City council takes the bus

From 250 News, an interview with councillour Jillian Merrick on her experiencing taking her fellow city leaders for a trip of Prince George’s transit system:

“I think it was especially telling for me, the number 11 from out of downtown at quarter to five, and on the bus it was mostly working women. The bus was full and a lot of women and a lot of people who were wearing uniforms and clearly had come out of fast food-type jobs. A lot of ethnic diversity too, so some of them perhaps were Indo-Canadians so I think it’s just good for people to see exactly what the ridership was on the bus and how important it is to those groups.”

Also telling is the fact that most of the other councillours had never taken a bus before. This is why it’s worth at least talking about diversity in leadership – what sort of priority is a transit system going to get if all the decision makers drive cars? And where does that leave the people who can’t afford them?
As the saying goes, “An advanced city is not a place where the poor move about in cars, rather it’s where even the rich use public transportation.” Getting some of them to see it in action, at least, is a step.
By the way, the whole interview is worth reading for some insight in the direction transit could be going (less routes, more frequent departures, yessssssssss).