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Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 2d

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...

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.

obj.ca

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Reposted by Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦

Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 13d

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

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Reposted by Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦

Strong Towns Ottawa @strongtownsottawa.ca · 15d

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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Reposted by Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦

Beth Frieden @bethfrieden.bsky.social · 16d

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!

Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · 16d

“Air pollution fell substantially as Paris restricted car traffic and made way for parks, people-streets and bike-lanes.”

Better for the climate, better for health, better for livability & quality of life.

Common sense.

Such a no-brainer, it’s remarkable that more cities HAVEN’T done the same.

Paris said au revoir to cars. Air pollution maps reveal a dramatic change.

Air pollution fell substantially as the city restricted car traffic and made way for parks and bike lanes.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 16d

"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."

Rail Fans Canada @railfans.ca · 17d

In this video, we cover the Canadian Urban Transit Association’s call for long-term federal investment in transit and highlight what underfunding looks like on the ground in Ottawa, Montreal, and Toronto.
youtu.be/UKvP_-Br8Iw

Public Transit: Why Federal Funding Matters for Every Canadian

YouTube video by Rail Fans Canada

youtu.be

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Reposted by Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦

Better Transit Ottawa @bettertransitottawa.ca · 21d

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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Reposted by Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦

City of Ottawa @en.ottawa.ca · 20d

You’re invited to an open house about the Bank Street Active Transportation and Transit Priority Feasibility Study on Wednesday, September 24 at 7pm at Blessed Sacrament Parish, 194 Fourth Avenue.
Learn more: https://bit.ly/46bquXL

Collage of a street sign for Bank Street and Fifth Avenue and a bus on bank street.

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Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 21d

"What if there were a technology that could help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution and environmental degradation, while improving health, reducing social inequality and boosting the economy?

There is, and this month it turns 200."

www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Make trains great again — for the sake of people and the planet

As railways enter their third century of service, research must support their renaissance for more-sustainable travel that supports human development.

www.nature.com

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Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 23d

Routes 6, 7 and 12 continue to see the highest number of trips cancelled.

We don't have enough buses. Only 520 out of OC Transpo's 735 buses are on the road at any time; the rest are in the shop. Replacing old buses and expanding the fleet should be a priority.

ottawacitizen.com/news/oc-tran...

OC Transpo misses on-time targets — again. Now what?

Ottawa councillors voiced their frustration with the transit authority making little progress on its 99.5 per cent reliability target.

ottawacitizen.com

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Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · 26d

The fundamental issue facing OC Transpo is that riders, rightly, don't think the service is worth paying for.

Late buses, longer commutes, and a world class train down every few weeks. Fining people $260 for refusing to pay the $4 fare won't fix that.

www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/artic...

OC Transpo issues $1 million in fines for not paying the fare

A presentation for the transit committee meeting on Thursday showed 4,059 tickets were issued for fare compliance violations between Jan. 1 and Aug. 31. OC Transpo fare compliance officers have also i...

www.ctvnews.ca

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Reposted by Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦

Jeremy Ney @jeremybney.bsky.social · 27d

Transit-oriented development isn't just urban planning - it's social justice. Good transit access should be a right, not a luxury good.

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Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · Sep 8

Without very good transit, there will be very bad traffic.

The city's own projections into 2046 show high population growth concentrated in the suburbs. That's a lot of cars on the road without a good transit network (i.e. a frequent, functional LRT with reliable local bus connections).

Population growth map showing:
* 50-60,000 more people in South Gloucester/Leitrim
* 40-50,000 more people in both Orleans and Kanata/Stitsville
* 30-40,000 more people in both Alta Vista and Hunt Club
* 20-30,000 more people in the core

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Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · Sep 2

A very important step on the road to free transit for those who need it the most. What will be crucial for accessibility is an easy to navigate application process, which Ottawa's low income EquiPass is not.

www.ctvnews.ca/montreal/art...

Projet Montreal proposes social pricing for low-income public transit users

Montreal’s incumbent party is promising a new public transit fare system for lower-income commuters should the party be re-elected.

www.ctvnews.ca

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Reposted by Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦

Ariel Troster @arieltroster.com · Sep 2

Today, the city’s Finance + Corporate Services Committee voted for a budget direction that could increase the police levy up to 6.5% and raise transit fares up to 7.5%.

Meanwhile, the city departments that work to address homelessness and poverty are being told they can only have a 2.9% increase.

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Reposted by Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦

griffsy.bsky.social @griffsy.bsky.social · Sep 1

Perhaps you could have a word with Ottawa, our capital city which could lead but chooses to lag behind everyone else on #climateaction.

@cape-acme.bsky.social @horizonottawa.bsky.social @scan-ottawa.bsky.social @forourkidsog.bsky.social @freetransitottawa.bsky.social

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Scrapping youth transit pass 'shameful,' says group behind email campaign | CBC News

Nearly 800 people sent emails calling on OC Transpo to rescind a decision to scrap the youth monthly pass, in a campaign organized by a progressive advocacy group

www.cbc.ca

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Reposted by Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦

Jim M @hockeyinottawa.bsky.social · Aug 27

I'd like to correct CBCs numbers, OC Transpo forecasting an $11M deficit after we account for the $36M hole staff purposely punched into the budget hoping the Prov/Feds would make up the difference of at the direction of Council.

Ottawa Transit Riders 🇨🇦🍁 @otttransitriders.bsky.social · Aug 26

OC Transpo forecasting $47M deficit this fiscal year
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

OC Transpo forecasting $47M deficit this fiscal year | CBC News

Revenue falls short at OC Transpo as ridership remains stuck in lower gear and help from higher levels of government proves elusive.

www.cbc.ca

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Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · Aug 27

Entirely preventable. The City and OC Transpo spent the last five years making bus service worse, putting more cars on the road and emissions in the air.

Now city hall is forcing its own staff back to the office with no reliable transit option. We deserve better.

www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/artic...

Commute times increase in Ottawa-Gatineau as more workers head to the office: StatsCan

Statistic Canada says 76 per cent of workers in Ottawa-Gatineau worked most of their hours outside of the home in May 2025, up 9.5 per cent from May 2024.

www.ctvnews.ca

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Reposted by Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦

Ariel Troster @arieltroster.com · Aug 26

I’m with Jeff. If we haven’t made the proper investments to ensure fast and frequent transit, this will just add more cars to the road and increase congestion in Centretown.

Also: hybrid work arrangements are good for parents and caregivers—often women. Trust people to work where they do it best.

Jeff Leiper 🛴🚲🚇♻️🚌📊 @jleiper.bsky.social · Aug 26

I want to express my profound disappointment today that the City has ordered its workers back into the office five days a week. It is a short-sighted decision that serves no one well in either the short or long term. (1/6)

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Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · Aug 26

"Making life more affordable, reducing the number of vehicles produced and those on the roads, thereby reducing environmental harm, are all good for the community, for our welfare and the welfare of our neighbours."

canadiancatholicnews.ca/public-trans...

Public transportation: cities that are making it work - Canadian Catholic News

Public transit is easy to complain about. Buses run late, trains get delayed, and missing a bus by a millisecond can put a person in a bad mood.

canadiancatholicnews.ca

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Reposted by Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦

Horizon Ottawa @horizonottawa.bsky.social · Aug 6

Instead of investing in future riders, the city is pushing teens away from transit by hiking youth fares.

Other cities are seeing massive gains in ridership by making youth transit discounted or free - so why aren’t we?

Send an email today: www.horizonottawa.ca/save_youth_t...

Demand OC Transpo Reverse the Youth Fare Hikes

www.horizonottawa.ca

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Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · Aug 22

Another fare hike and more obfuscation from the mayor about transit funding.

LRT expansion and new electric buses are great, but they do not make for good service. That requires a functional bus network, which was just cut. We are paying a lot for subpar service.

www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/artic...

Ottawa mayor pitches 3.75% tax increase in 2026; biggest hike for police in 15 years

Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe says his proposal for the the 2026 budget would keep the overall property tax increase smaller than many other major cities, but it would also include what he called the bi...

www.ctvnews.ca

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Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · Aug 18

Terrible public transit forces people into car ownership whether they can afford it or not.

Owning a car costs $16,000 a year of which $3-4,000 is insurance. Now hundreds of Ottawa drivers are citing the high cost of living as reason for not renewing their insurance.

www.ctvnews.ca/ottawa/artic...

More Ottawa drivers taking the chance to drive without insurance, OPP say

Ontario Provincial Police say since Jan. 1, officers in Ottawa have issued 336 charges to drivers for operating a vehicle without insurance. Twenty-five charges were issued to drivers without insuranc...

www.ctvnews.ca

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Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · Aug 15

More frequency and expanding off-peak service to benefit shift workers - what a concept!

Imagine if New Ways to Bus did this instead of cutting service to the bone.

www.thewhig.com/news/local-n...

Kingston transit expanding service into overnight hours

The new overnight service will run from midnight to 2 a.m. every evening. It will connect the Cataraqui Centre to First Canada Avenue.

www.thewhig.com

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Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦 @freetransitottawa.bsky.social · Aug 14

Ottawa has been blanketed with wildfire smoke multiple times this summer. Providing free bus and train service during those days would be an easy way to offset air pollution by reducing traffic emissions — which account for about 2.2 million tonnes of GHGs each year.

www.reuters.com/sustainabili...

Geneva makes public transport temporarily free to combat pollution spike

Public transport will be temporarily free of charge in Geneva, in a first for Switzerland, as part of a series of measures aimed at tackling a spike in pollution in the city.

www.reuters.com

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Reposted by Free Transit Ottawa 🇨🇦

Brent Toderian @brenttoderian.bsky.social · Aug 4

This iconic Fabian Todorovic cartoon is still one of the best I’ve seen at illustrating the remarkable amount of space we surrender to cars, leaving little space left for everyone and everything else. The text added later makes the bonus point that many drivers still manage to complain about it.

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