Living Car Free - Small step in the right direction: Public transit use on the rise in Canada

Bikeforums.net is a forum about nothing but bikes. Our community can help you find information about hard-to-find and localized information like bicycle tours, specialties like where in your area to have your recumbent bike serviced, or what are the best bicycle tires and seats for the activities you use your bike for.



PDA
patc
06-28-07, 09:51 AM
Public transit ridership in Canada increased in 2006 by just over three per cent to set a record for the fourth year in a row.

From CTV NEWS (http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070627/public_transit_070627/20070627?hub=Canada)

makeinu
06-28-07, 03:56 PM
A 3% increase seems significant by US standards. What is the total percentage of transit ridership?
patc
06-28-07, 04:08 PM
A 3% increase seems significant by US standards. What is the total percentage of transit ridership?

I don't know about Canada-wide. Here in Ottawa peak-hour ridership (i.e. commuters) is 17%, with a target set in the Transportation Master Plan of 30% by the year 2020. I believe the % is significantly higher in Toronto and Montreal.

makeinu
06-28-07, 04:18 PM
I don't know about Canada-wide. Here in Ottawa peak-hour ridership (i.e. commuters) is 17%, with a target set in the Transportation Master Plan of 30% by the year 2020. I believe the % is significantly higher in Toronto and Montreal.

Nah, I want to know Canada-wide. Even the US has high transit ridership in some cities.
patc
06-28-07, 04:34 PM
Nah, I want to know Canada-wide. Even the US has high transit ridership in some cities.

Like I said before, I don't know the Canada-wide data. Google is your friend.
cerewa
06-28-07, 09:48 PM
Google is your friend

It took me a bit of time to find this but here it is.


In the country’s 27 largest metropolitan areas, about 15% of
commuters (or 1.35 million people) take transit to work—
outnumbering the combined number of walkers, cyclists and car
passengers.


In Canada’s several largest downtowns, an even higher
proportion of commuters—over 50% in most cases—ride transit to
avoid road congestion and costly parking fees.
Roody
06-29-07, 11:48 AM
Public ridership goes up every year here in Lansing, ahead of population increases. Last year there were 10 million bus trips, in a service area of about 220,000 people.

The crucial need now is to incorporate the newer suburbs into the transit system.
JeanCoutu
06-30-07, 02:48 PM
You know, I recall how dollaramas looked like a few years ago, these are stores where everything cost 1$. Well they were never really crowded. But these days they have lines at the cash registers and several people in every isle. I'm guessing there may well be a link with this and an increase in mass transit usage. More poor people with less money to waste on things like cars and brand name cleaning products.