Quote:
Originally Posted by Cameron Swift
One thing I've noticed living here though is that a lot of people (not all) look down on public transit as being for lower income/class people only and thus wouldn't be caught dead on it. This feeds down to their kids.
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Yeah, the aversion to public transit does have a whiff of class contempt. I know some people who take cabs everywhere, and regard public transportation as akin to going to the food bank, or rummaging through alleys collecting bottles.
Calgary wasn't always like that, though. Some of my buddies are from quite affluent families, but they still took the bus to movies, the comic store, arcades, etc. IMHO, we've become a much more class-conscious society, and driving your kids in an SUV all over the city 7 days a week is definitely a class signifier.
I'm already imagining how it'll play out as our kids get older. They'll want to go to Chinook Mall with a friend. We'll show them the bus schedule. Their friend's parents will say
no problem, we'll just drive them. Being polite people, we'll feel an obligation to drive the kids next time. And so it goes.