Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 29/09/2026"Responsibility for this sorry state of affairs lies squarely with our mayor and city councillors. Year after year, they’ve chosen to keep tax increases below the rate of inflation. The transit system is a case in point." centretownbuzz.ca/2026/06/comm... 136
Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 11/09/2026Ever waited for a bus so long it never showed up? It most likely got stuck in traffic. Dedicated bus lanes on Bank, Carling, Baseline, Richmond, Rideau, and other arteries would go a long way towards speeding up OC Transpo and reducing bus cancellations across Ottawa. www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/artic...ctvnews.caThis is why OC Transpo cancels hundreds of bus tripsBuses running more than 20 minutes late continues to be the top reason for bus trip cancellations by OC Transpo, but fewer trips are being cancelled due to a lack of available vehicles. 023
Reposted by Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦David Moore @davidrussellmoore.bsky.social · 10/06/2026The NYT informs readers that dynamic metered parking—implemented in San Francisco, Baltimore, LA, and DC—could bring in *billions of dollars a year* in revenue. Plus room for public spaces, bus lanes, bike lanes, outdoor dining setups, trash containers... check out the EasyPark proposal.nytimes.comThis Parking Spot Is Free. Should It Be?There are about three million parking spaces in New York City, but drivers are always struggling to find one that’s open. Can the system be fixed? 2114
Reposted by Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦Shawn Menard @shawnmenard.bsky.social · 10/06/2026Today Council passed my motion, seconded by the Mayor, with a suite of measures to help improve reliability of OC Transpo including adding more para Transpo service, transit priority street changes, LRT freezing rain fixes, more buses and 2 free weekends of service. 2142
Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 01/06/2026"Cities encourage what they accommodate. Designing streets for cars ensures more driving. More bus lanes would make transit an attractive option, improve access to the city, lower emissions and save people money on the ever-soaring costs of car ownership." ottawacitizen.com/opinion/grov...ottawacitizen.comGrover: Dedicated bus lanes in Ottawa would be a win for everyoneGiving half the road to idle cars is bad for business, the climate and transit. 2206
Reposted by Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦Jacobin @jacobinmag.bsky.social · 26/05/2026Reverend Rae Huang is running for mayor of Los Angeles on a platform to expand the public sphere: social housing, free buses, a public bank, and public movie theaters. She explains how her political vision was shaped in part by her Christian background.jacobin.comMeet Rae Huang, the Progressive Pastor Running for LA MayorReverend Rae Huang is running for mayor of Los Angeles on a platform to expand the public sphere: social housing, free buses, a public bank, and public movie theaters. She explains how her political vision was shaped in part by her Christian background. 092
Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 02/04/2026The people with full power to expand rural transit service consider privatizing it🤦♂️ Because everyone knows private enterprise loves to deliver on the basis of equity and accessibility, and would never charge even higher fares than we have now. Councillors need to step up and do their job. 094
Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 01/04/2026This is a win for transit riders - but the fight's not over. OC Transpo is in abysmal shape, yet this pilot won't even begin until 2027... This needs to be expedited and expanded (to include weekends and more 24/7 sections) and ultimately made permanent. www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/artic...ctvnews.caCity committee approves plan to test bus-only lanes on Bank Street in the GlebeA city committee has approved a pilot project that would install temporary and permanent bus-only lanes on a section of Bank Street in the Glebe. 120
Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 13/02/2026Faster boarding, higher ridership, fewer driver assaults - and less time and bureaucracy wasted punishing fare evaders! www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/o...nytimes.comOpinion | Something Surprising Happens When Bus Rides Are Free 041
Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 13/02/2026Full text of remarks by Noah Vineberg, President of the union representing transit workers in Ottawa (ATU Local 279) to Transit Committee. He rightly notes many of those sitting on the committee are responsible for the crisis they are now decrying. freetransitottawa.ca/atu-to-city-...freetransitottawa.caATU to City Hall: “You had the warnings, you had the authority, you chose to ignore both” | Free Transit Ottawa 142
Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 13/02/2026Ottawa needs more buses. We also need more dedicated lanes - to keep buses out of traffic and on schedule. Bus lanes can cut trip times in half and are badly needed on arteries like Bank, Carling, Baseline, Richmond and Rideau to speed up key routes like the 6, 7, 11, 85 and 88. 1143
Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 11/02/2026Ottawa is set to grow by 500,000 people in the next two decades. Will we provide good enough transit for all of them to get around, or sit by while tens of thousands of cars are added to our roads? www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/artic...ctvnews.caNumber of Ottawa households to grow by 257,000 over next 25 yearsThe City of Ottawa is projecting a “sustained period of high housing demand” as the population grows to 1.68 million over the next 25 years, requiring a broad range of housing options and supporting i... 110
Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 02/02/2026Sutcliffe says this is a no-go because it would mean less money to invest in reliability, which they are also not doing. www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...cbc.caCouncillors seek compensation for transit riders after latest disruption | CBC NewsTwo Ottawa city councillors want to explore ways for OC Transpo to compensate riders for recent service disruptions, including a stopped LRT train that caused mayhem across Line 1 on Tuesday. 130
Reposted by Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦Better Transit Ottawa @bettertransitottawa.ca · 20/01/2026We need emergency bus lane and transit priority measures enacted on key corridors to ensure our working buses are used as efficiently as possible. We can't have our limited bus fleet standing still in traffic. 1146
Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 20/01/2026Great coverage of the Launch of our New Vision for Transit last night! Fabulous turnout of many fabulous people. Fun, community, and optimism brings people together! www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/artic....ctvnews.caCommunity group rolls out vision for free off-peak service on OC TranspoA new organization called Free Transit Ottawa is looking for a few volunteers to help make their vision of transit in the capital a reality, which includes free transit during off-peak hours and on we... 263
Reposted by Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦Debbie Owusu-Akyeeah @dowusuakyeeah.bsky.social · 20/01/2026I love a good community event about an important municipal policy issue (public transit) featuring local musical talent 🚌🎶💛 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social 061
Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 08/01/2026“It was haphazard to put all of the eggs in the electric bus basket. More buses are the only way we’re going to be able to offer the service that’s been posted and promised. But we are at a bit of a standstill with getting buses into the system.” www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/artic...ctvnews.caWaiting to go green: City lagging on electric bus targets, only a fraction in service so farCouncillors in Barrhaven are pushing the city to buy more diesel buses to help solve reliability issues as the city lags on its electric bus targets. 110
Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 06/01/2026Join us at Irene’s Pub on Monday January 19th for an evening of music, speakers, and community! It's time to build a movement around a set of bold ideas to deliver the transit we deserve – without barriers and which provides a real alternative to high emissions private vehicles. 063
Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 05/01/2026Gross indeed! www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/artic...ctvnews.ca“It’s gross,” Ottawa transit riders surprised by 2026 fare increaseOC Transpo implemented fare increases on New Year’s Day, and some transit riders say they’re not on board with the hiked prices for buses and the LRT in the capital. 020
Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 12/12/2025To overcome many years of neglect, we must urgently tackle the fundamental issues with bus service — not in baby steps over the years and decades to come. A city focused on affordability, climate action, and good services is waiting. Let's fight for it, together. 0165
Reposted by Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦Shawn Menard @shawnmenard.bsky.social · 11/12/2025We did it- 18 and Under Youth Pass is coming to #Ottawa as of July 1st, 2026. It will bring free transit for youth on weekends, holidays, after 5pm on weekdays and all day every day in the summer (July and August)! 65811
Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 08/12/2025Free Transit: Iowa did it, Ottawa can too www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/c...nytimes.comIowa City Made Its Buses Free. Traffic Cleared, and So Did the Air. 110
Reposted by Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦Sean Devine @seandevine9.bsky.social · 03/12/2025Those fuel savings are all over the budget, all the result of external policy changes from another level of government. The City of Ottawa has no right to claim that as an achievement. The only action the City took was not to re-invest those transit savings back into improved transit service. 5/ 1272
Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 03/12/2025The 2026 transit budget includes $47M in savings from uploading the LRT to Metrolinx... a deal the mayor admits won't be finalized for up to two years. Why are we claiming money we haven't saved yet? This creative accounting allows the City to appear spending while doing austerity. 030
Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 02/12/2025"Pairing free buses with paid parking says we value people in motion more than cars at rest. Some drivers will denounce this as a cash grab. But for decades, the city has handed out billions in free public real estate to a small minority of residents." www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/o...nytimes.comOpinion | This Is How Mamdani Can Pay for Free Buses 001
Reposted by Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦Strong Towns Ottawa @strongtownsottawa.ca · 01/12/2025In case anyone needed a better visual to show why the bus lane is "empty" and the car lane is "filled". It's pretty simple. Cars are realllyyyy bad at moving large amounts of people. They're definitely great for specific uses! But to rely on them for every single trip is where we have failed. 04118
Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 28/11/2025"The budget asks riders to pay more for the same unreliable service. The people who rely on it and the workers who deliver it live this every single day. We have less people riding our bus or trains because when they’ve gone to use it... it has let them down." -- Noah Vineberg, ATU 279 president 011
Reposted by Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦Alex Glista @glista.bsky.social · 28/11/2025Bathurst Street #RapidTO at Queen Street. We love to see a better Toronto being built one bucket of paint at a time. #topoli 1307
Reposted by Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦Occasional Transpo @occtranspo.bsky.social · 24/11/2025Plante roughly saying 'everyone's in the same boat with Transit having trouble' and that she couldn't find any cities that are successfully recovering. 15 second Google. globalnews.ca/news/9477981...globalnews.caBus ridership on Edmonton Transit returns to pre-pandemic levels: city - Edmonton | Globalnews.caEdmonton bus ridership reached 100 per cent of 2019 pre-pandemic levels in January 2023, averaging 1.2 million rides per week, the city said. 1133
Reposted by Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦Occasional Transpo @occtranspo.bsky.social · 22/11/2025Cars Cars as far as the eye can see. We could replace pretty much every vehicle in this picture with two more buses. 1123
Reposted by Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦Better Transit Ottawa @bettertransitottawa.ca · 13/11/2025The 2026 draft Ottawa budget announces further delays to the Carling bus lane project, estimating the completion time for a bus lane project at 2035. This project was started in 2016 with designs released in 2017, which would make this be a 19 year long project just to install interim bus lanes. 33014
Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 20/11/2025"Ridership has surpassed pre-pandemic levels by 18%. Bus drivers say they’re navigating less congested streets. People drove 1.8 million fewer miles and emissions dropped by 24,000 metric tons a year - the equivalent of taking 5,200 vehicles off the roads." www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/c...nytimes.comIowa City Made Its Buses Free. Traffic Cleared, and So Did the Air. 15317
Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 14/11/2025When transit sucks, many parents and seniors need to own a car -- maybe even two. This costs a household about $16,000 a year. Failing to invest in transit is a huge financial burden on everyone. Even worse, the city scrapped the Youth Pass and raised the senior bus fare last year. 2143
Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 14/11/2025Mayor conflates low taxes with "affordability." But when public services like transit remain unusable for most people, that becomes incredibly expensive. Saddling people with car payments, Uber/Lyft costs, air pollution and climate change is not affordable. www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/artic...ctvnews.caOttawa taxpayers facing 3.75 per cent property tax hike, 2.5 per cent OC Transpo fare increase in 2026Ottawa taxpayers are facing a 3.75 per cent property tax increase for City of Ottawa services next year, as well as higher user fees for transit, recreation and water services. 172
Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 12/11/2025"Quite simply, Brampton provides service that is good enough to make getting around by transit reasonable for people who have other options as well as for people with no other choice." www.bloomberg.com/news/article...bloomberg.comHow Did This Suburb Figure Out Mass Transit?Transit ridership is off the charts in Brampton, Ontario, despite its typical low-density suburban layout. Here’s how the city got residents to get on the bus. 142
Reposted by Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦Strong Towns Ottawa @strongtownsottawa.ca · 08/11/2025With all of the talk about Lansdowne 2.0, and improving transit access to the location, this is the perfect opportunity to get fully dedicated 24/7 bus lanes, not just during "peak" hours. Delays for buses are almost constant throughout the day. strongtownsottawa.ca/2025/11/08/a... #Ottawa #Bank 53511
Reposted by Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦Horizon Ottawa @horizonottawa.bsky.social · 23/10/2025Ford’s new “Fighting Delays” bill would ban new bike lanes and let the province block anything that “interferes” with cars including bus lanes and safety projects. This is a war on bikes, transit, and local democracy. Send an email to Ford and your MPP: www.horizonottawa.ca/back_off_fordhorizonottawa.caTell Ford to Back Off Our Bike and Bus Lanes! 071
Reposted by Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦Scottish Greens @scottishgreens.org · 31/10/2025Green councillors in Glasgow have secured a pilot scheme for free public transport! 🙌 In 2022 we delivered free bus travel for under 22s. It's reduced climate emissions and congestion, and increased mobility and the money in people's pockets.thenational.scotFree public transport pilot scheme announced for major Scottish cityA FREE public transport trial is to take place in a major Scottish city early next year 822973
Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 31/10/2025Normalize submitting Uber/Lyft receipts to OC Transpo when the bus doesn't show up. 042
Reposted by Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦Jeff Leiper @jleiper.bsky.social · 29/10/2025There's lots to mull in this Citizen article exploring 417 congestion. All is not hopeless but there are challenges. Transit is the key to quicker commutes. Restoring and then improving transit will help speed everyone along.ottawacitizen.comWhy is traffic so bad on Highway 417 in Ottawa?Here's everything you need to know about how construction, unreliable transit, and returning to the office have made getting to work worse. 65713
Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 28/10/2025Time savings estimate along one NYC bus route before and after implementation of bus lanes, signal priority, and free fares / fare zones. "In an ideal world, all these investments could cut about 40 percent off the time of a trip." 021
Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 27/10/2025Several bus routes use Merivale Road, including routes 80, 53, 189, 117 and 187. Painting two outer lanes red can cut trip times in half during peak traffic, making transit faster, more reliable and enabling ridership. www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/artic...ctvnews.caOttawa eyes bus-only lanes on Merivale RoadA report for the public works and infrastructure committee meeting on Thursday recommends councillors approve the statement of work for the environmental assessment study to place bus lanes on Merival... 092
Reposted by Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦Derrick Simpson @derricksimpson.bsky.social · 19/10/2025Spoke with the Centretown Buzz about the (not so great) proposal for bus lanes on Bank Street, and the need to put people before parking. centretownbuzz.ca/2025/10/be-b...centretownbuzz.ca“Be bold!” Crowd asks city to improve bus lane proposal for Bank Street – Centretown BUZZ 145
Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 07/10/2025Free coffee is nice and all, but let's get serious: proper dedicated bus lanes on Bank St could bring three times more people per hour to the area than mixed traffic does. Street parking will never provide these kinds of benefits for local shops. obj.ca/glebe-bia-br...obj.caGlebe BIA brews up innovative way of increasing foot traffic to area businessesLucky coffee lovers may get their morning cup for free this month as the Glebe BIA covers the cost as a way to promote local cafés. 0102
Reposted by Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 26/09/2025How do you move 1000 people into a city centre? 1 train, 20 buses or 650 personal vehicles (with a LOT of parking required!) HT @davidloisuned.bsky.social for the Spanish translation of one of my favourite graphics originally from Sydney. #CityMakingMath 412646
Reposted by Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦Strong Towns Ottawa @strongtownsottawa.ca · 23/09/2025Another reminder that the city is doing an open house TOMORROW about bus lanes on Bank Street. It will be at Blessed Sacrament Parish, 194 Fourth Avenue from 6:30 - 8:30 pm. Come help support 24/7 bus lanes on Bank! Info at the link below. engage.ottawa.ca/bank-street-... 0186
Reposted by Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦FreedyBee @freedybee.bsky.social · 22/09/2025It can't be stressed enough: this kind of city is MORE accessible, with MORE choices for everyone. Reducing the number of cars driven by people who don't need to drive leaves more space for mobility vehicles and reduces journey times. Cars are expensive! 35617
Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 22/09/2025"When transit is underfunded, it affects housing development, traffic congestion, affordability, and even job access [...] even if you don't personally take the train or bus, you still benefit from public transit." 141
Reposted by Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦Better Transit Ottawa @bettertransitottawa.ca · 17/09/2025The next three 7s are cancelled at the start of evening rush. This is an every day occurrence due to the lack of working buses to run the schedule we need. OC Transpo needs to order more buses to replace the over 15 year old fleet and hire enough mechanics to get the existing buses in service. 1138