Global warming - time running out for human race

...Most of Canada will continue to become warmer with increased violent storms and rain in the east. Areas of the southern Prairies will become more arid. The Arctic will experience melting permafrost and melting ice sheets....

...What are not clearly understood are the impacts of feedbacks that will drive global warming faster and farther. Permafrost melting, for instance, will release vast amounts of methane, a powerful GHG, while the warming of the ocean will reduce its capacity to absorb GHGs.... Canada.com

259-car pileup in Germany - enough is enough

At least 66 people have been injured in a mass pile-up involving 259 cars on a motorway in north Germany, police say. Ten people are said to be fighting for their lives in hospital after the series of crashes on the A2 between Hanover and Peine on Sunday evening. Police said the pile-up was believed to have been caused by a combination of heavy rain and excessive speed. Rescue workers were busy throughout the night treating the injured and clearing damaged cars from the motorway. BBC

In Germany, the private auto today caused tremendous pain and suffering. But we know this goes on day after day everywhere on a smaller scale. What will it take for you to get involved? The auto is literally killing us. It kills in so many ways. Join your local transit advocacy group. Make transit fare-free. Declare independence from the auto, oil-wars, and global warming.

Grand River Environmental Network: Build LRT, make it free.

...Service should be free. Public transportation and roads are both built and maintained by tax dollars. We do not pay tolls to use our roads; we should not pay to use public transit. ...

.....The Region of Waterloo has the opportunity now, with support from both the provincial and federal governments, to raise the bar and create a world-standard setting transportation system that can do more than just move people. Indeed, without it, it is difficult to envision a healthy, sustainable future for our community..... CambridgeAdvocate

Laval, Quebec - kids ride free this summer

Fare-free is actually cheaper

"...Now some people would argue that free public transit would overburden the system, there wouldn't be enough buses, they would get too crowded. That's completely retarded, that's exactly the outcome you *want*. You buy more buses!

I believe it may actually be cheaper in the long run. If you have more people on public transit you don't have to spend as much making new roads everywhere, people buy fewer cars saving them tons of money, we pollute less and have to spend less on reducing CO2, etc. there are tons of long term savings that are hard to quantify. ..." cbloomrants

Toronto - Nuit Blanche needs free public transit

And what about the TTC? True the commission managed grudgingly to extend selected routes into the night, but the service should have been free and there should have been more of it. Who knows, perhaps the TTC would have attracted new riders by using the occasion to show how convenient and efficient it is. (On the other hand, it's more likely those one-time passengers left the subway happier than ever to get back into their cars.)
Above all, Nuit Blanche revealed the growing gap between the people who live in this city and those who run it. Torontonians are light years ahead of their leaders in understanding what it means to inhabit an urban centre. And unlike the nabobs, residents are well aware that the 1950s are over. TheStar.com