OC Transpo fares will increase 1.9 per cent beginning next July, an attempt to shift riders from paper tickets to Presto cards, which are now the cheapest way to pay for individual transit trips.
Ottawa’s transit commission says the hike in fares will also be used to fund the continually rising cost of diesel fuel, as well as workers’ wages.
“I think making minor alterations in fares doesn’t addresses the real issue,” says local sustainability consultant and Carleton University professor, Dr. Gary Martin.
Martin says the real issue is convenience. “As North Americans we are welded to our vehicles. We are bound and determined to use them to go 10 feet or 200 kilometres. This is a car culture.”
In 2011, only 12 per cent of those living in the Ottawa-Gatineau region relied on public transit as part of their daily commute, according to Statistics Canada.
Canadians know that carbon emissions are toxic to the environment, yet the data indicated that 82 per cent of rural and urban commuters drove their cars to work.
“Over 80 per cent of Canadians are suburban, therefore a vast majority drive to and from work,” Martin says. “That’s a huge carbon impact in just the cost of fuel.”
Fuel isn’t the only obstacle commuters face. According to Statistics Canada, traffic congestion contributed to the capital region having the fourth-worst commute time in the country, with an average of 27 minutes one way, in 2011.
This issue has raised the question of whether free public transit should be offered in the National Capital Region and other cities to encourage a dramatic commuter shift from cars to buses and trains. Could a transportation system be developed to increase ridership in urban areas, and reduce greenhouse gas pollution?
The concept of a zero-fare public transit system has been considered in Toronto, and other Canadian urban areas, but the issue of funding continues to pose a challenge.
“You need to create an incentive for a car user to shift to public transit if you want to increase the non-transportation benefits of public transit,” says University of Ottawa professor Philippe Crabbé, an expert in environmental economics.
Crabbé says public transit should not be funded by user fees alone, or by taxation alone, because “a proper mix of the two is required.” Subsidies from the city would also have to be implemented to help cover the cost of daily transit operations.
As a student who relies on the city’s public transportation, Christine Smith, would be open to the idea of Ottawa developing a free transit system, as long as the weight of financial deficit was not put entirely on riders.
“Something like this has the potential to create social equality for riders,” says Smith. “Free public transportation could offer a fully public space.”
Public transit yields benefits to society outside of transportation as well. “There are certainly significant health impacts,” says Martin.
A recent study by researchers at the University of British Columbia, found that people who took public transit were three times more likely to meet the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation’s minimum recommendation for daily physical activity.
UBC researchers determined that creating more transit incentives to broaden ridership could potentially have indirect health benefits, as a result of more people walking.
Improved air quality, and reduced traffic congestion are additional advantages to having fewer cars on the road.
A free public transit system would also create jobs. From planners and engineers, to drivers and mechanics, “there are all kinds of employment opportunities, looking at an infrastructure project like this,” Martin says.
However, Crabbé maintains that the only justification to develop a zero-fare system would be if the non-transportation benefits were so great that “only through free transit could you reap these benefits.”
Although this could be the case in some large Canadian cities, Martin says that free public transit would not end car dependence.
“Our whole culture is very much wrapped up in oil, cars, infrastructure, and something called freedom that lets us go wherever and whenever we please.”