Free Transit Edmonton Town Hall - March 24

It's a party — and you're invited. Come together and meet with your fare-free-transit-loving community. Link to registration in bio! pic.twitter.com/XbnaXC86cc

— Free Transit Edmonton (@FreeTransitYEG) March 11, 2020

Educators support #freepublictransit for kids

Free transit would benefit us all but especially the young people we work with in schools who struggle to attend due to transportation costs as well as other barriers and challenges.

Check this out, friends! https://t.co/1bP7Roq9T9

— RAD Educators Network (@RADEducators) March 9, 2020

Fare-free would expand ridership and increase the buy-in of the public

Free Transit Edmonton (FTE) says free and effective transit is a matter of economic, climate and racial justice, and needs to be viewed as an essential service like public health care and education. The coalition of citizens challenged city councillors and the mayor to only use transit for one week to ensure they see “it from a deeper level than this kind of far-off policy view.” Councillors Aaron Paquette, Ben Henderson, Scott McKeen and Andrew Knack accepted.

...“The idea of fare-free transit is such an effective intervention, not only to serve the most vulnerable in our city but … it would expand ridership by quite a lot and increase the buy-in that the public has in the transportation system,” said Kruse.

https://edmontonjournal.com/news/local-news/more-connected-and-more-just-coalition-launches-campaign-for-free-transit-in-edmonton 

Free Transit Edmonton launches transit week, a challenge to city leaders to ride public transit

A coalition of transit advocates launched a campaign Monday for free public transportation in Edmonton.

"We want to see public transit funded like our libraries, schools, hospitals and other public services — open and accepting of all, regardless of their ability to pay," said Laura Kruse an organizer with Free Transit Edmonton. 

The group argues free transit would increase ridership and help alleviate poverty; it also wants to see an improved transit system to make it more appealing and accessible for people to use every day.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/free-transit-edmonton-coalition-1.5466536? 

Free Transit YYC - Make all public transit in Calgary fare-free!

@FreeTransitYYC

Free Transit Edmonton now has a website

https://freetransitedmonton.ca/

#freepublictransit best idea since public healthcare and public education

Everybody's talking about it. It's the latest, best policy idea to come from the left since public healthcare and public education – it's free (and good!) public transit. We don't pay to go to the park, we don't pay to ride elevators, we don't have toll roads – so why do we pay for public transit? We already pay for most of the costs of public transit, "free" transit is just properly funding transit with public money, which we get by taxing the rich. When we eliminate fares for everyone we reduce carbon pollution, traffic and the cost of living not to mention all the positive economic effects and the reconciliation, racial justice and accessibility issues that are addressed with free transit.

https://www.theprogressreport.ca/free_transit_for_all 

Hidden cost of cars, cleanup of oil wells

A new report suggests cleaning up all of the old and unproductive oil and gas wells in Alberta will cost between $40 billion and $70 billion.

https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.5089254? 

Edmonton - Oil industry wants public transit to be as unpleasant as possible

This morning I witnessed Edmonton transit cops hauling people off of trains and ticketing them for not having money.

It was an exercise in humiliation. Indigenous people (it seemed) bore the brunt.

I felt a sense of outrage at how our system treats its most vulnerable people. pic.twitter.com/2lG0315yJp

— Conrad Nobert (@conradnobert) January 28, 2020

Alberta, Canada - St. Albert mayor considering #freepublictransit

During a committee discussion around a free transit pilot for seniors, Heron asked her council colleagues if they would be willing to support making St. Albert’s bus system fare-free for local routes.
“It would cost us, but maybe that's something we need to look at,” Heron told the Gazette during a year-end interview last week. “Every time you get one person on the bus, that's one car off the road.”

... If council approves the seniors transit pilot, seniors would join youth as the second demographic the city is targeting to test-drive free local transit. The youth pilot began last March, and during budget deliberations council decided to extend it until the end of 2020, which is estimated to cost $19,000.
Ridership among youth has more than tripled since the pilot began, increasing from 1,400 trips per month before the pilot to 5,980 trips per month.

https://www.stalberttoday.ca/local-news/examining-the-merits-of-free-rides-for-all-2020294? 

#freetransit is Edmonton's future

@CityofEdmonton @aaronpaquette @doniveson #FreeTransit needs to be part of the vision for the future, as well as enhancing the current service levels, so that private car use moves down to lower levels. The #YebBikeGrid moved a lot of people to try #ActiveTransport https://t.co/NsNaMbxOAz

— EllenJoanneCampbell (@ElleninSaigon) January 16, 2020

Harassing transit users at -35C

-35 is too damn cold to keep people from getting safely to their destination. 😠 If #yegTransit is ticketing for fares today that is literally putting people's lives at risk. #yegWinter #FreeTransit https://t.co/VzrwMcsbhI

— Jeff Samsonow (@jeffsamsonow) January 14, 2020

Free Transit Edmonton -- now on Twitter

@FreeTransitYEG

Vibrant Communities Calgary - VCC -- favors #freepublictransit

@VibrantCalgary

Free Transit Edmonton campaign, launching early 2020.

We’d never be expected to write a firefighter a cheque before they put out a burning building. Why is public transit any different? As organizers for Free Transit Edmonton, we have a vision for a resilient, more connected city. We see free public transit as a way to address inequality, and climate change in a way that benefits all Edmontonians.

https://edmontonjournal.com/opinion/columnists/opinion-make-transit-free-for-the-sake-of-our-climate-and-community? 

No money for transit, but $30 million for oil trolls

After deep budget cuts to health, education and more, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s “War Room” has been launched with a budget of $30 million annually, to improve the reputation of Alberta’s oil companies.
The stated aim of the Canadian Energy Centre is to combat anti-oil “narratives” with a “rapid-response” unit, an information unit to “help the province take control of its energy story” and a “data and research unit”

https://pressprogress.ca/kenneys-war-room-spending-about-equal-to-funds-cut-from-calgary-schools/ 

Canmore, Alberta, to charge for downtown parking and apply it to #freepublictransit

"Parking has never been free. It's always been a cost that has been borne by the local taxpayer: the cost of providing that infrastructure and maintaining it," he said. "With paid parking and those paid parking revenues going toward our transit fares, our visitors are helping to pay for those costs, rather than 100 per cent of them coming from local residents."
The money is earmarked for Canmore's local transit service, Roam, which is fare-free.

Borrowman hopes the parking fees might alleviate congestion — which has been an increasing problem in the Bow Valley.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/canmore-parking-1.5388552 

Edmonton, take note, this is doable

Whoa. 😲 Edmonton just turned down #FreeTransit but another sprawling is doing it. https://t.co/8VkSVTHt6n #yegTransit

— Jeff Samsonow (@jeffsamsonow) December 6, 2019

Campus Saint-Jean Council discusses #freepublictransit

Council also voted unanimously to pass the first principles on a policy regarding public transit which talks about how Indigenous and People of Colour are disproportionately targeted for fare-evasion and the idea of fare-free public transport #UASUsc pic.twitter.com/LHIfFMI20i

— Khadra.A (@khadra_ast) December 4, 2019

Blogger sharply criticizes Edmonton Executive Council for inaction on #climatejustice

You can imagine my disappointment, then, when I read in the report that the city has an opportunity to increase ridership by approximately 28% by switching to a zero-fare program, yet is not poised to take this opportunity.
...
Simply put, our obsession with single-occupancy vehicles (read: cars) is unsustainable. Beyond the urban planning nightmares it has created (not to mention the outrageously high death tolls for both riders and pedestrians which we tacitly accept in the name of convenience), low occupancy vehicles are a major source of GHG emissions. And while many point to electric vehicles as a solution to the emissions part of the equation, even EVs are problematic from a finite resources perspective.

Read the whole post: https://acornacts.ca/Transit/