Public Transport LOL

I was reading an article about our newest metro station. The Cartier station is the terminus of the Laval line of our metro system. It seems that it is causing all sorts of problems for the people who live in the streets surrounding it. People are parking cars all over the place, even in people's private driveways. The residents are really pissed off, as well they should be, at the disrespectful behavior of the drivers. There have been towings, fines, fights and vandalism all because there are just not enough parking spaces.
The Cartier metro station has 60000 people go through it everyday. Yes that's not a typing error, sixty thousand people per day. The bright planners at the STM (Société de Transport) only built 450 parking spots at the station. Yes that is also not a typo. They planned for only 450 parking spots. Now how stupid is that. Even if each and every car, car pooled and packed 5 people per car that would only be 2250 people.
Now let us to some basic math. Let's say that of the 60000 people, 75% take the bus, bike, walk or fly to the metro, that's 45000 people. That leaves 15000 people minus the 2250 who are parked, leaving us with 12750 trying to find a parking. Let's say they all car pool to the maximum, that means that 2250 cars have to find a place to park. Now how ridiculous is that?
They are always yammering about how we should take public transport and they do all sorts of ridiculous things that turn people off of public transport. Joé Bleau is going to be frustrated searching for a parking and it'll only be a short while before he says the hell with it and drives his car into work. You can be sure that persuading him to take public transport will, thereafter, be nearly impossible.
Where I live there is a commuter train line, an adequate (not enough of them), albeit expensive, way to get to work. Except if you arrive at the station after seven, forget it, there is no parking, so people just get on Highway 20 and drive into town. It used to be that at the terminus of the metro lines there would be free parking if you had a metro pass or bought tickets. Now you pay the same price for the parking as you would downtown. For example Mrs. BB, the two BB kids and myself would park the car at the western most terminus and buy eight metro tickets (there and back) to get to Montreal. Now we have to pay for the parking, which on weekends is the same thing as the parkings downtown and on top of it we have to pay for the eight tickets... DUhhh, we now just drive downtown, much easier and less costly.
When we were in England many cities had a Park N' Drive. Outside the city, you would park your car in a well protected car park (CCTV), hop on a bus and you would be driven to the center of town with a minimum of stops and fuss. The cost of the parking... a bus ticket. Now that's smart, people will take the bus or metro if you make it worth their while. That's something the STM has yet to grasp.
Oh by the way, do you know what solution they found for the problem? They are going to make residents buy stickers, and the streets will become No Parking except for the residents with stickers. Like I said... dumb!

Accidents happen!

Since my lil sister Jazz isn't here at the moment, and was last seen gallivanting around Texas with geewits, I've decided to do her Friday rants with a couple of my own.

Dear lady with the cell phone,
Driving is a full time occupation, especially when you are driving on a highway, in the morning rush hour with the sun shining directly in your eyes and you have no sun glasses. (Already not a smart move.) Squinting into the sun, whilst talking on a phone, surrounded by hundreds of cars is a sure recipe for an accident. Mind you, I really don't care if you scrap your car, but if you do it'll cause a major bottleneck that will back up traffic for kilometres and make me lose even more time than I already have.
A fellow commuter

Dear older gentleman,
We are in Canada and not the UK. Please be advised that the left hand lane is not the slow lane, it is the fast lane and should be used by faster traffic. It is not normal for all the cars behind you to pass you on the right. If you were in the proper lane they would be passing you on the left, so if you see many cars passing you on the right, IT'S BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT WHERE YOU SHOULD BE!
A fellow commuter

Dear lost lady,
I know for a fact that sometimes finding the proper road is difficult and it's easy to get lost but driving between two lanes to keep your options open is not the solution to your dilemma. Weaving back and forth at a much slower than posted speed is also not recommended.
A fellow commuter

Dear Indy 500 driver,
We are in Montreal's rush hour traffic, not the Indianapolis 500 speed way. Zigzagging through traffic at speeds double that of other vehicles, cutting in front of cars without signalling, cutting across three lanes of traffic to hit the exit, is not only stupid but suicidal. If you want to abrogate your miserable life on this planet, please use the river, (we're an island there's plenty of river to use,) in that way you won't bring anyone with you.
A fellow commuter

So ends the rant.

PS Thanks to Ian for the Awesome Dude award, I finally put it up. I'll give it on to Em but he already has it, and to Evil Spock, live long and prosper!