Scene And Noted Around St. Albert . . .
05/09/2008 08:29
Bits ‘n pieces from
here and
there:
St. Albert Transit Drivers Don’t Obey Traffic Rules?
Yesterday afternoon, Thursday September 4, my wife and I made a trip to D’Arcy’s Meat Market in Campbell Park.
We left our home on Fenwick Crescent and turned right off Fenwick onto Falstaff and stopped for the red light at the intersection of Hebert Road while we waited to turn left.
It was exactly 2:28 pm when St. Albert Transit bus number 680 came up behind us and squeezed past us in the right lane as we waited for the red light to change so we could turn left.
The thing is though folks, when it made that right turn onto Hebert Road, it didn’t stop for that red light. Hell, it hardly slowed down.
This is not the first time I have seen similar traffic infractions by St. Albert Transit drivers. The last one was speeding in a playground zone which I reported to the city at the time.
What gives St. Albert Transit drivers the right to ignore traffic laws? It certainly reflects poorly on the city and worse, is a safety hazard for the passengers they carry.
I will report this incident too as I will copy an e-mail of this story to the mayor.
Such behaviour by St. Albert Transit drivers is just plain wrong. They should be setting an example to other drivers. But if those drivers are under pressure from St. Albert Transit to maintain schedules as some former drivers tell me, we know fully where the blame lies, don't we?
D’Arcy’s Meat Market Changes Hours
As I mentioned in the item above, we dropped in to see D’Arcy yesterday and I noticed quite a change in his hours of operation.
Not only did D’Arcy change the hours he is open, he changed the days he is open.
The shop is now only open for three days a week as follows:
Thursdays: Noon to 6:00 p.m.
Fridays: Noon to 6:00 p.m.
Saturdays: 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
D’Arcy told me he just can’t get reliable help to keep the place open for any more hours per week. “As soon as I pay them, they don’t show up the next day,” he lamented.
D’Arcy is not the only business that faces such obstacles these days. It is sad to see service levels decline for lack of staff, but I hear similar stories everywhere I go these days.
So if you enjoy D’Arcy’s products as we do, make a note of the new days and times so you can buy your product when they’re open.
Good luck with your new system D’Arcy.
Canada Post Taken To Task
I see a full page ad in Wednesday’s Gazette urging their readers to contact Canada Post to complain about newspaper delivery to their rural subscribers.
The issue? Canada Post won’t guarantee delivery on publication day, or even the following day.
If my memory serves me correctly from my dealings with Canada Post over the years, this was an option built into their “delivery rules” that they never really followed. But as I recall it was always there.
It is no secret that Canada Post has long coveted the flyer business, essentially taken away from them many years earlier by newspapers who undercut their rates and stole the business.
That prompted them to launch “Admail”, a program designed to try and recoup that flyer business.
I suspect that the lucrative flyer business is what is driving their current stance on newspaper deliver in general.
And no amount of reader complaining will change that in my opinion.
It is simply one more chapter in the slow but steady decline of the newspaper industry.
St. Albert Transit Drivers Don’t Obey Traffic Rules?
Yesterday afternoon, Thursday September 4, my wife and I made a trip to D’Arcy’s Meat Market in Campbell Park.
We left our home on Fenwick Crescent and turned right off Fenwick onto Falstaff and stopped for the red light at the intersection of Hebert Road while we waited to turn left.
It was exactly 2:28 pm when St. Albert Transit bus number 680 came up behind us and squeezed past us in the right lane as we waited for the red light to change so we could turn left.
The thing is though folks, when it made that right turn onto Hebert Road, it didn’t stop for that red light. Hell, it hardly slowed down.
This is not the first time I have seen similar traffic infractions by St. Albert Transit drivers. The last one was speeding in a playground zone which I reported to the city at the time.
What gives St. Albert Transit drivers the right to ignore traffic laws? It certainly reflects poorly on the city and worse, is a safety hazard for the passengers they carry.
I will report this incident too as I will copy an e-mail of this story to the mayor.
Such behaviour by St. Albert Transit drivers is just plain wrong. They should be setting an example to other drivers. But if those drivers are under pressure from St. Albert Transit to maintain schedules as some former drivers tell me, we know fully where the blame lies, don't we?
D’Arcy’s Meat Market Changes Hours
As I mentioned in the item above, we dropped in to see D’Arcy yesterday and I noticed quite a change in his hours of operation.
Not only did D’Arcy change the hours he is open, he changed the days he is open.
The shop is now only open for three days a week as follows:
Thursdays: Noon to 6:00 p.m.
Fridays: Noon to 6:00 p.m.
Saturdays: 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
D’Arcy told me he just can’t get reliable help to keep the place open for any more hours per week. “As soon as I pay them, they don’t show up the next day,” he lamented.
D’Arcy is not the only business that faces such obstacles these days. It is sad to see service levels decline for lack of staff, but I hear similar stories everywhere I go these days.
So if you enjoy D’Arcy’s products as we do, make a note of the new days and times so you can buy your product when they’re open.
Good luck with your new system D’Arcy.
Canada Post Taken To Task
I see a full page ad in Wednesday’s Gazette urging their readers to contact Canada Post to complain about newspaper delivery to their rural subscribers.
The issue? Canada Post won’t guarantee delivery on publication day, or even the following day.
If my memory serves me correctly from my dealings with Canada Post over the years, this was an option built into their “delivery rules” that they never really followed. But as I recall it was always there.
It is no secret that Canada Post has long coveted the flyer business, essentially taken away from them many years earlier by newspapers who undercut their rates and stole the business.
That prompted them to launch “Admail”, a program designed to try and recoup that flyer business.
I suspect that the lucrative flyer business is what is driving their current stance on newspaper deliver in general.
And no amount of reader complaining will change that in my opinion.
It is simply one more chapter in the slow but steady decline of the newspaper industry.