Free bus service, and a transportation forum

Laura over at the Merc's City Hall blog notes that the one day a year Guelph Transit does not charge bus fare, ridership rises almost 50%. Why do we charge transit fares again? Oh ya, to fund parking garages. More meat for discussion at the upcoming Guelph Transportation Panel discussion at 10:00 at the ICC on May 13.

Posted at 09:49 on April 15, 2008

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"MrDan" (www.google.com) writes at Thu Apr 17 02:12:09 EDT 2008...

That's a laugh-in-a-half! Nearly as funny as cutting service from 30 to 40 minutes...

Paul writes at Wed Apr 30 10:11:18 EDT 2008...

I think Laura and Mr Dan need to take a step back and think logically and resist the urge to criticize just because it's fashionable. I'm a regular user of Guelph Transit and find the service to be very reliable and user friendly. It's as good as any other city transit system I've ridden, and with ride fare at only $2, it's among the cheapest, if not THE cheapest you'll find.

As for switching to 40 min service, I'm not sure why you're confused as to why this was necessary? If you're a regular rider of buses, you can surely appreciate the increase in traffic and delays during certain times of the day. It makes no sense to try and stick to a timetable that cannot be met during these times. I commend GT for switching to 40 mins not only for safety concerns, but also because we can now schedule accordingly.

David Graham (cdlu.net) writes at Wed Apr 30 10:44:26 EDT 2008...

Paul,

Service is definitely better than in the town where I grew up -- where we didn't have so much as a taxi company. And my school bus trip was over an hour. Eesh.

The problem with Guelph Transit isn't Guelph Transit -- they do admirably with the pittance we give them. The problem is with the public's perception of what appropriate investment is. We're happy to invest hundreds of millions into small amounts of roads that cover small distances and save a few seconds, but are loathe to spend tiny fractions of that to improve Guelph Transit's service by orders of magnitude.

I am not a regular Guelph Transit user -- but I would like to be. I find its meandering, monodirectional routes and intermittent service frustrating to the point of uselessness. 40 minute service at peak hour is something this city should never have accepted, especially given how little it would have cost to fix it -- just $400,000 -- to 20-minute (predictable) service. That's what the planning alone for Wilson St lot will cost.

$2 fare when parking is free is not appropriate, in my view. It's $2 to go, $2 to return, more if you plan to make any extended stops along the way.