The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

The BannerThe Em TRANSPORTATION Thursday Feb A3 m f mi PL Public transit use up 33 in York But car still king in region BY DAVID FLEISCHER com York Region residents are at the leading edge of an effort to knock the car off its perch as the king of suburbia- Nine years after the creation of York Region and at the cru cial point when the rapid transit vision for viva is about to be real ized the question is is it working If youre looking at ridership numbers the answer is clearly yes From to 2009 the number of people taking increased 33 per cent from 138 million to million During about the same time period Yorks population onry grew about 1 3 per cent The numbers arc a key of the systems success said Ed Levy a transportation consultant who works with Metrolinxs advi sory committees Ive always thought very highly of York Region I think theyve done a damn good job he said adding he doesnt begrudge the billions of dollars the region won the upper levels of government The introduction of Viva was a great step he said praising the regions bold choice of the more attractive Van Hool buses that define the system Six years ago YRT operated transit routes Today there are routes and after regular annual rid ership increases of per cent or more the recession a Viva strike and strike at York University things RICHARD IEARY Former Boston have levelled off However decreased 27 percent between 2008 and 2009 with nearly half a million fewer rides Fewer commuting trips to employment areas contributed as have gas prices at or below SI the region said- Residents who locked to Viva a few years ago now want to see the system evolve Regional chairper son Bill Fisch told the transporta tion services committee People are waiting for us to improve our service he said They need to see what we prom ised three to four years ago Staff are compiling GPS data to evaluate arrival times and other performance indicators in a new way Mr told the committee A report on that data should come to the committee in March The region usually sees a postsummer surge as students return to school and parents to work but that didnt come until October last year The good news is that for the rest of the year levelled off and remained relatively stable transportation report stated But the real question is the story behind the numbers can you cre ate a transitfriendly culture in York Region The transformation of Viva to rapid transit will be an important forte in changing the publics per ception newly- installed boss Richard lary said There is no question Viva is a big part of the ridership growth and as the buses move from mixed traffic into their own lanes ing the next three years Mr expects public perceptions of tran sit to shift My hope and intent is to build and provide guidance to i relatively new transit authority the former chief operating officer of Bostons transit system said It will still be about a yea until the full vision of buses operating out of mixed traffic begins to roll out and not until that it is fully implemented In the meantime residents have been treated to quasiexpress bus routes on Street and 7 Mr Levy was circumspect about changing the habits of carloving suburbanites but saw real potential in transit oriented developments such as Markham Centre You cant force people to do something they dont want do he said but with enough density to produce steady allday traffic a real change can take place Beyond that suburbanites need to realize how unsustainable sprawl is Mr Levy said Transit in suburbia may still be in its infancy but York Region is miles ahead of everyone else he TAXPAYERS ON HOOK FOR 60 OF YRT It is understood transit is a public service that cannot operate for profit but how much each system depends on ridership for funding varies greatly About 40 per cent of is funded from farebox revenues while taxpayers subsidize the remaining per cent The region hopes to achieve a 50percent split in a few years something dial was achieved before the region took on added capital costs needed for Vivas launch Comparing other transit systems can be a moving target since sizes and infrastructure often vary greatly however its telling that the largest transit sys tem is the most underfunded on the continent When the Hams government put a stop to provin cial operating funding collected 75 per cent of its revenue from riders was the result That leaves operators with little wiggle room except to raise fares when funds are needed Just as lack of binding is unique so too is the idea a transit system can operate in the black Mr levy pointed out Hong Kong and Singapore are unique in doing so largely because transit was built in tandem with high density development Ottawa with a population comparable to York collects 45 per cent of its money from the farebox although it also hopes achieve a better balance in future As a result Ottawa fares rose 75 per cent this year while fares were frozen Its a balance but the region is heavily investing in public transit Mr said To be effective you need to take into account the cost of doing business After only a couple of months on the job Mr Leary said its too early to say precisely what that balance should be rate MO TAXIS squash join for S20 tor S20 I Join for 1 EARN AEROPLAN MILE WITH EVERY PURCHASE First month FREE First montli FREE I month FREE Complimentary I Complimentary I For your Club Tour Membership quote visit or txt Bate t chesterfield shop W MON TO WED 10 TO I DOWNTOWN TO THURt FRI TO 10 TO 6 UN TO TOLLFREE 001