Getting around

Most of us who commuted, attended appointments or ran errands today in Prince Edward County (91 per cent) travelled in our personal vehicle. To do so, we needed a valid driver’s licence, insurance, a working car, and the resources to maintain it. Those are substantial hurdles—to employment, to community participation and, ultimately to good health.

Just one per cent of us used public transit (From Vital Signs 2018, more about this later). For most, it wasn’t an option.

Money is a factor in limiting transit options in the County—plenty of geography, scattered population. But so too are parochial politics. Getting beyond one per cent riding transit in the County is a big ask, but it need not be insurmountable. It will require fresh dollars, but also means harnessing the political will of a population that won’t benefit equally.

Public transit is a thin offering in the County. We live in a rural community—dispersed along hundreds of kilometres of road. Deseronto Transit operates a route through Picton and Bloomfield and onto Belleville a few times a day, five days a week. Quinte Access provides door-to-door bus service access for those eligible for the service. Taxi services fill in the remainder.

Consider the obstacle this poses. For a young working couple with children, buying food necessarily comes after car expenses, utilities, and childcare. For many the situation is simply untenable. One more way in which we chase young folk out of our community.

Each year this municipality and others receive a share of the gas tax gathered at fuel pumps across the nation. It was originally aimed at helping municipalities fund public transit, but later broadened to assist with infrastructure. The County receives about $1.5 million each year, but most of it is consumed by our roads and bridges. There can be no questions County roads need work—but perhaps we might consider putting some of this cash to work for those without a car. Or those of us whose declining faculties may make driving a hazard.

The good news is that we have a plan. The less good news is that we have had this plan for more than a year. It is a good plan. Well researched. Pragmatic. But like a lot of the County’s better intentions, it resides on a shelf—evidence of study, review and calculated recommendations—but serving no particular purpose.

But that isn’t the political problem. Not yet anyway. There may be fresh dollars coming to the municipality for public transit. There will be fresh impetus to air out the 2018 public transit work. That is hopeful.

The challenge will come when folks in Cressy, Salmon Point or other far flung peninsulas of the County, or more precisely their council representatives, realize that public transit won’t reach every corner of their ward. Not easily anyway. Public transit isn’t particularly democratic that way.

It makes more sense (even through the astigmatized lens of public subsidies) when it passes through concentrations of prospective riders. This means that some homes are just too far off the grid of viability. (Mind you, the garbage truck will still come by three times a week. And the school bus will still pick up your children for school.)

This is where transit plans fall apart in Prince Edward County. And have done many times before. Each of the County’s corners is so well represented around the council table it means the common good is often defeated by the unevenness of the direct benefit.

We shall see.

It may be that thoughts about representation have evolved. Perhaps the County’s shrinking population will stir some to act in the service of the broader community. Maybe we now understand that if we have a hope of retaining and recruiting young folks, we must find ways for them to get around that don’t require owning a car.

Finally, a word about Vital Signs. Prepared initially in 2013, and updated in 2015 and 2018, the Vital Signs report offers a vivid snapshot of how we are doing as a community. It is an essential compendium of data that lays out the good, the bad and the progress in between. Any prior notion of this place will surely be changed by the facts presented in the Vital Signs report.

We all live in our narrow lives. Follow well-worn paths. It is far too easy in our affluent place to fail to see the folks who are struggling in our midst. Vital Signs works very well to clear up those blind spots.

Vital Signs is produced by the County Community Foundation, a magnificent fount of generosity and goodwill.

Vital Signs ought to be required reading for everyone who lives, or aspires to live, in Prince Edward County. If you think you know your community, look again. A little closer.

rick@wellingtontimes.ca

The County’s Public Transit plan may be downloaded at thecounty.ca/county-government/municipalprojects/ public-transit-plan/

Vital Signs is available at all County libraries and may be downloaded at thecountyfoundation.ca.