Erik de Vries
@erikwdv.bsky.social
Bikes, dad jokes, urbanism, and cats. Occasionally beer and baseball. Victoria and Ottawa are home.
You’re hilarious! The point was how people arriving here behave. If no transit is available, they will use cabs, resulting in higher road maintenance, slower traffic, and environmental degradation. Yeah, if existing 72 travellers suffer, that’s bad. Add a cost-recovered transit route? Sounds good.
November 15, 2025 at 8:44 AM
You’re hilarious! The point was how people arriving here behave. If no transit is available, they will use cabs, resulting in higher road maintenance, slower traffic, and environmental degradation. Yeah, if existing 72 travellers suffer, that’s bad. Add a cost-recovered transit route? Sounds good.
Yeah, fair. Me neither.
November 15, 2025 at 7:49 AM
Yeah, fair. Me neither.
Or maybe just charge a toll on the highway for drivers from both the airport and the ferry.
November 15, 2025 at 7:45 AM
Or maybe just charge a toll on the highway for drivers from both the airport and the ferry.
I noticed that in Montreal there’s a premium fare added for airport users that is both more than the rest of the transit system charges but less than a taxi. Would this approach enable preservation of service to existing users?
November 15, 2025 at 7:44 AM
I noticed that in Montreal there’s a premium fare added for airport users that is both more than the rest of the transit system charges but less than a taxi. Would this approach enable preservation of service to existing users?
You’re right. Ruining existing service for the airport is a bad idea.
My point was so much less than this: only that opposing airport transit service on the grounds that airport people don’t deserve it is silly. Pax, friend.
My point was so much less than this: only that opposing airport transit service on the grounds that airport people don’t deserve it is silly. Pax, friend.
November 15, 2025 at 7:34 AM
You’re right. Ruining existing service for the airport is a bad idea.
My point was so much less than this: only that opposing airport transit service on the grounds that airport people don’t deserve it is silly. Pax, friend.
My point was so much less than this: only that opposing airport transit service on the grounds that airport people don’t deserve it is silly. Pax, friend.
Yeah, this. As my friendly debater has pointed out, compromising existing service to make this happen is no help. But that doesn’t detract from the value of bus service for airport and ferry users.
November 15, 2025 at 7:32 AM
Yeah, this. As my friendly debater has pointed out, compromising existing service to make this happen is no help. But that doesn’t detract from the value of bus service for airport and ferry users.
Weird that you can read what I’m saying through the mute filter
November 15, 2025 at 7:29 AM
Weird that you can read what I’m saying through the mute filter
That’s exactly *your* argument, not mine. You add bus service to a new place; nobody (except you) said you’re taking it away from existing users.
November 15, 2025 at 7:27 AM
That’s exactly *your* argument, not mine. You add bus service to a new place; nobody (except you) said you’re taking it away from existing users.
And yet you have decided that expanding transit service *will* take away from existing transit service. That’s a decision you made in your head.
November 15, 2025 at 7:24 AM
And yet you have decided that expanding transit service *will* take away from existing transit service. That’s a decision you made in your head.
But at the heart of your position is a zero-sum perspective: no improvement can happen without sacrifice from existing users. In practice, somehow public services were created and expanded to serve more people.
November 15, 2025 at 7:22 AM
But at the heart of your position is a zero-sum perspective: no improvement can happen without sacrifice from existing users. In practice, somehow public services were created and expanded to serve more people.
If the expansion of every public service is means tested to make sure nobody better-off than the current users benefits, then how do you address the need for a new school in a middle-class neighbourhood? Child care support that enables women to go back to work? Sounds like a race to the bottom.
November 15, 2025 at 7:19 AM
If the expansion of every public service is means tested to make sure nobody better-off than the current users benefits, then how do you address the need for a new school in a middle-class neighbourhood? Child care support that enables women to go back to work? Sounds like a race to the bottom.
I can’t think of a single service improvement that wouldn’t be halted with this argument. New bike lane? Nope - somebody who needs it is going to lose free parking. New clinic? Nope - it’s going to steal nurses from the next neighbourhood over.
November 15, 2025 at 7:00 AM
I can’t think of a single service improvement that wouldn’t be halted with this argument. New bike lane? Nope - somebody who needs it is going to lose free parking. New clinic? Nope - it’s going to steal nurses from the next neighbourhood over.
You’ve obviously already decided that expanding service to YYJ means that existing route 72 users are going to pay for it. If that’s true, yeah, I think you’re right. But I don’t know why we’d assume that’s a permanent state of affairs.
November 15, 2025 at 6:58 AM
You’ve obviously already decided that expanding service to YYJ means that existing route 72 users are going to pay for it. If that’s true, yeah, I think you’re right. But I don’t know why we’d assume that’s a permanent state of affairs.
I’m not dismissing your concerns. And arguing that air travel is terrible for the climate is fair. But the trip from that position to the one where travel to an airport is a high end private luxury is not so straightforward.
November 15, 2025 at 6:54 AM
I’m not dismissing your concerns. And arguing that air travel is terrible for the climate is fair. But the trip from that position to the one where travel to an airport is a high end private luxury is not so straightforward.
I use the bus to the ferry, along with lots of other transit users. It’s OK! A little slower than driving, but downtown to downtown for $25 is pretty good.
November 15, 2025 at 6:28 AM
I use the bus to the ferry, along with lots of other transit users. It’s OK! A little slower than driving, but downtown to downtown for $25 is pretty good.
Sure, that argument applies to any proposal to expand a public service. Build a new library or school? Increase welfare or child care support? If we start from the assumption that somebody already receiving a public service will lose something, we’ll never build anything new.
November 15, 2025 at 6:23 AM
Sure, that argument applies to any proposal to expand a public service. Build a new library or school? Increase welfare or child care support? If we start from the assumption that somebody already receiving a public service will lose something, we’ll never build anything new.
I say “outdated,” because - for better or for worse - air travel has become accessible to many due to competition. This flight to Calgary from Victoria costs almost exactly as much as a cab ride from downtown Victoria to the airport.
November 15, 2025 at 4:03 AM
I say “outdated,” because - for better or for worse - air travel has become accessible to many due to competition. This flight to Calgary from Victoria costs almost exactly as much as a cab ride from downtown Victoria to the airport.
There’s a weird preoccupation across the ideological spectrum in North America about who “deserves” to use publicly-funded services and infrastructure that deeply undermines the public gains they yield, irrespective of who uses them.
November 15, 2025 at 3:53 AM
There’s a weird preoccupation across the ideological spectrum in North America about who “deserves” to use publicly-funded services and infrastructure that deeply undermines the public gains they yield, irrespective of who uses them.
I travel for work a lot. It’s of no financial consequence to me how I travel to and from the airport. I choose transit whenever it’s reasonably convenient. In Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver, I’d never bother with a taxi. Make that choice available and travellers will use it to everyone’s benefit.
November 15, 2025 at 3:51 AM
I travel for work a lot. It’s of no financial consequence to me how I travel to and from the airport. I choose transit whenever it’s reasonably convenient. In Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver, I’d never bother with a taxi. Make that choice available and travellers will use it to everyone’s benefit.
OMG yes. Please make this happen.
November 15, 2025 at 3:20 AM
OMG yes. Please make this happen.