Stop the threats - I'll use my air-conditioner if I want to!

So you're sitting there minding your own business, watching your favourite television show. Then this commercial comes on showing you what happened during "the great blackout", asking you whether or not you want it to happen again. It's almost like the Ontario government is trying to shame you into reducing your power consumption so we can avoid over-stressing the power grid.

The temperature exceeded 30 degrees yesterday and it was humid. Of course, the lead news story on CFRA early this morning was that we set a new power consumption record for the month of May, eclipsing the mark set only two years ago. Accordingly, we are being told to moderate our demand for electricity.

I re-issue my request for an answer from the City of Ottawa and the Government of Ontario: why should I? I won't. My contribution to the savings was to replace most of my lightbulbs with those compact-fluorescent lights. As for my air conditioner, I installed one on Sunday and the second one is going in tonight. Once they're on, they will not be turned off when it's hot and humid.

If the officials want to save the province from itself, they only need to look at themselves in the mirror. Take a drive up Prince of Wales Drive some day. Head up Strandherd and see how many houses have been built in the last eight months. Go out Innes Road in the east end and see how that area has been transformed since the last time you were out there. If I really cared to make my point even more, I'd ask the City to dig up the number of new housing starts since 2000. Assuming that our problems really started a couple of years ago (and they didn't), we added tens of thousands of new homes to the power grid in Ottawa alone. How much electricity do the new "power centres" or big box lots consume?

If we were in such a bind, we would halt construction because each new house brings more computers, televisions, air conditioners, clothes dryers, dozens of light bulbs and countless other electricity sucking appliances onto the grid.

So leave me alone, everyone. I refuse to have difficulty sleeping at night. After a hard day's work or a tough (!) day on the golf course, I seek refuge in my nice air conditioned home. After turning over a good part of my salary to taxes I'll spend the rest on cool air. Go find a way to provide it. If you can't, government, stop erecting towers like those beside the Queensway near Bronson. Stop approving 2,000 unit subdivisions. If you don't, and new homes and businesses are added to the power grid where farm fields once stood, don't tell me to conserve. If resources are stretched so thin I supposedly need to turn my air conditioning down, don't continually add more burden to the system. Once that happens, I'll think about doing more. Until then, the government is the problem. Not me or my Danbys.

So will light rail get me using public transit?

Figure it out, City of Ottawa - either light rail is going to be a solution to a problem or it will cost tax payers hundreds of millions of dollars for little more than an alternate means of getting across town in an hour or two.

I'm growing weary of hearing city councillors lamenting the fact that so many people rely on personal vehicles when a supposed award-winning and more environmentally friendly transit system exists to get them from home to work and back. I'm sick and tired of the environmentalists whining to the media about single occupancy vehicles on the 417 during daily commuting hours.

The solution is simple, folks - make it - 1) financially attractive for me to take the bus, and 2) make it efficient time-wise for me to take public transit.

Until that happens, I WILL NOT TAKE OC TRANSPO TO WORK! It takes me about sixteen minutes to go from McArthur Rd. and St. Laurent Blvd. to Bayshore in the morning. I couldn't make it from my apartment to the St. Laurent shopping centre in that time if I took the bus. I doubt that any form of O-Train or whatever it will be called will ever make my commute from the east end to the west end any faster.

The problem with OC Transpo is that it only serves its rush-hour east-west customers somewhat efficiently and well. Try getting anywhere when you live or are located at a place where local routes are the only means to get to the "good" runs.

I remember frequently visiting a friend who lived up near Hunt Club and Paul Anka a number of years ago. I'd have to wait for up to an hour for a 143 to Billings Bridge and then transfer to a 97 that would take a while to show up and then, according to online schedules, take 42 minutes to go from Billings Bridge to Bayshore. During rush hour, that trip takes 51 minutes. So all in all, the time required to go from Hunt Club and Paul Anka to Bayshore took me at least 70-90 minutes. It takes roughly 20-30 minutes in varying conditions to do that with a vehicle.

My morning sixteen minute commute would turn into something much bigger and bloated if I dropped the gas-guzzling Ford Escape in favour of the bus. I'd have to walk about 3/4 of a kilometre to St. Laurent Blvd. Not a big deal, but my truck conveniently sits right outside my front door. Strike 1. The #7 St. Laurent goes by every twenty minutes. OK, that makes scheduling interesting, but we'll go with that. Oh, and let's assume that I leave the apartment at 7:00am instead of 7:50am - we need to allow for possible extra time on the bus that I don't need to waste while driving. It seems that the first bus will go by Montreal Rd. and St. Laurent at 7:29, so I can take my time walking. I get on the bus and arrive at the St. Laurent transit station at 7:39.

I need to walk downstairs to the lower platform to catch a 95 to Hurdman Station. They come by at 7:42 and 7:45 so I'll assume I will catch the 7:45 because the escalator is slow. I arrive at Hurdman at 7:49. Not bad! A 97 comes by at 7:49 but odds are good that I'll miss it most of the time. The next 97 Bayshore comes by at 8:02, getting me to the end of the line at 8:41. I start work at 8:30 and I used to be able to go and have breakfast with my father and play with the dog before putting the nose to the proverbial grindstone. I guess I can't do that anymore, as I'm taking the bus!

So... let's recap - I can walk out of the apartment at about 7:10am instead of 7:50am and will get to work at 8:41am instead of playing with a massive furball from 8:06 until 8:20 and getting to work on time at 8:30. Given the timing of the #7 route, I am left wondering if it is at all possible to make to work on time at all using public transit.

Why should I take the bus again? Because I'm evil and don't car pool, driving myself to work by myself in my SUV? Nuts to that.

Give me a system like Toronto. When I'm there I park my vehicle and rely on public transit because it's swift, efficient, and reasonable. Sure, taking OC Transpo would lighten the load on my wallet when it comes to filling up my 60 litre tank once every 5-7 days right now, but I would have to take about 91 minutes, miss out on playing with the dog and get to work late when I can sleep a bit more, have a more enjoyable start to the day and get to work on time by driving my vehicle in 75 minutes less.

Alex, Bob, Diane, please tell me why I should take the bus? And if the train won't help, why should I put the SUV on blocks to use it? Please.