Paul Shreenan: trying to be GREEN in big metro

    Paul Shreenan is a true renaissance man.
    He has been a geography and urban planning prof , a two time GPC candidate, a very successful urban food gardener,a father, an avid cyclist and lately a bus driver.
   He tries very hard to live green and use as few resources as possible.
   So he doesn't own a car ,for example.
   But Paul can't take a bus to get to his work, because he is one of the bus drivers arriving at the bus garage while it is still dark to drive the early morning buses we use to get to work.
  A bit catch-22.


  So most bus drivers drive back and forth to their early morning shifts - often over great gas-consuming distances.
   A mantra of centralization means all buses for a city 400 kn across sit in one big garage.
   Paul's solution, as he told me last night at his house-warming party (shout out to all the other attendees for helping make it a great do !) is to buy a heavy ,sturdy, cheap ,one-speeder bike (aka a beater to biking fans) and cycle for 30 minutes up and down Dartmouth's notorious hills to reach the bus barn.
   Luckily it has showers, because it is heavy sledding er biking.
   Sure it helps kees Paul slim and fit but most of us aren't that fit or committed ----- simply can't walk or bike to work.
   Work is here , in this corner of metro Halifax-Dartmouth, and homes are there - many miles away.
   By way of contrast, both my granddads walked to their jobs at car plants in Windsor Ontario - because factories were built next to people in the GOOD old days.....