Niagara Falls, Ontario: Buses spinning out in icy, untreated yard

NIAGARA FALLS, ONTARIO (December 18, 2016): I was a GO Transit bus driver at the time. GO's Niagara buses are stored at Niagara Transit's municipal transit yard.

The roads around the yard were icy, as was the yard itself. Another GO bus was stuck outside the gates, perilously close to sliding into the ditch. Buses could barely maneuver around the yard.

While I was close to my first trip starting, I refused to try and leave the yard. I wasn't going to wreck. a million-dollar bus just because I was trying to be a hero. I was particularly stubborn, since I - like many GO bus drivers - had been burned by Safety & Training in the past.

GO ended up having to bring in a bus from Guelph to make service for the rest of the morning. An irony because, had the city of Niagara Falls maintained its own yard and the roads around it, I could have made my trip on time.

I drive a bus in Orlando, Florida now, so this all seems like a distant memory.

But, as I say at the end of the video, if the City of Niagara Falls - or any city, for that matter - doesn't care enough to provide basic maintenance on their own property, thereby risking millions of dollars in damage, what do you think your city "officials" think about you?

Ironically, Niagara Falls, like most Canadian cities (almost all of them, in fact) have by-laws (ordinances) in place to make you, the lowly homeowner and property taxpayer, shovel the city's sidewalk in front of your house or business and clear the ice as well.

I did make it out of the yard later that morning. After a City of Niagara Falls salting truck came through and treated the yard and adjacent roads.