Métro Montréal - La piétonnisation bientôt en marche

Métro Montréal - La piétonnisation bientôt en marche: "Les automobiles seront de nouveau exclues des rues Sainte-Catherine et Saint-Paul cet été. L’arrondissement de Ville-Marie a annoncé jeudi, que ces deux artères seront réservées aux piétons à compter du 18 et 20 mai, respectivement. Elles le demeureront jusqu’au 13 et 26 septembre."

Choices (Political and Transportational)

I'll admit it - I have a political crush on NDPer Megan Leslie (who's running for re-election in Halifax). Why? 

• She was voted "Rookie MP of the Year" in 2009.
• When she spoke on Bill C-449 (giving seniors free access to transit in off-peak hours) she talked about the impact of free transit ("Free transit would greatly increase the quality of life by removing the terrible choice between rent, food, or heat and bus tickets.") and called for the development of a National Transit Strategy for Canada.
• She's had some great clips recently on CBC because of her role as NDP spokesperson on health.

But, most of all, she's running a carbon-neutral campaign that includes transit, cycling and carsharing. It's nice to see someone who actually gets it - how we do the work matters as much as the work we're doing. I look forward to the day when this is the norm, not the exception. Until then, I'll work on convincing people that I'm not a saint just because I use Calgary Transit to get to work-related events, ok? (I'll point out the other reasons instead, hehe.)


**Bonus points for her reference of climate-change discussions in this election campaign as an "issue of inter-generational equity" because, really, isn't it?


(Cross-posted at Witch-Ways, where I've been crafting magic on the internet since 1994.)

Calgary - How about totally free public transit?

The first step is to send a strong signal to people by making hopping on a bus or train absolutely free. Cost is not a deciding factor for a lot of people, but it is for some and, more importantly, anything that makes it easier and more attractive to take transit should be adopted.

The second step is to dramatically increase the places transit goes and how often it goes there. Don’t think you are making a big difference by adding a new leg to a light rail system when you really need a dozen new short and long legs that cover a city like a web. We need busses going up and down major streets every five minutes at all hours of the day. It has to be easy to jump on transit and easy to get to all sorts of places from anywhere in the city.

The third step is to build related infrastructure such as multi-level car parks at train stations, pedestrian tunnels and bridges, and express bus terminals.

Read more: How about totally free public transit? | Troy Media Corporation http://www.troymedia.com/2011/03/11/how-about-totally-free-public-transit/#ixzz1GIYFyqcd

InsideHalton Article: Wrong time to raise transit fares

InsideHalton Article: Wrong time to raise transit fares: "It is socially irresponsible for the Town’s budget committee to consider raising transit fares.
Raising fares or cutting transit service would effectively balance the budget on the backs of seniors, youths, new immigrants and low-income families who rely on this public service for work, shopping, school, healthcare and more.

The price of an adult pass has already jumped over 50 per cent in the past decade; an even higher price for passes really hurts riders on fixed incomes who are trying to save that extra little bit.

Unfortunately, inadequate federal and provincial transit funding in Canada has created a situation where the average rider pays 53 per cent of the costs of transit.

Many European cities have low or free fares to encourage ridership, given the many benefits of public transit.

Last year’s fare freeze and service improvements in Oakville resulted in a seven per cent increase in ridership, which should be seen as a success to build on.

Focusing solely on revenues ignores the other positive effects, such as improving air quality, decreasing congestion and making Oakville a more affordable and livable community for all its residents.

As the cost of such necessities as food, rent and heating continues to increase (and we are being hit with the HST to boot) why would the Town seek to make living here even less affordable for its residents?

James Ede, Oakville Federal NDP Candidate "

"Moving Beyond the Automobile" on Streetfilms

How exciting! Streetfilms just posted the trailer for its new 10-part series on reducing private automobile usage. Check it out below:



A new film will be posted every Tuesday, as well as lesson plans and discussion points if you're planning a screening with a larger audience (especially nice after the DVD becomes available). I'm looking forward to the piece on carsharing, as we just had a great day-long strategic planning session for Calgary Carshare that included some exciting plans for increased visibility and membership in this city. (My to-do list includes "evaluate the membership application process", "explore new partnerships with like-minded groups" and "bribe volunteers to fill out their timesheets". And that's just the first month!)

(Cross-posted at Witch-Ways, where I've been crafting magic on the internet since 1994.)

Working Together to Get Seniors Moving (in More Ways than One)

In October 2007, I started in my current position as an Executive Director of a nonprofit. As many EDs quickly discover, the job description and what you actually end up doing can be two very different things. Part of that evolution for me at Bow Cliff Seniors has been the increased emphasis on transportation issues facing our members: driving cessation, concerns about snow removal in neighbourhoods, changes in transit routes as the new West LRT line is developed, and challenges with Access Calgary and taxi wait times as a result of increased demand for these services, and so on. And, like many Executive Directors, I work best in collaboration.

One of the committees that I sit on, the ElderNet Transportation Planning Table, has been working on a mapping strategy to look at where seniors travel in our city and where the gaps are. It's been a fascinating process already: learning that the trip from one senior centre to a hospital in the same city quadrant can take up to two hours on transit, while another transit route from a hospital to several care facilities has its last bus of the evening leave 15 minutes before visiting hours are over, has us thinking about "what" people are doing when they use transit. This is starting to make the news in Toronto as well: proposed cuts to routes would impact people who are mobile (War on Roller Derby) and not-so-mobile (Fiorito: Cuts threaten bus service to Toronto's deaf-blind community).

Another collaboration opportunity has been the involvement of nursing students from the University of Calgary at our centre. This semester, the group is looking at how our members get to the centre, get groceries and get themselves to health services on a regular basis. I've also encouraged them to do a community survey to assess walking, transit and driving issues in the immediate neighbourhood, as keeping people engaged in community means being able to access it. It will be interesting to see what gaps they find here in relation to the bigger ElderNet project.

This week I'm also meeting with the coordinator of Get Up and Go, which connects seniors with "buddies" in an attempt to get people to ride transit. I'm hoping that the program will be a fit for BCS members, both as a way of getting more people to the centre (so they can participate in programs, access services, and not be isolated!) but also as another way of sparking a transit advocacy strategy process in the community. I still think the key to getting seniors using transit is to get them on it before they're seniors, but that's going to be a bigger project. (Hmmm....)

Trying to address social isolation without looking at root causes like transportation is a futile exercise. I'm glad that there are so many opportunities to work with others in the community, and I'm glad so many of them are recognizing that our transportation systems include more than individual vehicle ownership. What a radical concept, non?

(Cross-posted at Witch-Ways, where I've been crafting magic on the internet since 1994.)

Western governments prop up brutal regime to insure access to oil

Land fizzing like soda pop: farmer says CO2 injected underground is leaking - Winnipeg Free Press

Yet another false "solution" fails. The fossil-fuel and autosprawl industries keep trying to come up with ways to save their subsidized gravy train. One by one, REDD, Ethanol, Geothermal, and now CCS, their "solutions" keep failing. Before we look for alternatives -- why not STOP producing 50 million new autos per year? Stop building houses reachable only by auto? Stop spending billions for energy wars? Stop soaking the taxpayer to pay for this insanity?

Land fizzing like soda pop: farmer says CO2 injected underground is leaking - Winnipeg Free Press: "A Saskatchewan farm couple whose land lies over the world's largest carbon capture and storage project says greenhouse gases seeping from the soil are killing animals and sending groundwater foaming to the surface like shaken soda pop.
The gases were supposed to have been injected permanently underground."

your heart's on the left: From Henry Ford to Rob Ford: auto-destruction, and possibilities of a car-free future

your heart's on the left: From Henry Ford to Rob Ford: auto-destruction, and possibilities of a car-free future: "From car assembly-line pioneer Henry Ford, to Toronto's new pro-car mayor Rob Ford, we are living in an auto-dependent and auto-destructive society that is harming our health and our environment. But a healthy and green, car-free world is still possible.

KILLING US SOFTLY
During every hospital shift I see people who have been directly injured by cars—from whiplash and bruising, to broken bones, to fatalities. Car crashes are so common as to be simply part of the daily hospital routine. Listening to the radio traffic report outside the hospital is no better: collisions are presented as daily nuisances to be avoided, their human toll hidden."

Letting go of the private car | OpenFile

Letting go of the private car | OpenFile: "Taking away private parking from the development was a measure to keep costs down and attract the local, community-minded demographic developers aimed to attract.

By mid-November, all 96 units available at market rates had sold. The 12 remaining units will be sold at below-market rates, the sale of which will be managed by Habitat for Humanity and Portland Hotel Society Community Services.

“Each parking stall costs approximately $50,000,” architect Gregory Henriquez says. Paring down parking to 15 stalls was a considerable savings. But selling parking spots was more difficult than attracting condo buyers.

“We sold all the units without the parking stalls, and then sold the parking separately afterwards. One hundred and eight people didn’t buy a parking stall. I don’t think we could sell them all,” he says. “It shows you how we overbuild parking in our city.”"

Breathe Toronto - Rally for Transit City

Breathe Toronto: "RALLY FOR TRANSIT CITY! Come together on Sunday, December 19th to demand loud and clear that City Council save Transit City, and proceed with the biggest TTC expansion in recent history as planned. As the last Council unanimously endorsed (including Ford!) Event posting: CLICK HERE

Toronto as we know it is under attack. As of his first day on the job, Rob Ford has begun disassembling years of hard work put into making the TTC a more accessible, wider reaching and faster service that was about to embark on its biggest expansion in decades. An expansion that would help reduce traffic and take thousands of tailpipes off the road, with certainty to seriously reduce the illness and death that result from living in the exhaust fumes of so many cars and trucks, as well as taking a major chunk out of our city’s contribution to Global Overheating. All of that came crashing to a halt on day one as Ford cut City funding for Transit City, effectively killing the project. Unless there is a drastic and positive response from the people of this City."

Supprimons les tarifs de transport à Montréal - Gratuité contre inégalités

Supprimons les tarifs de transport à Montréal - Gratuité contre inégalités: "Ce site défend l'accès libre et universel aux transports collectifs. On y refuse la discrimination fondée sur le revenus et l'inégalité d'accès aux ressources de la communauté. Y est contestée la place de l'automobile et la menace qu'elle fait peser sur la population. Le droit à la mobilité est une revendications de premier ordre. L'essors de l'environnement urbain et la lutte aux changements climatiques demandent des actions immédiates. Pour ces raisons nous réclamons la gratuité des transport publics pour les usagers et usagères de la STM.

Pour faire avancer le monde... "

First Blog Post: Proud to Be Pink

A big thanks to the ftpeditors who invited me to post on this blog. I'm looking forward to sharing posts and talking about the transportation revolution with you! - Trasie

I confess, I'm a button-a-holic - but that's the topic for another blog post!

On today's to-do list: order a button from Spacing Toronto.

If you missed it, here's Don Cherry's speech (at the Torontoist) that he delivered at Toronto City Council's recent swearing-in, which explains why several people on my social media feed are also ordering buttons.

Oh, and insert celebratory "Our Mayor/Council Rocks" post here: they lowered the cost of low income transit passes! 

(Cross-posted at Witch-Ways, where I've been crafting magic on the internet since 1994)

Toronto's new mayor prefers his gravy train underground | Pembina Institute

Toronto's new mayor prefers his gravy train underground | Pembina Institute: "Estimates for building a new eight-kilometre stretch of subway east from the Don Mills station hover around $400-million per kilometre (including new stations). In stark contrast, building light rail transit along the same stretch would cost about $90-million per kilometer, or less than a quarter of the cost."

If the war on the car is over -- why does it keep killing us?

Tragedy on a road in Italy: A drugged driver killed seven cyclists | NewsKF: "A driver under the influence of drugs hit a group of cyclists in the middle of a race on a road in Italy. Seven people died and four others were injured. The driver was driving without a license. Police suspended his license a few months ago, for committing many irregularities in traffic."