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Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦

@freetransitottawa.bsky.social
270 followers 82 following 98 posts

Free Transit Ottawa is fighting to make Ottawa's transit system free, reliable, and accessible for a more equitable and sustainable future for all. freetransitottawa.ca

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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...
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Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Ever 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.ca
This is why OC Transpo cancels hundreds of bus trips
Buses 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.
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Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
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David Moore @davidrussellmoore.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
The 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.com
This 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?
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Shawn Menard @shawnmenard.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Today 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.
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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.com
Grover: Dedicated bus lanes in Ottawa would be a win for everyone
Giving half the road to idle cars is bad for business, the climate and transit.
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Jacobin @jacobinmag.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
Reverend 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.com
Meet Rae Huang, the Progressive Pastor Running for LA Mayor
Reverend 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.
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Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 02/04/2026
The 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.
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Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 01/04/2026
This 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.ca
City committee approves plan to test bus-only lanes on Bank Street in the Glebe
A 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.
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Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
Faster boarding, higher ridership, fewer driver assaults - and less time and bureaucracy wasted punishing fare evaders! www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/o...
nytimes.com
Opinion | Something Surprising Happens When Bus Rides Are Free
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Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
Full 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.ca
ATU to City Hall: “You had the warnings, you had the authority, you chose to ignore both” | Free Transit Ottawa
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Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
Ottawa 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.
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Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 11/02/2026
Ottawa 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.ca
Number of Ottawa households to grow by 257,000 over next 25 years
The 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...
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Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 02/02/2026
Sutcliffe 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.ca
Councillors seek compensation for transit riders after latest disruption | CBC News
Two 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.
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Better Transit Ottawa @bettertransitottawa.ca · 20/01/2026
We 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.
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Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
Great 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.ca
Community group rolls out vision for free off-peak service on OC Transpo
A 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...
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Debbie Owusu-Akyeeah @dowusuakyeeah.bsky.social · 20/01/2026
I love a good community event about an important municipal policy issue (public transit) featuring local musical talent 🚌🎶💛 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social
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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.ca
Waiting to go green: City lagging on electric bus targets, only a fraction in service so far
Councillors 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.
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Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 06/01/2026
Join 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.
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Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 05/01/2026
Gross indeed! www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/artic...
ctvnews.ca
“It’s gross,” Ottawa transit riders surprised by 2026 fare increase
OC 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.
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Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 12/12/2025
To 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.
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Shawn Menard @shawnmenard.bsky.social · 11/12/2025
We 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)!
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Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
Free Transit: Iowa did it, Ottawa can too www.nytimes.com/2025/11/18/c...
nytimes.com
Iowa City Made Its Buses Free. Traffic Cleared, and So Did the Air.
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Sean Devine @seandevine9.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
Those 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/
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Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 03/12/2025
The 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.
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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.com
Opinion | This Is How Mamdani Can Pay for Free Buses
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Strong Towns Ottawa @strongtownsottawa.ca · 01/12/2025
In 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.
An image depicting 3 groups of people and how much space they take up on the roads. The left is the group and a single bus to their right, that fits all of them. The next picture is the same group with the amount of space required in bikes, only slightly larger than the bus. The third image is the same group with the amount of space it takes to fit them into personal vehicles. The space is much larger than either of the other two. Depicting why cars take up so much space on our roads compared to other forms of transportation.
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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
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Alex Glista @glista.bsky.social · 28/11/2025
Bathurst Street #RapidTO at Queen Street. We love to see a better Toronto being built one bucket of paint at a time. #topoli
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Occasional Transpo @occtranspo.bsky.social · 24/11/2025
Plante 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.ca
Bus ridership on Edmonton Transit returns to pre-pandemic levels: city - Edmonton | Globalnews.ca
Edmonton bus ridership reached 100 per cent of 2019 pre-pandemic levels in January 2023, averaging 1.2 million rides per week, the city said.
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Occasional Transpo @occtranspo.bsky.social · 22/11/2025
Cars Cars as far as the eye can see. We could replace pretty much every vehicle in this picture with two more buses.
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Better Transit Ottawa @bettertransitottawa.ca · 13/11/2025
The 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.
City of Ottawa 2026 draft capital budget item for Carling Avenue showing a year of completion of 2035Blog post about this delay

The 2026 draft Ottawa budget announces further delays to the Carling Avenue 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 simple interim bus lanes.

To put this in perspective, the O-Train Line 1 project took 7 years to build an entire train system, even after the excessive delays of that project.

This is not a complicated BRT project, this is meant as an interim solution until a real BRT is complete.

The initial project design (https://ottawa.ca/en/parking-roads-and-travel/transportation-planning/environmental-assessment-completed-projects/carling-avenue-transit-priority-measures) released in 2017 suggests the project is almost all relabeling existing lanes from mixed traffic to bus-only to give priority to buses on the busy corridor or Carling Avenue.

Projects like these are the easy and cheap projects that need to be prioritized as much as possible. Not only will this improve travel times and reliability of one of the top bus corridors in the city, but this also allows us to use our limited bus fleet as efficiently as possible. Ottawa faces a severe bus shortage, which means we must make sure every bus is used as efficiently as possible. When a bus sits in traffic, it can’t be used to serve other important routes.

Carling Avenue is also facing intense redevelopment with new apartments with very limited parking. That means many new transit-using residents need to cross the corridor.

We urge city council to determine what is making this project take so long and speed up easy and cheap transit projects like this to get our city moving.

\- Better Transit Ottawa
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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.com
Iowa City Made Its Buses Free. Traffic Cleared, and So Did the Air.
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Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
When 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.
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Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 14/11/2025
Mayor 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.ca
Ottawa taxpayers facing 3.75 per cent property tax hike, 2.5 per cent OC Transpo fare increase in 2026
Ottawa 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.
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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.com
How 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.
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Strong Towns Ottawa @strongtownsottawa.ca · 08/11/2025
With 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
Tables showing delays for the 6 and 7 on Bank street in the Glebe. Showing extremely large delays outside of the "peak" hours identified by the city. These are when the parking lanes are in effect, and cause buses to have to merge in and out of the parking lane at every stop.
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Horizon Ottawa @horizonottawa.bsky.social · 23/10/2025
Ford’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_ford
horizonottawa.ca
Tell Ford to Back Off Our Bike and Bus Lanes!
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Scottish Greens @scottishgreens.org · 31/10/2025
Green 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.scot
Free public transport pilot scheme announced for major Scottish city
A FREE public transport trial is to take place in a major Scottish city early next year
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Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 31/10/2025
Normalize submitting Uber/Lyft receipts to OC Transpo when the bus doesn't show up.
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Jeff Leiper @jleiper.bsky.social · 29/10/2025
There'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.com
Why 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.
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Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 28/10/2025
Time 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."
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Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 27/10/2025
Several 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.ca
Ottawa eyes bus-only lanes on Merivale Road
A 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...
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Derrick Simpson @derricksimpson.bsky.social · 19/10/2025
Spoke 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
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Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 07/10/2025
Free 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.ca
Glebe BIA brews up innovative way of increasing foot traffic to area businesses
Lucky 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.
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Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 26/09/2025
How 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
The math in graphic form, in Spanish
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Strong Towns Ottawa @strongtownsottawa.ca · 23/09/2025
Another 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-...
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FreedyBee @freedybee.bsky.social · 22/09/2025
It 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!
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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."
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Better Transit Ottawa @bettertransitottawa.ca · 17/09/2025
The 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.
Screenshot from the Transit app, showing a 56 minute wait time for OC Transpo Route 7 during peak hours, and multiple canceled trips on Route 7 during peak time.
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