Comments on: Is Ottawa Waging War on Children? (Updated)

By: Liz

Liz — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:07:06 +0000

Oh my gawd – a law to force parents to be thoughtful of others! What has happened to Ottawa?

If I saw an elderly person and my stroller was unfolded and in the way, or if it were rush hour, I would take my child out of the stroller and fold it up, DUH! I lived in Ottawa, and that is what I did all the time in the 70s with my two! I guess Ottawa now has a problem with thoughtfulness and the parents are shrieking about rights!

Overcrowding does create human conflict – look at airline rage – they pushed the limits on personal space too far, and then back-tracked a little. Thus, I can see that a bigger city has more problems, but your approach (title of the article) to this issue is so typical of the generation of “the entitled”. Grow up young parents.

By: RD

RD — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:32:54 +0000

As I recall, the entire city of Halifax was quite clean.

By: Mark Peters

Mark Peters — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:46:39 +0000

As a parent of three young children, I contend this is one of those cases where the child-carrying rider needs to change his/her ways.

I suggest a rule that only folding umbrella strollers can be brought onto the bus. Also, that patrons must take the child out of the stroller and collapse it before getting on. Buses could create an area at the front for storing collapsed strollers.

This may not be absolutely inclusive, but it would be an acceptable middle between the obtrusiveness and danger of aisle cramming stroller-limos and disallowing bus travel to people with small children who NEED to bring a stroller.

As for the commenter who mentioned food being eaten on Ottawa’s buses, that’s one place where Halifax got it right; no food allowed, period. Our buses are quite clean.

By: RD

RD — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:28:37 +0000

No secret, I have kids.
However, this doesn’t mean I’m about to jump on you either.
1st of all, strollers are ridiculously huge these days. They are rolling fortresses designed to function as a bed, diaper changing station in addition to just being a stroller.
If you plan on taking the bus, simply use one of those smaller umbrella strollers (50$ or less). If you have an infant, use a baby bjorn style getup.

btw, since when are strollers 1000$??? I was looking at babies R us to gauge the cost of an umbrella stroller and they were selling some nonsense bubaboo stroller for 984$ plus tax.

Given that these enormous strollers cost hundreds of dollars, parents could definitely afford to buy the skinny one for the bus.
wow…

By: c

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 08:27:52 +0000

“By the way, before anyone decides to make this personal, though I own a stroller, I have never used it, even when riding a city bus.”

Is it some kind of objet d’art?

By: Ben in Ontario

Ben in Ontario — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 07:49:46 +0000

I agree, but as a daily bus user (yes, there are a few of us left, but certainly fewer than before the strike; the middle class has left public transit in droves over the past year) I can confirm that some of those strollers don’t just block the ailes, they plug them. Strollers have been getting bigger over the past few years and some of them (the types used by joggers, for example, those three-wheeled jobbies) are enormous and I’ve seen that type wedged into buses several times.

The answer, of course, is the purchase of buses that offer more space at the front, but if they did that they wouldn’t be wheelchair accessible–those wheel bays take up a lot of space and accessible buses have to be low to the ground.

For my part, I can live with the strollers, but there’s no excuse for the filthy state of Ottawa’s buses (the only ones that are clean are brand new, for the rest I think they clean them about once per year, sort of) and the fact that they are used as cafeterias by greasy junk-food eaters (the smell is often revolting–grease, sweat and dirty clothes with a touch of urine).

Ottawa’s buses are the worst in Canada by a wide margin in my experience, and worse than in lots of third-world cities. Aside from the drivers (for whom I have some sympathy) I don’t think anyone at OC Transpo or the City Council ever takes the bus for anything more than a photo-op vanity ride.

I wish they would try privatising at least some of the network to see if it improves–it couldn’t possibly be worse (or more expensive) than it is now.