On the Road – Park Waste, Wild Drivers, Nose Pickers and More
June 9, 2022
Highlights, lowlights and a lot of video from yesterday’s bus-bike adventure through Hamilton and Burlington:
1. While waiting at Fairview Mall for the bus, I couldn’t help but notice all the receipts from the ticket machine scattered across the pavement. If you don’t want your receipt after loading your Presto card or buying a ticket, just leave it in the machine or toss it into one of the nearby bins.
2. Among those boarding at Fairview was a guy with a black T-shirt with the slogan “Dave’s Not Here Man.”
3. Seated next to me on the bus was a guy who was busy looking at pictures on his phone. Among those pictures was a nice head shot of a rooster.
3a. I still maintain that I am among perhaps a dozen left in the Western world without a so-called “smartphone.”
4. This is hardly a first in the annals of GO Transit, but my driver was in the far left lane passing semis between the Jordan and Vineland exits. Later, on my return trip, the driver was motoring down the QEW so fast that I felt like kissing the ground after disembarking at Fairview. When they say GO, they mean GO!
5. Free apples & cinnamon oatmeal in the shelter at the Confederation GO stop. The original owner was kind enough to leave about half of it behind.
6. Passing schools along Cannon Street, I noticed police staking out nearby crosswalks. Motorists disobeying crossing guards is obviously a problem in the area.
7. While stopped at the light at Gage Avenue, some elderly heavyweight dressed only in her nightie decided to come outside and have a smoke on her porch. This was not a sight I needed to see.
8. If it is possible to get a worse impression of Hamilton than from what I’ve previously seen from the Barton bus, I got it when pedaling along Cannon Street. Think Welland on steroids with much older homes.
9. Hamilton provides a number of two-way cycle tracks for two-wheeled travelers like me. By and large, they are a good thing™. However, they present problems, particularly when signage is nonexistent.
Take, for example, this spot at Cannon and Sherman . . .
East of Sherman, Cannon is a two-way street with bike lanes in both directions. West of Sherman, Cannon turns into a one-way street headed west. Yet there is no advance signage directing cyclists to the cycle track on the opposite side of the street. The made-in-St. Catharines credo of “you’re just supposed to know”™ doesn’t cut it.
Nor does it cut it downtown at the corner of York and Bay . . .
(Picture courtesy of Google Maps)
Later in the day, I was headed west on York looking to make a right turn onto Bay, where the cycle track is on the opposite side of the street. I understand why it is safer for cyclists to change lanes to make the turn, as directed on the green pavement. You don’t want to be headed across two lanes while the car beside you is turning into the near lane. Yet again, however, there is no advance signage. I didn’t realize that I was caught in the unsafe turn-only lane for cars until I was nearly right at the light, where cars were already alongside me.
10. Video walking through Jackson Square:
11. Not that Hamilton has been a hotbed of economic activity for decades now, but judging from the number of empty storefronts in Jackson Square, the government’s war of aggression against its own people has hit this city especially hard.
12. Video walking through the Hamilton GO Center:
13. I found the blue neon lighting in the washroom at the Hamilton GO Center more than a bit odd. For a moment there, I was wondering if I ended up in a strip club by mistake.
14. Video riding through Bayfront Park and the adjacent Hamilton Harbor Waterfront Trail:
15. From the Hamilton Harbor Waterfront Trail, it was a long climb up these stairs to get back up to York Boulevard for the ride to Burlington. The rails along either side, however, do make it a little easier, as you can roll your bike up instead of having to carry it.
16. Scenes like these were prevalent throughout the day. I am not anti-gay. I firmly support the right of consenting adults to live their lives as they see fit. But I’m sick and tired of seeing rainbow flags on every street corner. As a good friend and loyal reader puts it, stop shoving it down my throat.
17. Video from the ride along North Shore Boulevard and the downtown Burlington waterfront:
18. Video from the walk along the Brant Street Pier:
19. So only the park can toss its garbage into this bin. Not you.
20. Good to know that the displays in signs like this one in Mapleview Center automatically shut down when they get too hot . . .
21. Passing the Foam Center on Plains Road in Burlington, I couldn’t help but be reminded of a past job where an ambitious female colleague would stuff two pieces of foam inside her shirt every Friday to impress her much older male boss . . .
22. While enjoying a bit of a break at the Wendy’s on Plains Road, I listened as an older guy and his lady friend Barb, seated by the window, spoke about West Side Story. The guy talked about the original actors, then went on to criticize Steven Spielberg, who directed the remake. He said Spielberg was reliable, but that he didn’t put a new edge on it. “He needed to jazz it up somehow. Distinguish it from the original. He needed to go high tech or something. All it ended up was a reveal of the film.”
Moving on, the guy had apparently promised to visit Barb later to fix her TV connections and asked her to remind him to bring his glasses because his eyesight isn’t what it used to be. “Glasses are so important as you get older,” he said. Barb remarked that she got a real bargain on her glasses at LensCrafters.
23. On the day, I couldn’t help but reflect on how two adjacent cities, Hamilton and Burlington, could be so different. As I noted, Hamilton is like Welland on steroids, whereas Burlington is one of the most affluent cities in the country. Complete with snobs.
24. Seated on the bench near the platform at the Burlington GO station was a woman wearing a Nike T-shirt who was digging for buried treasure deep inside her nose. In her case, the Nike “Just Do It” slogan ought to be replaced by “Just Pick It.”
25. When the Niagara-bound bus pulled up at Burlington, the driver went inside, leaving passengers to board without bothering to check if they paid or not. Once again, this is not the Old Country.
26. The many tourists boarding the bus who obviously didn’t know better were waving their paper tickets at the Presto machine. All they needed to do was show them to the driver. If he was there. Same with the train.
27. Three guys with turbans who boarded at Burlington had obviously doused themselves in some sort of cologne and/or body wash just before getting to the station. Sadly, the practice is obviously popular with people from all backgrounds and cultures.
28. Those guys, along with the aforementioned tourists, were lucky to get a seat as the bus was packed with many standing on the lower level.
29. An older woman boarded at Stoney Creek and asked the driver if she could buy a ticket to St. Catharines. As there remains no machine there and since GO is still stupidly not accepting cash on the buses, he let her on without paying. “I like you very much,” she said. It was much the same with a cyclist who boarded at Beamsville. Metrolinx has no right to complain about lost revenue if it’s going to continue act obnoxiously.
30. At Grimsby, a chubby woman in her early 30s boarding a bus with a big lighted “NIAGARA FALLS” sign out front along with another similar sign next to the door asked the driver if the bus was going to Niagara Falls. No, it’s going to Calgary. Duh.
31. In addition to the rainbow-colored bench at the Beamsville stop, there is also a green and gold bench as well. Roughriders colors. Green is the color, football is the game . . .
32. There was a fair bit of traffic on the QEW between Burlington and St. Catharines. But Sal Sorrento, our Doug Ford Party candidate, said that Ford, if re-elected, would alleviate the traffic problems. Perhaps Ford just hasn’t gotten around to it yet. He might still be stuck in the drive-thru at McDonald’s ordering another truckload of Egg McMuffins. On our dime.
33. I’m guessing this spicy California roll from Bento Sushi, much of it left behind at the Fairview Mall bus stop, fell below the customer’s expectations . . .
33a. Given the look of it, how could it possibly meet anyone’s expectations? Honestly, it looks like something someone already ate.
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