The Ontario Municipal Benchmarking Index was released last week for the year 2011. The report was put together by several municipalities to measure and compare various cities’ performances across the sphere of public services.
In a nutshell, Ottawa performs well compared with 16 other cities. This city has the second highest annual library use per capita, ranks second highest in the number of participants in sport and recreation programs, and ranks second highest for conventional transit trips.
But the report also highlighted that Ottawa’s public transportation system is the most expensive of all of the participating municipalities, costing a hefty $218 for one hour of service. By contrast, Toronto spends $180 for an hour of service.
It might seem outrageous, at first glance, for the city to be spending such an amount on one hour of service for public transportation, especially when Toronto, with five times the population of Ottawa, is $38 an hour cheaper. However, much of the savings for Toronto are attributed to its subway system.
Having multiple subway systems in Toronto means that there are many more riders on one train, with only one driver operating the trains. However, lacking a train system in Ottawa means that a different driver operates every bus and when you add up all the buses and all the drivers, the costs are astronomical.
That’s not to mention all the buses that go through the downtown core during rush hours to the faraway reaches of Barrhaven and Nepean.
Coun. Marianne Wilkinson, chair of the transportation committee, says that Ottawa has about 500,000 residents inside the Greenbelt and 400,000 outside. This means that people are constantly commuting back and forth and without a train system running buses to transport everyone, it makes sense that it would be costly.
It costs the city about $3.61 to provide one bus ride. This number is higher than Toronto, which stands at $2.84, but lower than other municipalities such as York region ($7.62) and Durham region ($5.75). What do these numbers attest to?
Well, for one thing, they show that the more people there are in an area, the cheaper it is to provide transit. Secondly, they show the value of having a train system in the city. Toronto, with five times the population of Ottawa, is able to provide cheaper rides to its residents.
Wilkinson says having the light-rail in Ottawa will certainly reduce costs in the long-term, but will be difficult initially, when the operating and construction costs have to be paid off. It makes sense, however, that we should expect to see savings from the light-rail system, as more people will be able to be transported to far-reaching places, and buses will likely travel shorter distances, with fewer drivers.
It’s easy to look at numbers and be outraged in the beginning, but numbers without a context have no meaning.
When the numbers offered by OMBI are analyzed in their appropriate contexts, we can then determine whether the numbers make sense or not. It seems, in this instance, that the high costs of Ottawa’s transit system make sense.