hair to stand out, to show their individualism or create a sense of belonging in some form of neo-tribalism. Some may try to appear so unique as to bleach their hair blonde. I hope the chemicals don’t harm their brain cells or our ecosystem as a result.
If we deplete and pollute this planet to the point of no recovery and have to spread out into the galaxy, to meet and rely on other species, I just hope we can still celebrate and respect diversity.
What was the point of the series? Celebrating diversity. Here’s Star Trek creator, Gene Roddenberry, explaining: pic.twitter.com/toaFoGQNXx
