Reduced ocean oxygen has led to mass extinction in the past

...Warming ocean temperatures reduce the water’s oxygen content, and rising atmospheric carbon dioxide is altering the basic chemistry of the ocean, making it more acidic. There is no shortage of evidence that both of these effects have begun to wreak havoc on certain important creatures.

Human beings created these problems, largely in the two centuries since the Industrial Revolution, but for some researchers, they bring to mind the ancient past. The Earth has seen several mass extinctions, including five that annihilated more than half the planet’s species. Experts now believe Earth is in the midst of a sixth event, the first one caused by humans.... Canadians for Action on Climate Change

Toronto TTC needs to be fare-free and accessible

Toronto Star calls for free public transit

...Rather than freezing the public sector, this moment should be an opportunity to address the crisis in the transportation sector that is so vital to Ontario’s whole economy, as measured not only in auto industry shutdowns and layoffs but in notorious traffic congestion on our roads.

This would mean converting auto assembly and parts plants to the production of energy efficient mass transit vehicles and using the tax revenues from the jobs generated thereby to fund free public transit. If there was ever a time to use Ontario’s capacity to raise funds in bond markets for this, it is now. Far from placing a burden on future generations, it would guarantee them a future.... TheStar

Why not offer free public transit?

City council is now considering bus service and this is a good opportunity to consider another option: Make them free.

Ridership provides a substantial part of the cost of running the bus system, and city taxes and provincial subsidies provide the rest, but these subsidies are being wasted if they are running empty a large part of the time.

Making bus rides free will increase ridership, reduce the use of automobiles, decrease pollu- tion, decrease traffic and no doubt free up parking spaces....

Rob Gordon Stratford - letter to the Beacon Herald

Green Party Candidate wants free public transit in Cornwall

It's a Green Party - photo by Jason Setnyk

Gilcig Wins Nomination to Represent the Green Party - Local - News - Seaway News: "Gilcig regularly attends the Cornwall Farmer’s Market and promotes it on his website. According to Gilcig buying food from local farmers is a way to reduce greenhouse emissions. At the interview, Gilcig was eating a green salad at Caf�Connectionz.
Gilcig wants SDSG to become more green, and a part of that vision is free public transportation in Cornwall. “I’d like to initiate a three year pilot project, and I would work with the provincial and municipal governments to make that possibility a reality.'"

Pump price doesn’t cover gasoline cost / LJWorld.com

Pump price doesn’t cover gasoline cost / LJWorld.com: "That means the gasoline you’re buying at the pump is — stick with me here — too cheap. The price you pay is less than the product’s true cost. A lot less, actually. And it’s not just catastrophic spills and dramatic disruptions in the Middle East that add to the price. Gasoline has so many hidden costs that there’s a cottage industry devoted to tallying them up. At least the ones that can be tallied up."

Cities should be like college campuses - with free public transit

"The Disneyland approach - making poverty disappear by excluding the poor – is cheap and effective, but unfortunately not generalizable to society as a whole.

Society already follows the Disneyland approach by consigning the poor to low-income districts, public housing tenements, and depressed rural communities that are out of sight to many. A suburbanite can get through his day without seeing any poor people: he lives away from poverty, shops away from poverty, and can often work away from poverty.

I've always thought that urban planners should try to mimic certain university campuses: bike- and pedestrian-centric, free public transit (the larger ones, at least), medium- to high-density housing, not-for-profit housing, and plenty of greenery to compensate for the tighter living arrangements. Fountains are underutilized, too, in my opinion. Frances Woolley - comment on - Worthwhile

Heat Alert for the City of Brampton

Heat Alert for the City of Brampton: "Brampton - Peel Public Health has issued a heat alert for the City of Brampton. Temperatures are expected to reach 33 degrees for today and possibly throughout the week.

Peel Public Health encourages residents to restrict outdoor activity. It is also recommended that the public stay out of the sun, drink lots of water and stay in air conditioned places. Seniors and young children are particularly at risk."

Newcomer challenges McMullan for city's top job - St. Catharines Standard - Ontario, CA

Newcomer challenges McMullan for city's top job - St. Catharines Standard - Ontario, CA: "But the two-time mayoral candidate in Niagara Falls wants to assure Garden City residents his campaign is no laughing matter."
"The wonders of Niagara Falls thing was just for fun. I'm a fun guy. If some people take me as a joke, well, I take them with a grain of salt," he said. "I want to be mayor of St. Catharines and I have some good ideas."

Among those ideas, free public transit...

Free public transit for seniors. Let them get out and travel

2nd Session, 40th Parliament,
2e session, 40e législature,

57-58 Elizabeth II, 2009
57-58 Elizabeth II, 2009

house of commons of canada
chambre des communes du canada

BILL C-449
PROJET DE LOI C-449

An Act regarding free public transit for seniors
Loi concernant la gratuité des transports en commun pour les aînés

Preamble

Whereas seniors should be encouraged to lead active social lives and to escape the isolation in which some of them live;

Whereas transportation is a problem for many seniors in Canada;

Whereas public transit is often the only method of transportation available to some of them;

And whereas the Government of Canada wants to offer financial support to that end;

Attendu : Préambule
qu’il est bon de favoriser la participation active des aînés à la vie sociale et de briser l’isolement dans lequel vivent certains d’entre eux;

que les déplacements représentent un défi pour bon nombre d’aînés au Canada;

que le transport en commun s’avère souvent l’unique moyen de transport pour certains aînés;

que le gouvernement du Canada souhaite offrir un soutien financier à cette fin,

Now, therefore, Her Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and House of Commons of Canada, enacts as follows:

Sa Majesté, sur l'avis et avec le consentement du Sénat et de la Chambre des communes du Canada, édicte :

SHORT TITLE
TITRE ABRÉGÉ

Short title

1. This Act may be cited as the Free Public Transit for Seniors Act.
1. Loi sur la gratuité des transports en commun pour les aînés. Titre abrégé

INTERPRETATION
DÉFINITION

Definition of “senior”

2. In this Act, “senior” means any person 65 years of age or older.
2. Dans la présente loi, « aîné » s'entend de toute personne âgée d'au moins soixante-cinq ans. Définition de « aîné »

PUBLIC TRANSIT TRUST
FIDUCIE POUR LE TRANSPORT EN COMMUN

Payments

3. (1) The Minister of Finance may make direct payments to a trust established to fund free local public transit for seniors, anywhere in Canada, during off-peak hours.
3. (1) Le ministre des Finances peut effectuer des paiements directs à une fiducie établie en vue de financer la gratuité des transports en commun locaux pour les aînés, partout au Canada, en dehors des heures d’affluence. Paiements

Determination of amount

(2) The amount to be paid to any province, territory or municipality shall be determined in accordance with the terms of the trust indenture establishing the trust.
(2) La somme qui peut être versée à une province, à un territoire ou à une municipalité est déterminée en conformité avec les modalités énoncées dans l’acte établissant la fiducie. Détermination de la somme

Amounts to be paid out of C.R.F.

(3) There shall be paid out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund, on the requisition of the Minister of Finance, any amounts to be paid pursuant to this section, at the times and in the manner that the Minister of Finance considers appropriate.
(3) À la demande du ministre des Finances, les sommes à payer au titre du présent article sont prélevées sur le Trésor, selon les échéances et les modalités qu’il estime indiquées. Paiements sur le Trésor

Parks, not freeways

Sunbury Neighbors

Taking action to save Burns Bog

Waterloo residents discuss free transit

According to Wikipedia, it's mostly small towns that offer system wide free transit.
I suppose you might be able to gain some (or even considerable) popular support for "free" transit if you offered it as an alternative to LRT. With such a program, you could intensify bus routes, vastly increase ridership, and get personal vehicles off the streets for far lower capital costs than with LRT. You could even get some cost recovery for the transit system by charging nominal tolls on the expressway which would drive even more people to transit (but would probably be very unpopular at this point in time). garthdanlor
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I should add that there are some serious direct cost savings in going to a free transit system: no fareboxes and maintenance, elimination of staffing for transit passes and overhead for ticket printing. Biggest of all is the time (and thus operating costs) saved in loading, as that would be done quickly and through all doors.

Just as a point of reference, total GRT expenditures last year were $73m, $21.5m of which came from passenger revenue and $41.5m of which came from regional taxes. So it would be a 50% increase in the regional tax levy to make transit free. (Though it would be somewhat more due to the higher resulting ridership.) mpd618

more at http://www.wonderfulwaterloo.com/

London zero-fare advocate Greg Fowler addresses transit committee

Listen as zero-fare transit advocate addresses London, Ontario transit committee. Private auto is heavily subsidized! Millions spent on roads while poor are prisoners in their homes. Click here to listen.

Bike Forum discusses free public transportation

All transportation is subsidized. People drive on the road for "free" (except tollways) and probably more tax dollars subsidize that than go towards public transportation. In the US the gas tax certainly does not cover anywhere near the cost of providing roads. As I understand it, University of British Columbia students get "free" transit in Vancouver subsidized by various means. I think it is a great idea. The city is very well served by public transit and that makes it attractive and cheap for other users. -- cooker, on bike forum