Why Hamilton's bus lane is really a dead goldfish

Chris Farias is Vice-President of Creative Development at KITESTRING, a columnist, and award-winning entrepreneur. He loves #HamOnt and is proud to support his community in any way he can.  

Downtown Hamilton resident Chris Farias explains why the city's bus lane pilot project was doomed to fail. Watch the video above for his analogy of the bus lane as a goldfish your parents give you when all you really want is a puppy named LRT.

Though it's not officially dead, signs are Hamilton's dedicated transit lane may be axed at city council later this month.

Coun. Chad Collins has pledged to bring back his motion, to kill the lane — which lost at committee this ​week — at a council meeting on Jan. 21. And with only the mayor and four councillors pledging solid support for the lane, the lane appears to be in trouble.

• READ MORE: Downtown transit lane lives on for now
• WATCH: Car versus bus: The King Street bus lane race

"The pilot project has failed,” said Coun. Scott Duvall of Ward 7 on the Mountain, who says his residents want it gone.

But not all residents do. Farias, is a downtown Hamilton resident who is pro public transit and pro bus lane, but hates the current iteration. Why?

“I don’t like the bus lane because it’s not a bus lane,” he says in this video. “It’s an excuse for the city to not give us what we want, what we deserve and what we need.”

So what is the bus lane? It’s a goldfish, Farias says, when all you really want is a puppy. A cute little golden retriever called LRT. Watch his argument in the video player above.

Do you have something to say about the bus lane? Do you love it or hate it? Send us a video response like this one in your own point of view by email to hamilton@cbc.ca.