Quote:
Originally Posted by phil235
This is where I lose you. It’s not rare at all for people to take 2-3 km rides a few times a week. Or at least it wasn’t. That was exactly my situation. Previously I would split my commit between walking and taking transit, and would take the bus to the Market or to go out multiple times a week. All roughly 2 km and always paying using Presto.
My neighbourhood was full of people doing that. I imagine if you draw a circle out 3 km from downtown you would get lots more people with similar habits. Go 4 or 5 and it’s a significant portion of your ridership A huge chunk of those regular transit users have been lost due to cuts, and that is pure lost revenue for the system.
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Yup same here living in Centretown. Quick ride on the 11 to visit a buddy in Chinatown. Or a few stops on Line 1 to visit friends in Westboro. Or down Bank St. on the 6/7 to for dinner/drinks in the Glebe or a Redblacks game at Lansdowne. To me, this is the type of mobility pattern we need to capitalize on to have a transit system that's successful outside of commuting hours.
As intensification continues and new residents continue to move into these central neighbourhoods, we need to provide good transit service because once these folks make their decisions about how they're going to get around, it'll be hard to change their minds.
This is why I keep saying forget about putting buses in the suburbs apart from AM/PM commuters and passable service on arterials. Instead, use those buses to bolster frequency on key urban corridors such that people don't have to worry about schedules anymore. 10-15 min or less
all day (not OCT's definition of "all day" which ends at 6pm) on routes 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 14. Short turn some of those buses if necessary.
It'd be a game changer. Myself and my friends who live around me aren't like suburbanites who need to be shown the red carpet before transit becomes more appealing than loading up the Chevy Suburban. For us, we're begging for alternatives to pulling the car out of the 4th level of the underground garage just to drive 3km to Lansdowne and deal with parking all over again. But sometimes that's the only option when it's January and you don't wanna walk or bike in -20 and buses are running at 30 min frequency on Bank. Taking 4-5+ ubers a week adds up real quick too.
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