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22 stouffvffle suntribune thursday june 9 2005 today where we are sunday where we were june 16 where we are going june 19 the great transit challenge visit wwwyorkregioncom to view our state of series including waste education public safety and transit when infrastructure minister david cajsan announced ontarios places to 6rdw document last year heualleii lit c our last chance t build befuwre we- l warf andsaid af current development ratfrawccqjgestoiw add 45 per i cent to commuting bmes and air quali- fy vw suffer a 40percenf increase in vehicle emissions look at thefactsin yareonvv v r vefiicle tops between york region and toronto frbm7 am to 7 prhr increased by 7000 twtween 1998 and 2001 the toronto board of tradeestirnates the costofdeiaysndwastedfuelduetptiaf- i ficjcongesti6n in the greater toronto area in 1 1996 was 600 million and will grow to 3 billion by 2021 i theaverage gtacarcarnesll6 people while onegobiis can replace 50 carsthe avefage gotrain carries thesarhe number of pebpleasl400carsandv- thejypicalnumber of vehicles in priewlo metre of bumpertobumpe traffic vabbut 130the number of buses needed to rtranspprtthe same number of peopfe i taking only 60 metres of road space- j isfour i the state 6f wmm who uses yrt the 2004 york region transit rider- ship survey was completed by 6977 riders including 86 in chinese five in hindi five in italian and three in punjabi some of the results coreage workers 25 to 54 continue to represent half of the sample 58 per cent of respondents are employed 32 per cent are students 55 per cent are female but the propor tion of male respondents has increased 12 per cent since 2002 the first year the survey was taken 63 per cent of respondents have house hold incomes below 50000 a year 68 per cent are regular or commuter rid ers 37 per cent have increased their use of transit in the last six months 10 per cent have decreased their transit usage 65 per cent use some form of prepay ment a figure likely to increase with acrosstheboard increases in cash fares as of january 2005 40 per cent feel most of the time or always buses are not on schedule and they cannot make their connections yrt says its own audits reveal buses are on time 90 per cent to 95 per cent of the time and one in five riders feels buses are most of the time or always overcrowded too early or more than five minutes late yrt again says its own audits do not support that perception