OC Transpo

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

I'm not supportive of free transit, however I would support half fares off peak and group passes evenings and weekends.

Discounts are stupid. Even seniors discounts are stupid. The only people who need free transit are children. And I would include high schoolers here. They can't really earn. And their mobility becomes limited as a result. Everybody else has income. And can and should pay to support the system. Especially in a city where they refuse to support the system adequately through taxes.

The reason to give time based discounts is usually to shift usage. Ottawa doesn't really have a problem with peak crowding to the point that demand shifting is necessary. What we have a problem with is system reliability. Something that actually gets worse if you shift usage to less reliable off-peak periods.

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Ottawa' transit is terrible, and even the full Stage 2 buildout is very skeletal of a system. You'd need full buildouts of Baseline and Carling BRTs and a solution for Bank and Montreal Road, along with the STO tram and loop, before congestion charge is implemented in Ottawa.

Ottawa's transit problem is not really a lack of higher order transit. Especially after Stage 2. It's the utterly **** bus service that fails to even meet the currently planned mediocre schedule. Post Confederation Line East maybe they drop down to needing 500 buses per day. And presumably they will meet that with all the new buses coming. But that's still with many routes running at 30 min headways. Sometimes 30 min headways even during peak. They can build all the higher order transit they want. Nothing will get fixed till they resource the bus system to allow a service that is half decent. By that I say most off-peak routes at 20 mins headways. Most routes at 15 mins during peak. Major avenue routes running at 10 min headways or better.

Originally Posted by J.OT13

To increase revenues, OC should try to work with employers, and the Feds particularly for discounted fares for their employees. They could do the same with developers building new towers near transit, the uPass model rolled out to more institutions and corporations.

This ship has sailed with Presto and Credit card payments. Also, the problem here is usually service, not cost. My own experience. When NDHQ was downtown most people took transit. I knew one person out of maybe two dozen colleagues who drove. Now, working out of Carling, it's the exact opposite. And no amount of discounts is going to change that. I pay $75/mo for parking and spend maybe $180/mo in gas. I could get free transit and it wouldn't compel me to spend over 3.5 hrs on transit to get to/from home to work.

It kinda ***** when even transit advocates in this city don't understand what the problem is. And think just more free rides will solve the problem.