City of Ottawa

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by DTcrawler

It’s not about a particular round of cuts, but rather the overall, continual degradation of service and the culture towards providing good service (or lack thereof) that exists within the agency. I don’t need a monthly pass because of fare capping but I routinely come across situations where transit would/should be a good option but is unfeasible due to factors like schedule, delays, time (due to meandering routes) etc.

But if you’re talking about marginal cost of each trip I can tell you anecdotally that nearly every bus in the suburbs outside of rush hour is basically empty, and most buses on the routes I mentioned earlier are nearly full, no matter the time of day or day of the week. OCT sees many of them of captive riders, which is true, but these are diverse neighbourhoods and you’re missing out on trips from the many young professionals who own cars but would rather not use them because it’s a PITA to do so, yet unfortunately taking transit is a slightly bigger PITA.

Edit: Tying it back to the City as I lost track of which thread we’re in, you can’t continue to evaluate transit from a P/L perspective. It’s a cost centre and will be for the foreseeable future, just like in other cities. But it’s hard to measure the trickle down benefit of providing good service. How many Redblacks tickets or tix for other Lansdowne events are being foregone because transit isn’t quite enticing enough? How many tourists who’ve struggled with our transit system are telling folks back home to leave Ottawa off their itinerary? How many business travellers to Ottawa are opting to hang onto their per diem instead of spending it because the transit options near their hotels aren’t good enough? And most importantly, how many Ottawans are sitting their asses at home on the couch instead of going out and consuming goods, services, entertainment, etc. all because transit isn’t up to par? You assume people will just drive or uber but that isn’t always the case, many times they won’t go altogether.

I know what you mean some of the dicsussions overlap.

I will say I don't disagree with any of your points. The amount of money we need to change this is really not in the cards. Even as a downtown dweller I probably don't want to pay another $500 a year in property taxes for better bus service. We are a suburban city and there is no amount of money that can stich them into the network especially outsdie of commuting hours and the service they do have as you say is hardly used. We should therefore be realistic. Let's discuss some realistic ways out of this mess for example a dramtic increase in parking rates and a parking tax on private parking might be a good revenue generator and help encourage transit trips. Straightening routes to increase time and lower costs.