For the love of public transit!

Yes, Stats Can found that the percentage of adult Canadians who drove everywhere rose from 68 per cent to 74 per cent between 1992 and 2005, but the report also points out that the primary driver of this has been urban sprawl (which has grown dramatically since 1992). People drive more because they can’t get anywhere without a car in low-density neighbourhoods, where housing is far from work or shopping. Which is why Calgary and Edmonton – the current Canadian archetypes of sprawl – have the highest rates of car use, while compact Montreal had the lowest.

Not surprisingly, sprawl discourages bike use and walking because everything’s too damned far away or unsafe. I’m pretty comfortable biking in downtown Toronto because even if the drivers are crazy, they’re not moving very fast and I simply proceed based on the assumption that they’re all trying to kill me (but at relatively low speed). My forays into the  suburbs, however, left me swearing off the bike north of the 401 for good. Cars and big trucks are moving too fast and simply not expecting bikes to be sharing ‘their’ road.

So I think the Stats Can guys make a great point regarding the influence of urban form, but I think they’re still missing something  that’s at least as big. But it’s easy to miss, because it wasn’t there.

In the 1990s, investment in public transit plummetted pretty much right across the country, which meant it just got crappier and crappier. Watching 5 buses go past you too full to let you on so you’re late for work kind of crappy (yes, I’m still bitter).  In Toronto, for example, transit fares doubled between 1990 and 2001 while the number of buses on the road dropped by 10 per cent and streetcars dropped by 20 per cent as the provincial government decided to stop funding public transit.

Guess what happens when you charge people twice as much for 15 per cent less of your product – they stop getting on overcrowded transit and start driving. Transit ridership crashed as people were literally pushed into cars.

But the City started spending the money to improve service a couple of years ago, and lo and behold, ridership is way up. They even have a Transit City vision which is pretty inspiring. Still don’t have all the cash required, but we’re working on that. And it’s not just in Toronto – Alberta is also expected to announce a boost for public transit to fight climate change.

The increase in driving, with its increase in greenhouse gas emissions, is not healthy for the planet or for people. Of course some Canadians live in remote areas where public transit is not available, or in jobs that require time spent behind the wheel. The Good Life is not Animal Farm- we don’t intend to enforce a strict code of “two wheels good, four wheels bad,” but it goes without saying that two wheels or two feet have lots of advantages – so why not make those options more attractive. Design cities around people rather than around cars. Provide the great public transit, bike lanes and lovely sidewalks that make a less auto-centred life possible. And watch the Good Life unfold.

by Keith Stewart