Free transit to ease Para strain

By David Pizer

A city committee wants to allow people who use wheelchairs, scooters, and walkers to ride for free on OC Transpo to relieve pressure on the over-burdened and more costly Para Transpo service.

The motion, approved unanimously by the transportation and transit committee on March 19, was accompanied by the results of a recently completed pilot project.

One hundred and four members of Ottawa’s disabled community were given passes to travel for free on OC Transpo’s accessible low-floor buses for six months. The participants still had to pay fares to use Para Transpo.

The results showed that free conventional transit encourages Para Transpo users, for whom the low-floor buses are accessible, to use that service for many of their weekly trips. Para Transpo use was reduced by 45 per cent.

Gord Diamond, director of transit services, says encouraging Para Transpo users to take advantage of the low-floor buses will save money, while providing customers with more choice and more freedom.

“They don’t have to book 24 hours in advance. Sometimes they have a bus coming every ten or twelve minutes they can get on,” Diamond says.

“And it saves us money if they take conventional service in any numbers because it frees up Para Transpo capacity.”

Diamond says Para Transpo costs approximately $20 more per trip than conventional transit.

He adds the number of Para Transpo users has been increasing due to Ottawa’s aging population.

“Now that we have more low-floor buses, and are continuing to get more, and are converting our whole fleet to low-floor accessible buses over the next 10 years, then it makes imminent sense to encourage people who are able and are close to our low-floor routes to use them,” Diamond explains.

Currently, low-floor buses run on 24 routes in Ottawa, which comprise 35 per cent of the city’s fleet. This figure will increase to 65 per cent by 2006.

The City of Hamilton implemented a similar policy in 1996 and has since seen the number of wheelchair, scooter, and walker users riding on conventional transit increase dramatically.

Barry McMahon, a member of Ottawa’s accessibility advisory committee, uses an electric scooter and says the low-floor buses are a great way to get around the city for those who are able to use them.

He expects that free transit will lead others to the same conclusion.

“I think that little incentive of free bus travel will encourage a lot of people to get on the bus,” he says.

One drawback of the proposal, according to McMahon, is that not all routes are accessible yet.

However, the number of accessible routes is increasing every year.

“Over the next year there’s going to be at least 60 or 70 more low-floor buses coming and they’re going to fill up a lot of the routes that right now are not accessible,” McMahon says.

Sally Thomas has been riding on OC Transpo for some time, except in winter.

Although she welcomes the opportunity to ride for free, Thomas doesn’t think the plan will go very far in alleviating the pressure on Para Transpo.

In Thomas’ opinion, people who are choosing Para Transpo instead of conventional transit services are doing so for reasons that have nothing to do with money.

“People who find the bus to be a viable option are going to use it regardless of if it’s free because it’s faster and better, for those physically capable of using it,” Thomas says.

“And for those who aren’t physically capable of using it, it doesn’t matter that it’s free.”

The motion was to go before city council March 26.