Pride Worth Catching? Part 2: A comparison
Posted by Calvin in Current Events, Politics on June 2, 2010
I’ve had some more questions about my experience with public transit, particularly in Calgary. Given my travels across Canada, I have used systems in a number of cities, hence I feel it would be adequate to compare experiences across the country in relation to Calgary.
In these travels I’ve had the pleasure of using public transportation in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Trois-Rivieres and Saint John. Some experiences have obviously been far more enjoyable than others on a number of levels, but there are some things that Calgary could stand to learn from each.
My personal issue is with the value-for-money of the transit system. It’s been said that if fares go up, then service should step up and vice-versa, but to have it both ways is incredibly foolish and can cause reduced ridership (something Calgary has suffered of late).
An excellent example of a value-added transit system is Vancouver’s TransLink system (which I used heavily while in Vancouver working during the 2010 Winter Olympics). An integrated system more formally known as the South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority, TransLink provides bus and train service through Vancouver, the SeaBus commuter ferry to North Vancouver and the West Coast Express commuter train service. Given the cost of a single fare zone ($2.50), of which Metro Vancouver is divided into three, the access options for information (by phone, mobile web (including an iPhone App) and SMS) and services available throughout the fare zones, a one-zone fare in Metro Vancouver proves to provide more value for less cost compared to Calgary Transit (with much of Calgary fitting geographically into a single fare zone).
Another example is with the Trois-Rivieres transit system, the Société de Transport de Trois-Rivières, where while they are a smaller area with a higher fare ($3.00 to Calgary’s $2.75), they offer a reasonable level of service within respectable hours. One thing they do that I did like and wish was done more often is they published at what times past the hour the bus would run by the stop, i.e. x:15 and x:45. The information is available on their website (French of course), but is useful all the same. Another thing they provided at the time I was using the system was printed booklets with schedules and maps for ALL ROUTES, not just select ones.
While not quite as notable an example, Saint John Transit has done a reasonably good job of covering this wonderful New Brunswick city, save a couple areas, but they do offer one thing that Calgary Transit didn’t, which is a fairly reasonable degree of communication with their riders, including things like bookmarks being made available on the buses to notify of fare increases and releases in the newspaper and on the radio to keep people in the loop.
In effect, Calgary has much to learn in terms of communicating with their passengers, providing better communication of stop times, maximizing the level of service provided for money, making information accessible across more media than their (non-mobile) website and by phone, as well as stepping up with the safety with the system. The number of serious incidents on Calgary Transit over the last few years makes this an area that Transit and Calgary city council can ill afford to ignore.
This is of course assuming that the incoming council does a value-for-money audit and picks up on things that could be done to better ensure Calgarians are getting their money’s worth from a public transportation system that does not currently serve well for what is being put in through taxes and transit fares.
Pride Worth Catching?
Posted by Calvin in Annoyances on May 16, 2010
If there’s one city service that I find especially useful, it’s Calgary Transit. While I use it every day, I tend to take issue with a great deal of the things that the city does with it, to the point that I come off as unfairly beating up on them.
I have good reason though. Despite recent fare hikes and changes, Calgary Transit has actually been reducing service to help keep costs down. My big issue there is that they’re cutting a service that’s overpriced, inefficient and provides an overall level of service that leaves much to be desired. Recently, routes have been cut back to reduce the number of operating hours in a bid to cut costs, which was done while at the same time hiking fares without sparing a thought (as was mentioned above).
Along with the cutbacks on routes, the service was inefficient and lacking in coverage to boot, with come parts of town still only getting service once every 45 minutes-1 hour on weekdays, despite the fact that these are high-traffic commercial areas and even housing developments that have existed for a decade or two (ample time to adapt service to help the people living in them by the way). As mentioned, some areas are barely covered at all, with one such example being the busy Deerfoot Meadows commercial area in the City’s southeast. There’s no doubt hundreds of Calgarians that work there, many of whom could use better transit service. Alas, the only service they get is the circle route that runs once every half hour for most of the day (of course including wiggle room for the almost inevitable delays), which brings me to the next issue.
The Calgary Transit system seems to be almost constantly riddled with delays. Personally I’ve experienced them to be anywhere between 5 minutes and 2 hours (yes, I said hours), making relying on Calgary Transit for getting to work, school or even to pick up groceries a crap shoot at best. Why would I take a bus that could end up being 2 hours late and possibly cost me my job when I could get a car and drive to work, even if transit is cheaper?
As to the issue of cost, why am I paying $85.25/month for a pass to a system the size of maybe a single TransLink fare zone (for which a monthly pass costs $81 (more if you add on more zones)) and getting service I’d expect in a city maybe 1/2 – 3/4 the size of Calgary? That doesn’t even include the fact that routes are all too often riddled with ridiculous delays and lacking service times.
The worst issue of all by far is the pretty serious safety issues with taking transit, which can make one’s commute a living hell. I’ve had to take transit to different parts of the city for commutes to and from work, and it’s almost a sure thing that I could see myself facing a drunk or two, a group of people deciding they want to be assholes, or even downright bizarre stuff like a guy deciding to take a joyride between two C-Train cars (death wish anyone?). There’s been a handful of incidents over the past few years of people being injured or even killed in incidents on Calgary Transit property, with the only thing Transit has had to show for some of the incidents being grainy video from cameras that appear to be few and far between. I’m not saying this is cause for having the police and transit peace officers riding the rails all the time looking for troublemakers, but you would think that safety would be taken a little more seriously.
Of course, this is only the way I view the system, but it’s the culmination of a number of grievances that are impossible to ignore.
UPDATE: It turns out that when Barlow gets closed for a new runway at the airport, that’s it for transit. Calgary Transit says people just aren’t interested in taking public transit to the airport. Tell that to the workers and people that don’t drive. CT, I have to call your bluff yet again. Show me where it says people aren’t interested, or work out a better solution. Prove me wrong.
Red Hot Gadget, Red Hot Blunder
The wait is nearly over in Canada for customers that want the iPad, Apple’s much-awaited tablet device that has been available in the US for some time now.
The pricing in Canada puts it in the same ballpark as higher-end netbooks and lower-end laptops, but in terms of cost, Canadians get some of the best deals across the board for the device according to Macworld, with the 16GB Wi-Fi version selling at $549. The story seems to differ somewhat when it comes to data, which has been the source of a bit of a headache for both Apple and Canadian wireless provider Rogers.
In a post this morning to RedBoard, Rogers’ official blog, they announced the data pricing for the iPad, with customers able to get 250 MB for $15/month or 5 GB for $35, with both including unlimited access to Rogers Wi-Fi hotspots (available at locations such as Second Cup Cafes). A more attractive option appeared to surface on Apple’s website earlier today however, stating that for $20 (it was unclear as to whether this was a recurring monthly cost or one-time fee), customers could link the iPad into their existing Rogers data plan (this has since been removed from the Apple website). Almost immediately in the comments in the RedBoard post, comments started flying asking for details about the option. Soon after the questions started coming, a comment from Rogers quickly shifted people’s enthusiasm. Mary, part of the RedBoard team, commented that the reference was indeed an error.
This prompted a storm of comments, many negative, most surrounding the pricing of the data plans for the iPad and the lack of a data sharing option. Some people have gone as far as to say Rogers “removed” the option (including this article from CBC News), which if true is really not cool on their part, but I like to give people (and companies) the benefit of the doubt.
Let’s say Rogers removed it (which also assumes it existed at all), assuming I even wanted an iPad with 3G, I’d be pretty upset myself. However, if it’s an error on Apple’s end, then I’d be upset at them for getting hopes up before I’d get mad at Rogers for not offering the add-on to begin with. In the event that both Rogers and Apple are at fault, then both are bound to (rightfully) get slagged on by the public, who of course can vote with their feet and their dollar by either not buying the iPad at all, or buying one and taking service with another provider.
At the end of the day, people are right to be upset, but while the data plans may be offered by Rogers, Apple is not immune to making errors in their marketing information. We may never know who was at fault or to what extent they were at fault, but once the dust settles, things are likely to go much smoother.
Operation: iPhone
Posted by Calvin in Current Events, Journalism, Wireless on April 27, 2010
If you follow tech news at all, you’re no doubt aware of the leak of the next-generation iPhone, a story that has been a big deal of late. Well, that story just took a seriously troubling turn.
Last Friday at approximately 9:45 PM Pacific Time, Gizmodo editor Jason Chen arrived from a night out with his wife, only to find that members of California’s Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team (REACT) had broken down the door of his house and were executing a search warrant (issued in San Mateo county superior court at 7:00 PM Pacific) at his home. According to an account by Chen, he was also subjected to a physical search for any weapons.
In the end, four computers, two servers, an iPhone, a Motorola Droid, mass storage media (thumbdrives, external hard drives), and personal identity info were seized. Included in the information seized was a letter from Gawker Media COO Gaby Darbyshire noting the search warrant was invalid under California’s shield laws, as Chen is a journalist under Gawker’s employ.
In a letter to the Detective that signed off on the inventory of property seized under the search warrant, Darbyshire notes that under the California Penal Code, the property should never have been seized, with other experts chiming in that it is also in violation of United States federal law. In light of the shield law defense put forward by Gawker, the search has come to a bit of a pause while the District Attorney’s office considers the defense, in light of reasons put forward by attorneys for Gawker/Gizmodo.
As to why the raid was executed when the Shield Law defense was possible, a spokesperson in the District Attorney’s office stated that the prosecutor in the case believed that the shield law defense did not apply in this case. The spokesperson had conceded that the pause of an investigation to explore a shield law defense after evidence had been seized was rather unusual. Whatever the reason the prosecutor had for believing the defense did not apply, the way events have unfolded gives the appearance that there were variables that were not considered when the raid was executed.
All of this has brought up the debate about whether bloggers are actually journalists. There is a precedent in California to say that this is the case (as noted in a note by Darbyshire), and some acceptance of the general notion is found in other jurisdictions further afield.
I’m not a lawyer, but it appears to me that there’s a couple of things potentially wrong in this scenario. Yes, the fact that Gizmodo paid for the leaked iPhone poses a problem, but there’s no reason why a seizure of computer equipment from a journalist was required when it’s been noted a subpoena would have been sufficient. Was it appropriate for Gizmodo to pay for the phone? Not really. Was it appropriate for a raid and seizure of equipment from a journalist on the story to be seized? Same answer.
Apple got their iPhone back. Why are we breaking down doors and raiding people’s houses over it?
Don’t Step in The Ponds
Posted by Calvin in Annoyances, Current Events, Politics on April 24, 2010
The Alberta Government recently approved applications by Fort Hills and Syncrude to build more tailings ponds to deal with the waste from their operations in the north of the province.
For those who don’t know what tailings ponds are, they contain the waste, or “tailings” from the upgrading of bitumen from the oilsands (a project that in and of itself has been nothing but trouble for the province and Canada as a whole). These tailings contain water, sand, silt, clay and residual bitumen, are highly toxic and pose a serious threat to wildlife and the greater environment, as they are too toxic to be returned to the water system.
The Energy Resource Conservation Board in Alberta ordered companies operating in the oilsands to clean up their tailings and keep the regulator updated with their progress, in light of a plan announced to have the land in a state where it can be reclaimed within 5 years of when tailings stop being deposited and other cleanup to occur over the next few years.
Despite this, there were two applications approved today that met the “spirit” of the plans.
I’m sorry, but the “spirit” isn’t quite good enough. These ponds and the larger oilsands program have been nothing but a black eye to my country, my home province and even my hometown.
I’m frankly tired of this. I’m proud to be a born and raised Albertan, but this program has been nothing but an embarrassment to the people of this province, never mind that critics always seem to be considered misinformed or crazy, most recently James Cameron, best known for directing the smash hit film Avatar was essentially told he was misinformed and was invited by our Premier, Ed Stelmach, to go on a tour of the oilsands and canoe down the Athabasca River, with the intent of showing him what the oilsands are all about.
You can put a bow on a turd, but at the end of the day, it smells just as bad.
Big Trouble on The Little Hill
Posted by Calvin in Current Events, Politics on April 17, 2010
There’s been a most intriguing string of events lately on Parliament Hill involving a former cabinet minister/member of the Conservative party caucus and her husband, a disgraced former Member of Parliament.
Helena Guergis and Rahim Jaffer have proven to be the source of quite a headache for the Conservative Party, with Jaffer, the former MP for Edmonton Strathcona having been arrested on charges of impaired driving and cocaine possession (he was later only convicted on the lesser charge of careless driving) and Guergis coming under fire of late for her husbands conduct, but allegations have also surfaced recently surrounding Guergis and Jaffer partying in what sounds like seedier atmospheres surrounded by prostitution and drug use, although those allegations are as yet unproven and could very well be false.
To make matters more interesting, the federal ethics commissioner was asked to look into the financing behind Guergis’ purchase of a home in Ottawa, although the reasoning for the commissioner to be asked to do so is unclear.
In light of all this, Prime Minister Harper accepted Guergis’ resignation from cabinet and ejected her from caucus pending an investigation by the RCMP, a move that has not happened since the Mulroney days.
While Guergis is to be presumed innocent, this could prove to be a very interesting, very trying time for her, Jaffer and the Conservative Party, which is coming under more fire from the opposition over this latest scandal involving high profile members of their caucus.
Blowing My Socks Off
As I mentioned in my last post, I am a customer of Canadian wireless new entrant WIND Mobile (UPDATE: For disclosure’s sake I must note that as of May 17 I am also connected to WIND in a professional capacity). I’ve been with them for about a month now and now seems as good a time as any to post a review of my experience thus far.
Back near the end of February, I went into the WIND store to pick up my phone and was greeted with a nice, open store and the staff were ready and willing to help. The activation process took a bit longer than I expected, but activation by nature tends to take a while. Gave them my number to port over from TELUS then left.
I left the store and made a couple test calls to see if I could see what people meant with the dodgy network, but found the complaints people had were not there in my case. Only issue I had during the day was with the BlackBerry Internet Service, which I thought I had set up in-store, but there had been server side issues with the on-device setup, which seemed to be an issue on RIM’s end as opposed to WIND itself.
About a week after I bought my phone I moved to another part of town and seem to be experiencing a Farraday Cage effect at my home, where my phone will work fine in front of the house, but inside or behind not so much. That aside, I have kept a running list of weak areas within the home zone and reported the issues to WIND, thus far experiencing at least some improvements in some areas.
In all, I don’t regret the experience in the least and don’t plan to switch out if I don’t need to. If you’re in any of WIND’s home zones (Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto or Ottawa) then definitely take a look, I think a lot of you will like what you see.
Wireless with Teeth
We’re just over 3 months into the launch of one of Canada’s new wireless carriers, WIND Mobile (who I am a customer of and quite happy with for disclosure’s sake) and for the first time in a long time, Canadians are actually getting real choice in wireless.
With WIND having launched in December, we also have Public Mobile (a new entrant in the GTA and Montreal only at this time) and Mobilicity (formerly DAVE Wireless) both launching later in the year, which shows that the wireless business is seriously heating up, and definitely getting some teeth.
Thus far, WIND has geared a lot of their marketing towards people that are frustrated with the idea of wireless contracts (which most consumers are, let’s face it), along with customers that wanted a better prepaid experience (They offer all the same pricing, phones and most services (US roaming being an exception right now) to both postpaid and prepaid). Along the way they have had some pretty nasty issues, including a stream of complaints about network issues (I’ve had a few, but they got better) and their website being down for just about 2 days after the launch in Toronto, crippling it to some extent up to the Calgary launch. All this has provided fuel for Mobilicity, who on their website says “There’s nothing worse than making all kinds of promises then messing up because you were in a rush.” Granted, WIND did probably launch a bit sooner than was practical for them, but for what they have done right they have been doing a pretty good job.
Mobilicity, formerly under the less attractive moniker DAVE Wireless, is planning to launch in spring of this year according to their website, in the same space that they took a swipe at WIND’s issues. Nothing is said of their plans or phone offerings at this time, but they are promising unlimited plans, “uncomplicated wireless” and no contracts. Given they plan to launch in major Canadian cities, this puts them in a position much like the one Fido was in when Microcell launched them several years back, but sets them up to put fierce competition up with the big 3 (Rogers, TELUS and Bell).
Public Mobile is offering a single plan at the $40 price point for unlimited talk and SMS, with the ability to get free, unlimited Canadian long distance “for life” if customers join during the pre-launch promotion. They currently have just 4 phones, none of them being considered smartphones, where a sizable chunk of the marketplace is headed, but offering a phone in the sub-$100 price point without a contract, which will undoubtedly be attractive to some. However, as Public is only building a network between Toronto and Quebec City, they are going to be a relative non-threat to the big 3 and a relatively limited threat to WIND and Mobilicity (that and I’m really against this concentration in Eastern Canada, but that’s just me).
Worth mention as well is Videotron, which is a brand well known in Quebec for their offering as a cable provider. Quebecor, Videotron’s parent, purchased most, if not all of the spectrum set aside for new entrants in Quebec, with Public Mobile having acquired two licenses in Quebec to facilitate their coverage. Nothing is said about phones or plans with Videotron either, but it’s clear that they plan to cover all of Quebec.
No matter how you look at it though, the competition is definitely heating up and should provide the change Canadians have been hoping for.
The Blue is Alright
Posted by Calvin in Uncategorized on March 10, 2010
While I was in Vancouver working at the Olympics, I was working alongside some great people, both volunteer and otherwise. Some of them with a much maligned part of our day to day lives.
The men and women of Canada’s police services, primarily the RCMP, were some of my closest colleagues for the time I was at the games. I got to meet people from of course the RCMP, the Ontario Provincial Police (who are grappling with the loss of one of their own in the line of duty earlier this week), the Sûreté du Québec (Québec’s Provincial Police), Owen Sound Police, Edmonton Police and Treaty Three Police to name a few.
Working alongside these men and women that work to ensure the safety of the public from coast to coast on a daily basis not only reminded me of the important role they play, but gave me a look at the more human element of these people that are often maligned for simply doing their jobs.
While they have to maintain a standard of professionalism, when we did have chances to relax, they were seriously no different from you and me, really nice people that were always ready to share a laugh, share stories and even watch the game when things were quiet (There was no shortage of opportunities for that just about anywhere you went in town). Being able to discover the more human element of our country’s finest gave me just that much more respect for what they do and definitely a whole new attitude towards them (if ever I get pulled over for speeding or anything like that I’m definitely going to think twice before freaking out at them). That isn’t to say however that there are some that become overzealous and take things to an extreme that pushes the boundaries of what is reasonable, but the few that may do that are overshadowed by the many that treat the position with the responsibility and restraint it deserves.
They, like any one of us, are just doing their jobs. Granted that means exposing themselves to great personal risk and sometimes even making some judgement calls that we may not agree with or find popular, but again, it’s all a part of doing their job, a job that I can’t thank them enough for stepping up to do.
Buildup To An Epic Nothingness
Posted by Calvin in Uncategorized on March 7, 2010
I spent much of February in Vancouver for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games (and my work at such), amid talk of protests the likes of which Vancouver had never seen before. It proved, however, to be a build-up for a whole lot of nothing.
The Olympic Resistance Network was promising to use such tactics as disrupting the opening ceremonies to try and cause unrest at these games, but were stopped short of that by the police, some of which got injured when ORN protesters decided to get violent. That resulted in an arrest.
Of all the demonstrations that occurred, the largest was allegedly by a group from Central Canada referring to themselves as the “Black Bloc”. About 200 of their members marched through Downtown Vancouver, smashed windows and intimidated pedestrians before being stopped by police in riot gear. This resulted in 7 arrests, but these cowards were in masks, which was almost assuredly to keep themselves from getting arrested.
All of this led to a most disappointing showing by the demonstrators, but at the same time, maybe they thought the build-up alone would keep people away.
Boy were they ever wrong.
