Transportation

A Vision for Transit in the 21st Century

By Ryan McGreal
Published March 31, 2009

The City of Hamilton has committed to doubling transit ridership (to 100 rides per person per year) by 2020. But how do we get there from here?

Instead of waiting for the city to figure this out, a grassroots organization of citizens who support public transit is holding a series of public meetings and an online survey to develop a community-based vision for public transit in the 21st century.

Our first meeting is:

We plan to make presentations and hold meetings at many community locations in the next few months. At the same time, we will have an online survey so Hamiltonians can share their vision of what transit could be.

These are exciting times for transit, thanks to the discussion of light rail and the creation of some new routes and discount passes. Yet we know that there is still overcrowding on some routes of the HSR, and battles continue over what should be appropriate levels of fares and public support of transit.

The HSR is currently undertaking a full operational review of its routes and schedules, so this is an especially good time to present a broad-based community vision for where we want transit to go and how we can make it happen.

Sponsored by Hamilton Transit Users group (TUG), and organized with support from the Hamilton Community Foundation.

Ryan McGreal, the editor of Raise the Hammer, lives in Hamilton with his family and works as a programmer, writer and consultant. Ryan volunteers with Hamilton Light Rail, a citizen group dedicated to bringing light rail transit to Hamilton. Ryan wrote a city affairs column in Hamilton Magazine, and several of his articles have been published in the Hamilton Spectator. His articles have also been published in The Walrus, HuffPost and Behind the Numbers. He maintains a personal website, has been known to share passing thoughts on Twitter and Facebook, and posts the occasional cat photo on Instagram.

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By Melville (anonymous) | Posted April 02, 2009 at 01:58:32

Any plans to announce the meetings sooner than a day before? For folks who bash the city for being disorganized, there should be better ways to show by example..

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By nobrainer (registered) | Posted April 02, 2009 at 08:35:28

@Melville

Jeez, everyone's a critic. :P

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By squarepusher (anonymous) | Posted April 02, 2009 at 13:46:46

After seeing what you guys did with Light Rail I can't wait to see what comes out of this new process. Please let us know when more sessions are coming and if there's ways we can help out?

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