Man, I subjected myself to that op-ed and it just reminds me of how much I don't like the guy.
"Bravo to Sun reader Nelson Cabral for spotting a problem almost no one at City Hall has clued into."
No, Lorne. Council is pretty well aware of the safety issues on the LRT. They're not sure what to do about it mind, but it's a known problem.
"Still, “progressive” councillors are recommending the city turn its trains and buses into rolling shopping centres for child predators."
Pretty disingenuous. I'm not even saying that the safety issues don't exist but I'm not exactly sure what kids are supposed to do when their parents can't drive them and they legally / physically can't drive themselves. If we're just removing costs, aren't they already riding anyway then?
Kids could bike in protected lanes so cars can't hit them. That would be the safest option for the children and it gets them off his lawn. Childrens safety is very important to the columnist, so naturally Mr. Gunter would have absolutely no problem with the city building and maintaining them...right?
"local elections in Portland, Ore., a U.S. city our planners very much take their cues from. There, local leaders have been so respectful of street people that whole swaths of downtown have become no-go zones"
...C'mon. You and I both know what you're doing bringing up Portland. I'll grab some marshmallows to take with me to the states because the city burned to the ground right?
Seriously, the safety issues can be fixed, and yeah, its not great right now. But that shouldn't preclude anyone from trying to improve the system itself because half the issue is that ridership is low.