Ottawa government talks #transit, funds roads

How different levels of government collide in Ottawa to give us our current transport mess | Metro: "“The city says it wants to encourage people to take public transit,” he said. “At the same time, we have the most expensive cash fare for public transit in the country and the most expensive university pass in the country.”

If you’re driving, it’s all you can pollute at no extra charge. Taxes pay the full shot for our ever-growing road system, and drivers pay no more to ramp up congestion and pollution. What do you suppose that encourages?"

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Hamilton, ON, how about free transit for all residents?

thespec.com/opinion/letters Eliminate the fare altogether. A reader has suggested a system of free bus passes scaled to income. A means test for affordability is probably just as discriminatory as a medical test for disabilities.

What if we spent $5.6 Billion on #publictransit instead of East pipeline?

A primer on TransCanada's West-East pipeline | rabble.ca: "We have also been hearing that this pipeline will help Canada reduce its dependence on oil imports, but transporting oil to eastern Canada is not the best strategy. Reducing dependence on all oil, in general, is! The Energy East pipeline is a massive $5.6 billion project, and the fossil fuel sector in Canada receives over a billion dollars in subsidies even though it is an industry that generates corporate revenue. These subsidies could be redistributed and put into projects that reduce emissions on oil and put less strain on the environment, communities, and the atmosphere. Investing in public mass transit, community-based renewable energy projects, and green building retrofits are some of the solutions to reducing dependence on oil imports and tar sands expansion."

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Hamilton, Ontario - More #publictransit means more walking, means better health

Health of Hamilton residents tied to transit improvements, medical experts say - Hamilton: "Improving Hamilton's transit system will be integral to improving the overall health of people in the city in the coming years, experts say.
“Strengthening our public transit system has a great city-wide benefit,” said Dr. Ninh Tran, Hamilton's associate medical officer of health. “It's an overall public health impact.”
Tran says those improvements include augmenting access to public transit and getting more people to use the system regularly, along with more incentives to walk and bike.
And a little goes a long way. Tran says that regular transit use (excluding biking) gets people walking an additional 8.3 minutes a day compared to non-transit users."'