Better Spent on Beer & Popcorn?

Toronto area highways are instituting H.O.V. lanes as a way to help ease traffic congestion. When I first heard the news I got excited because I thought it meant they were creating lanes specifically for hovercraft vehicles -- but I was wrong. H.O.V. stands for “High Occupancy Vehicles” -- now why couldn’t they just have called it a “car pool” lane so that everyone would know what they meant?

I write this post from one of the highest occupancy vehicles of all, the GO Train. Which leads me to the belief that the whole H.O.V. lanes thing will not really ease congestion all that much. I think that, like the recent flip from one way to two way streets in downtown Hamilton, it’s just a lot of tax dollars wasted. Especially if it’s based on the honor system, because how would you monitor and control it all?

Besides, the minute you put someone behind the wheel even the world’s nicest person become a selfish, self-centered prick. Stick him behind the wheel of a Hummer on the Toronto-bound 403 between Burlington and Oakville at about 8:30 AM and suddenly Gandhi morphs into Genghis. Drop Mother Theresa into an SUV on her way to volunteering at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Hamilton, and by the time she navigates the idiotic intersections at James Street Sout, St. Joseph's Drive and John Street South you’ll hear enough foul language spewing out of her vehicle to embarrass Richard Pryor (God rest his comedic soul).

If our government wanted to ease traffic congestion and perhaps even put a little bit of money back in the pockets of those who could use it the most, I don’t know why they haven’t tried to make public transit a tax deductible expense.

Think about it. Public transit serves an important community need and is better for the environment -- the more people use public transit the more money gets injected back into it and the more it can continue to improve to serve the needs of the riders. That makes public transit more desirable for some, and for others, who have no choice but to use public transit, perhaps it makes the services even better for their needs. In a nutshell, the more people on buses and streetcars and subways and trains, the less vehicles on the road, which eases congestion, and, of course, doesn’t hurt our air quality.

This could be done at either the provincial or federal level, of course, and something that is eased into. Perhaps they could start with making 30% of public transit expenses tax deductible the first year, and then move towards an end goal of 50% to 75%.

But what do I know? I'm just one of those idiot voters who'll end up spending my tax savings money on beer and popcorn.