The Peterborough Examiner e-edition

City’s planned transit overhaul would be a mistake

CHARMAINE MAGUMBE Charmaine Magumbe chairs the Community Race Relations Committee of Peterborough.

Recently Peterborough council rejected the $3.2 million Transit Route Review Study Recommendations.

There have also been concerns from those who support the current grid system, letters to the editor, and an editorial as to why our city councillors would reject this. Reading through the report, one would understand the fallacies of its recommendations.

One of the sections of the report includes some key findings from a 2019 review:

Compared to peers, Peterborough provides more annual hours of transit service per resident (1.65) than most, second only to Kingston (1.97).

The service is well used, with Peterborough ranking the second-highest among its peers at nearly 29 passengers per revenue vehicle hour compared to a peer average of 24.5 passengers per revenue hour.

Annual per capita ridership is also higher than the group at 47 riders per resident per year compared to the average of 36 riders per resident.

Peterborough’s operating costs are below the peer average, and most comparable to Niagara Falls, similar in size.

The portion of costs funded by municipal taxes is one of the lowest of the peer cities at $69.32 per resident compared to an average of $86.06 per resident.

The system also has the second-highest cost recovery among its peers at 43 per cent – Guelph being the highest at 45.

Instead of tweaking the downtown-centric radial network to meet the needs of our growing population, the Transit Route Review Study Recommendations is a complete overhaul to our current grid system, which is inefficient, ineffective, and a waste of our taxpayer money.

The concerns of this COVIDera grid style of a network are reduction of the number of bus routes from 15 to nine, its complexities of using this bus system, the need for a computer, or downloading an app on your cellphone. As a result, there has been a reduction in ridership, loss of revenue, and a loss of goodwill for city staff and councillors who are supposed to provide essential services to the community.

The $3.2 million Transit Route Review Study Recommendations was putting the cart before the horse, and we commend the councillors who voted against this report. Moving forward, we need to create a public transit system that caters to all citizens, seniors, people with mobility issues, lowincome populations, students, and people from all walks of life.

We can accomplish an inclusive transit system when we have all stakeholders at the decision table. Let’s make this happen, to have a transit system for everyone.

OPINION

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2021-07-29T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-07-29T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://thepeterboroughexaminer.pressreader.com/article/281612423437757

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