Saxmaniac for mayor - Free-transit advocate

Saxmaniac for mayor - News1130: ""The whole linchpin of my candidacy is free transit. Transit fees are a tax on the poorest members of society who are doing the most environmentally-friendly activity."

He points out it's already been done in Hasselt, Belgium. "They've had free transit for 15 years. Tourism is up. People have more money to spend on small items like coffees and pizzas and that.""

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Transit riders subsidize the auto, not vice-versa

Mayors who voted for more #transit

Motorists Who Slam Transit Levies Have the Wrong Target: And yet, it's clear that I depend on our roads, highways and bridges far less than the person who commutes everyday in a single occupant vehicle from Abbotsford to Burnaby and back. But when the topic of drivers paying a toll for traversing a bridge or new stretch of highway comes up, invariably they get hopping mad. They forget that every time I take the bus or skytrain, I pay a toll - otherwise known as a "fare."

For example, if I want to go to Surrey from Vancouver - unless it is for a few short minutes before jumping back on the train to Vancouver, lest my 90 minute fare expires - it costs me $10 to go there and back by skytrain! That is, unless I'm really thinking ahead and save one dollar by buying the $9 all-day pass. If we are trying to incentivize public transit use, we're certainly not doing so with money; rather we punish transit users with the heftiest tolls around - and there are no "toll-free" skytrains or bus routes to choose from, unlike our road system.

Plainly put, transit riders have been on an expensive "user-pay" model for decades, while road tolling remains a hated and relatively little-used tool. Not only that, I've been subsidizing road building through my tax dollars far more than motorists have been subsidizing my transit infrastructure. And because these big-buck highway projects have the backing of the Province and feds, we're all paying for them - through provincial and federal tax dollars. They aren't subject to the complaints of local motorists confronted with unwelcome property tax and gas tax hikes because their funding is secured from upon high and, thus, less visible. But make no mistake, I am subsidizing the hell out of blacktop and bridge projects I will use relatively little of.
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Majority of Metro Vancouver mayors set to boost gas tax to pay for more transit

Regional mayors (from left to right) Dianne Watts from Surrey, Pam Goldsmith-Jones from West Vancouver, Richard Stewart from Coquitlam, Peter Fassbender from Langley and Gregor Robertson from Vancouver.

Majority of Metro Vancouver mayors set to boost gas tax to pay for more transit: "METRO VANCOUVER - Seven Metro Vancouver mayors, including those in Surrey and Vancouver, will vote in favour of a TransLink plan Friday that calls for a two-cents-a-litre boost in the gas tax to pay for the Evergreen Line and other regional transit projects."

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Majority+Metro+Vancouver+mayors+boost+more+transit/5500815/story.html#ixzz1ZtTMEe9s

Car-share companies aim to curb congestion, pollution

Photograph by: Steve Bosch, Steve Bosch

Car-share companies aim to curb congestion, pollution: "“I found I didn’t need a car every day so why pay for one?”"

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Ellen Woodsworth » Putting more buses on the streets and providing affordable transit for all:

Ellen Woodsworth Link

• Advocate for ongoing sustainable investment in transit infrastructure on an annual basis.
• Call for an immediate increase in the number of buses on Vancouver streets.
• Demand that TransLink create a fare review process that includes an advisory panel of users groups, community organizations, transit operators and other stakeholders in determining fare rates.
• Work with TransLink to implement a student U-pass system for all Metro Vancouver post secondary students similar to that currently in place for students at UBC and SFU.
• Establish an official Free Bus loop that links downtown with the Broadway Corridor between Main St and Burrard St.
• Demand that the Province amend its legislation to create a TransLink Board that is directly elected by the people of the member municipalities of Metro Vancouver.
• Oppose the Gateway Plan – a $10 Billion plan which will flood the city with more pollution and more cars counter to the City’s transportation plans and opposed by the cities of Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster, North Vancouver, and Richmond.
• Make funding bikeways and cycling a priority in the next Capital Plan.
• Promote the creation of a public bicycle rental system, initially in the Downtown Business District and Broadway Corridor.
• Improve bike safety and access by measures such as giving right of way priorities to bikes on bikeways, erecting prominant signs indicating bike routes, and separating cars form bikes on neighbourhood bike routes.
• Support the expansion of cycling education and awareness programs at schools throughout the city. All children should be offered courses in safe cycling.
• Provide a system of secure storage, lockers, retail concessions and other cyclist oriented amenities at SkyTrain stations, bus loops and transit hubs.
• Split one of the six traffic lanes on Burrard Bridge to make room for a bike lane alongside each sidewalk, put in reversible light signals and give three lanes to rush-hour traffic.
• Work with local communities to create city-wide Car Free Zones and Car Free Days

For background details and to make recommendations please look at www.cope.bc.ca Draft Policy

Killing Our Cities « Price Tags

Killing Our Cities « Price Tags: "In fact, for many people, cars have become less a desirable commodity, and more of a burden. For people who are dependent on their cars, it can become very hard to keep control of the budget when fuel prices are so unpredictable. Many of these people don’t have the option of moving closer to the city. High real estate prices and poor public transport mean the only option is outer suburbs and long, car-bound commutes.

The future for these people isn’t promising. The outer suburbs will become places where only the poor will live. Opponents of development, such as Save our Suburbs, have campaigned against inner-city densification on the grounds it will create ghettos, but the real ghettos are going to be on the urban fringes."

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Shallow Waters