The GTA is often ranked low in Canada on livability. Even when ranked somewhat high it is continually dragged down by one major factor of urban life – getting around. GTA residents suffer not only have the longest commute in Canada but their metropolitan area is also dead last among 19 major cities surveyed - worse than New York or Los Angeles.
They say it’s due to under funding of the transit infrastructure but I have another theory.
It’s policy. “The man’s” way of daily reminding us of his boot heel firmly entrenched on the back of our necks. I'll use my commute for an example, much improved over my former job but still hardly the 15 minute promised by google maps. Not that it couldn't be but “the man” can’t handle that. “The man” needs to assert his power.
I work shifts so I drive at off peak hours. Often on near deserted roads late at night so I know my drive could easily and safely be completed in 15 minutes. Instead, my drive consists of 28 minutes of stopping at a red light. Getting released from this red light just in time to watch the next light turn yellow then red. Over and Over. And Over and Over. Soul killing. Needless.
I could get home in 12 minutes if I was a rebel. If I was one of those carefree souls I sometimes see zooming along at 1.42 times the legally posted speed (thats what it takes to hit a steady stream of green lights). But instead I sit at an empty intersection and ask myself why does "the man" hate me so that he times the lights this way.
Sometimes I muse it's for the corporate interests that bought him his job - the needless wear and tear on the car, the brakes, the extra gas consumed by the constant acceleration - deceleration, sometimes I think it' just sadism. But in the end I just need to go no further than my car to know for a fact that the powers that be hate the little guy.
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