peeete.bsky.social
No kings, only trains.
Ottawa, ON
he/him
682 posts
193 followers
341 following
Regular Contributor
Active Commenter
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I get that it's politically difficult, but I truly don't understand why so transit nerds are so allergic to the basic fact that fares are a less equitable funding mechanism than taxes.
And I *really* don't get why "free or good" is the rallying cry.
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Expensive and frequent. 👍
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What if the bus was infrequent *and* expensive.
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why are these the only two possibilities
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Do the Toronto towers-in-parks have amenities other than lawns? The 60's era slab apartment complex I live in has zero retail of any kind on the ground floors. A little extra density with ground level retail space would be pretty welcome...
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"dominates" is maybe a strong word. The south shore is mostly sfh suburbs by area. There's tons of huge highways, malls, and parking lots around the edges though and the "TOD's" around the REM are this style of high density+huge parking...
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This built form also dominates Montreal's south shore.
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In my experience, the only "civic infrastructure" most main street businesses are interested in is plentiful free parking...
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The River House, Westboro beach, the Dows Lake swimming hole, Kiweki point. Nonstop hits lately.
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If an upzoning results in significant (or really any) displacement, it's because your tenant protections suck and you should fix those instead of canning the upzoning...
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We love a creative solution
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Have you looked at popularity polls of NYC's congestion pricing? Opposition melted away as the benefits started to appear. Sometimes (often) politicians need to be brave and take the lead even when something doesn't poll well initially.
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Step one is raise taxes and invest in what we have. I'll be encouraged when I see action...
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Why is it so hard for people to believe that renters *like* renting? Most renters look at the pros and cons of various housing types and have decided that renting gets them the kind of housing they like, or the location they like, or the flexibility they like, or some combo of all.
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When equivalent delays hit the LRT, these same people call for it to be dynamited...
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Even when we do the infrastructure, we often don't make any considerations for good connectivity.
Like, how is a bike supposed to navigate this intersection if they want to get from the Flora bridge to the Main St cycletracks? There's a garden bed right at the end of the ramp!
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(unironically, I love watching the neighborhood groups lose their minds)
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How much of this is driven by the need to get everyone boarding within eyesight of the driver and within reach of the fareboxes?
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A carless family of 4 with 2 adults and 2 teens pays probably somewhere between 4.4k and 5.7k annually for bus fares. $500 a year for fare-free transit is a massive cost saving for them.
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In Ottawa, removing fares was projected to add ~$500 to the average property tax bill. That's not nothing, but it's less than *one third* the cost of *one* annual pass (currently $1620).
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The argument on the other side always seems to be "removing fares costs money, wouldn't you rather that money to to better service?"
But the thing is, for users, removing fares *doesn't* cost money. It save money, because the cost of running the system is more equitably distributed.
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There are cost savings associated with not having to deal with fare enforcement and payment systems. Time savings from fareless boarding. System usability gains from open stations without needing to fence off fare-paid zones.
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The bus is not really a limited resource like water or electricity, where a super-user could theoretically use up far more than their fair share.
When a bus carries 1 person it costs the same as when it it carries 120 people.
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If it's not expensive why are we bothering trying to collect user fees? Just fund with progressive taxes rather than regressive user fees.
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ottawacitizen.com/opinion/mack...
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I just want to make a left turn without getting pureed
🥲
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👀
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I think part of the problem so that the flex posts give drivers the idea that the road has a bike lane and that I belong in it.
But it's not a bike lane, it's on-street parking!
They go crazy when I take the lane to get around a parked car...
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This is basically a weekly occurrence at this point, and despite "traffic calming" flex posts the entire way...