A few friends and I went to see Carlos Santana playing at Ottawa Bluesfest. The concert was spectacular, there were easily over 30,000 spectators enjoying the musical giant's show. Had a grand time!
Shortly before 11PM, walking back from LeBreton Flats to friend's house located a couple clicks away we passed by OC Transpo bus station. What we saw was rather shocking.
There were 20+ buses idling, fully lighted, nobody on board, no drivers in sight. Walking a bit further, we finally saw them. The drivers were gathered in one spot having a break, chatting away. That is all fine, but if memory serves right, the city of Ottawa has a vehicle idling bylaw in effect. I continued crunching all this in my head. Does OC Transpo have unlimited fuel budget? what about the bylaw? what about the pollution? and what about the unattended buses themselves? Hmm, I have never driven a bus...
While I was contemplating all this, my friend had rather a quick and spontaneous reaction. He started yelling at the drivers to shut the f... buses off, stop idling!!! !#$$#@%#$#!~?$@#%
I can't post the exact wording, but he was well heard as he is the big and loud type.
Except there was no reaction from the drivers. We continued walking shaking our heads, while my friend continued his tirade. Last look over the shoulder before we lost the line of sight. Yeah, nothing has changed, still idling in the same configuration. Simply mind boggling...
I made a mental note to write about this as I would like to know why what we saw occurred. Was it a one shot fluke? Is it happening all the time? Not being a great fan of waste I would like some feedback to get to the bottom of this. Really.
