Panic-stricken, face distorted with a mixture of embarrassment and anger, my mother moved frantically, desperate in her attempts to wipe clean the man's expensive-looking gabardine. I had watched it all happen from my favourite window seat. The bus couldn't have moved more than five metres when I saw my brother hopelessly trying to control his uncontrollable motion sickness. Throat stretched in convulsion, cheeks changing colours in rapid succession, eyes pushed out of the skull with terror, effort, exertion then finally, relief and disbelief, as the contents of his stomach slid slowly down the neck and back of the unfortunate passenger in front of us.
Public transit was supposed to bring us closer together but this close? Still today, I remember the incident with amazement (and amusement) mostly at the calmness displayed and the tolerance employed by that gentleman as he reassured my mother that she wouldn't need to take the garment and get it cleaned.
Like most families around us, we had a car, but like most of their vehicles, it spent weeks on end sitting idle, patiently parked, waiting for the occasional excursion or the annual vacation 350 kilometres south to my parents' hometown. It was an unnecessary luxury to start the engine and burn gas during the routine workings of daily life - everything was close at hand, and the bus and train service was frequent, efficient, fast. I can almost hear you screaming, "But that was Europe, you silly!" Well, I've got a surprise for you; that was North America too.
At the end of World War II, Detroit's public transit system provided over one million rides a day. Yes, before it became "Motor City," Detroit had one of America's showcase transit systems. Guess what? Ten years later, it was gone. In masterful collaboration, one car manufacturer, one oil company and one tire producer got rid of it all - the rail lines were bought and torn. Indictments for criminal conspiracy did nothing to stop the carnage. It wasn't long before light rail had practically vanished for good, not just in the USA but in Canada too.
You know the rest. Easily navigable urban centres were replaced with suburbia from east to west. Common sense design that favoured the ability to work, live and play in the same spot was no more, and taxpayers' money was used to bulldoze farmland and build roads. The effort had paid off - car, oil and tire forever changed the North American lifestyle. Reversing this trend and cutting out these corporate giants' wealth are the two biggest challenges we face, and giving public transit up is not an option we can contemplate. In a world of triple-digit oil prices, its omission is a fatal mistake.
Thoughtful planning of transportation routes and development is key, and our elected officials need to fully commit to it. As for the rest of us, we also need to engage in the process and get on the bus. Are you concerned about the motion and how this may bring us too close for comfort? I'd say the benefits far outweigh the risks. To begin with, public transport will set us free, and not just from corporate schemes. Give it some thought - we are like slaves, chained to the steering wheel and the road. It will also free our personal finances and our collective taxes - we can spend what we've got on transportation options that work for all and on self-contained communities where we can actually walk... if we want to, of course.
Far from being a dream, this is already a reality in many places around the world - it is the time for us to latch on. Forty years later, my brother's motion sickness has stopped. In Squamish, time alone will not be enough to solve our transportation woes; the solution is going to require active participation from young and old. I'm glad we've already started to voice our opinion and make demands. Let's keep it up and not be put off by the ups and downs and all the bends along the way. Personally, experience has taught me to always carry an empty bag in my purse.
