Stop OC Transpo Price Rises

Ottawa has the highest transportation fees in the country. OC Transpo’s continuing price hikes have put our city’s transportation fees at the top of the country yet route cancellations, delayed service and overall inefficiency continue as well. Our most recent raising of prices as of July 1st, 2011 has raised the ticket prices to $1.30CAD ($0.05 increase), Student transit passes to $75.00CAD ($2.75$ increase), Adult transit passes to $94.00CAD ($5.50 increase), Student photo cards to $6.25CAD ($1.25 increase), and Adult photo cards to $8.50CAD ($1.50 increase). Major cities such as Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Edmonton all charge at par to or below $3.00CAD and have been rated by users as efficient and reliable transportation services. As of April 17th, 2011 OC Transpo made route cuts, route changes and service cancellations of many Ottawa transit routes. By eliminating many rural routes, the company stated that this would enable bus service to be more efficient and less costly in the long run. As of July 1st, 2011, OC Transpo has increased prices without increasing service, efficiency or punctuality. Many citizens rely on public transportation and therefore must pay the extremely high prices in order to get to work, school or run basic errands. Oc Transpo bus drivers constantly use the bus phone line despite the no phone while driving law in Ontario which is just one of many distractions limiting the efficiency we are paying for with OC Transpo. Many drivers go high speeds through residential or school areas and over speed bumps which make journeys uncomfortable. Routes that begin at major bus stations such as Lincoln Fields, Barrhaven Center, Hurdman, Place D’Orleans, Terry Fox, etc… Are often late commencing their trip therefore delaying the entire route. The goal of this petition is to halt the rising prices and benefit our city’s transportation system. As Ottawa has the highest transportation prices in Canada, we would like to gather support within Ottawa and surrounding areas to lower prices to match or be reasonably compared to other major cities within Canada. As Ottawa is a smaller city both in population and land coverage in comparison with other major cities in Canada, we should not have to pay approximately 7.7% more than Canada’s largest cities.