Community group rolls out vision for free off-peak service on OC Transpo

A community group celebrated its launch in the Glebe Monday night, calling for free transit during off-peak hours. CTV’s Shaun Vardon reports.

A community organization called Free Transit Ottawa is looking for a few volunteers to help make their vision of transit in the capital a reality, which includes free transit during off-peak hours and on weekends and buying more buses.

The group held a launch party at Irene’s Pub in the Glebe on Monday night; it was an opportunity to connect and spread the word.

One of the organizers, Donald Swartz, was excited by the turnout, and he is hoping at least a few of those attending will step up to help them realize their vision.

“The top demand is to make buses free in off-peak hours and the second is to buy more buses,” Swartz said. “Those that are on the buses say it’s too expensive, it’s too unreliable. I think as we get the word out, we will have more and more support.”

They say they have consulted widely, have developed a costed plan and a proposal to pay for the changes for the city and residents to consider. Their vision includes:

• Make OC Transpo free during off-peak hours (9:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m., 6:00 p.m. – 6:00 a.m. and on weekends)
• Add 150 buses to improve service in peak and off-peak hours
• Add 50 local/neighbourhood buses in underserviced areas
• Add 25 vehicles to Para Transpo and provide same day booking
• Expand dedicated bus-only lanes, starting with the most unreliable routes
• Democratize the Transit Committee by replacing six of the 12 councillors with four members who are directly elected by the citizens of Ottawa and two members selected by ATU Local 279

The group says the annual cost of free transit in off-peak hours and boosting service would be $125 million, with $50 million to cover free transit and $52.5 million to buy 150 electric buses. The group says the election of four citizen transit commissioners could cost $250,000.

Free Transit Ottawa has proposed various ways to finance the changes, without an increase in property taxes, saying their approach centres on ‘progressive’ measures that also discourage the use of private cars. Their plan includes:

• $50 million reallocated from the city’s road widening budget
• $10 million from raising parking rates to $6 an hour, including paid parking on Sundays and in all commercial areas
• $15 million by increasing the Uber/Lyft accessibility surcharge from $0.10 per ride to $0.50 per ride
• $21 million by increasing development charges on single-family homes by 25 per cent
• $14 million from the elimination of the Main Streets and Brownfield Site tax rebates
• $15 million in savings by adopting bus-only lanes

Several city councillors attended the launch, including transit committee member Jeff Leiper. He thought parts of the plan are worth pursuing, as the city is expected to grow by 400,000 residents in the next couple of decades.

“The future of this city has to be a public transit future. We cannot accommodate the hundreds of thousands of cars that are going to be on our roads if we don’t have a functioning transit system,” Leiper said. “There are a lot of things that we can do without necessarily going down the path of free transit in the immediate new term to make public transit a first instead of a last choice for residents.”

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