after three years of inaction, decades of neglect, and several rounds of cuts to the bus fleet, it’s no wonder so few people are riding. to make matters worse, oc transpo wants to raise fares and cut 15 connector routes that, somehow, don’t have enough riders despite graciously running four hours a day, four days a week. so rather than fixing that, the buses will be redeployed to “more important” routes, none of which include the city’s 10 most popular or t hree worst performing .
edmonton transit service fully recovered its ridership back in february by adding a high-frequency bus corridor and running more service on off-peak hours. brampton transit has seen a 30 per cent increase above its 2019 ridership after years of expanding its bus fleet, implementing express routes and transit signal priority at stoplights, and bringing service into newer subdivisions. charlottetown’s metro area has seen all-time record ridership for the last two years thanks to free transit for kindergarten-to-grade-12 students, $20 monthly adult passes, more routes and midday service, and bus stops near housing complexes. bc transit recently recovered 100 per cent of its pre-covid ridership with metro vancouver’s translink close behind at 90 per cent; express routes, new bus lanes, and more para transit service gave riders something worth coming back to as they pursue a long-term plan to double service by 2030.
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unfortunately the mayor and council have been unwilling to invest in improved and expanded bus service, tying its own hands with sub-inflationary tax increases and self-inflicted budget deficits . when transit can’t be counted on, people must either fork over $10,000 a year to own a car, uber everywhere, or stay home. funding more service in all parts of the city is how we cut emissions and grow ridership, not shuffling buses to one under-served area at the expense of another because we insist on spreading our already reduced fleet even thinner.
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