Isolation and the Status Quo – Why I’m Obsessed with My Community: Part 3

This is Part 3 of a 5* part series of posts about my thoughts on the urban design of our community.

• Part 1. An Introduction
• Part 2. Oops, All Cars
• *A Tangent About Cars
• Part 3. Isolation and the Status Quo
• Part 4. Finally, Why I’m Obsessed With My Community
• Part 5. What’s Next?

Isolation

In case what I’m saying isn’t super clear, the isolation a lot of residents probably feel from time to time in the suburbs is a feature, not a bug. The fact that it is now easier to get to know people who live far away from you than it is to make connections with people who live on your street is how the system is designed. The closest friends I have in my life are all people who either used to live nearby, or who I used to participate in shared activities with (school, work, intramural sports, etc.).

Among my closest friends, only one of them lives in Orleans, and despite them only living about 3.5 km away, if I want to visit them, the only safe and reasonable option to do so, especially with family, is a car (about a 10-minute trip). Taking a bike (especially an e-bike) wouldn’t really be particularly difficult logistically, save for the long stretch where you’re completely exposed on a 4-lane road where cars routinely exceed the 60kph speed limit (this is about a 15-minute trip).

Public transit, especially on a weekend, is literally laughable. It’s somehow even worse than cycling. The best option suggested to me by the travel planner takes about 24 minutes, but that includes 20 minutes of walking, or more than 1/3rd of the total trip by distance. And if you’re not traveling at peak times, this requires taking a bus that comes every hour, so forget about any flexibility in the trip getting there or back. Doing this research, as I am right now early on a Sunday morning in the winter, the other ‘fastest’ option the travel planner provides to get there outside of a car (in case I’m not going to being able to time the bus properly) is 52 minutes, because that is how long it is predicted to take to walk the whole way.

Challenging the Status Quo

My whole life, I have tried my best to fully understand the things I put energy into. My very favourite pastime is to learn new things about my interests, and to dig deep and ask questions until I understand why things are the way they are. I find this is the best way to help to make things better, and I have a very hard time letting go of things I learn when I have seen improvements that could be made.

I first started doing this after a month or two working in the federal government, and after 10+ years of this I now run a team whose role is to implement modern fixes to problems and navigate the challenging world of change management. I feel uniquely qualified in this regard to be a community advocate and walk the walk of helping our community navigate the opportunities and challenges with modern urbanization and showing people what the future could hold.

My own personal preference when approaching a situation like this, when I have had an idea or ‘seen the light’ on someone else’s, is to gather others who are interested in the topic and talk through the possible pros and cons. In a workplace, this is relatively easy to do, usually because you have some kind of shared communication method all parties use, even if that is simply email.