A Vancouver urban planner is fighting back against the view that public transit is scary and uncomfortable.
Brent Toderian decided to start the hastag #GreatThingsThatHappenedonTransit in response to comments made by Elon Musk, the founder of electric car company Tesla.
Musk has recently become interested in the idea of building underground tunnels that he imagines will whisk commuters around cities in individual cars or “pods” that could carry up to 16 people. But Musk isn’t a big fan of buses and trains.
“I think public transit is painful. It’s sucks. Why do you want to get on something with a lot of other people, that doesn’t leave where you want it to leave, doesn’t start where you want it to start, doesn’t end where you want it to end?” Musk opined during a conference, as quoted in a Wired story.
He went on to say, “and then there’s like a bunch of random strangers, one of who might be a serial killer, OK, great.”
What if we started a hashtag about all the great things that have happened to us on public transit? #GreatThingsThatHappenedOnTransit? https://t.co/uCalRJRtUV
— Brent Toderian (@BrentToderian) December 18, 2017
#GreatThingsThatHappenedonTransit sparked the sharing of stories about bus riders who fell in love, made friends and even delivered babies on public transit.
My wife once helped deliver a baby in a bus shelter while waiting for the @chtransit J bus! https://t.co/yN9VvBweI9 #GreatThingsThatHappenedOnTransit
— Patrick McDonough (@citybeautiful21) December 18, 2017
After moving to a new city with no social supports, little money, I made a bus-buddy. She and her family gave me a turkey for our Christmas dinner because they knew how hard the move had been on us financially. Great kindness #greatthingsthathappenedontransit
— Elle Peah (@ouroborosage) December 18, 2017
Toderian is critical of Musk’s tunnelling idea. In an interview for CBC, he pointed out that research has consistently shown that adding more roads — even underground — only increases car use and congestion.
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