Starting April 1, 2009 the Toronto Transit Commission has decided to start charging 905 commuters for the use of the TTC parking lots, even for metro pass holders. Like many other commuters who are also TTC riders, this obviously upsets me.
According to the TTC, the commuter lots are used by a small percentage of TTC riders, so the rest of the riders should not pay for it. There is something wrong with this logic. Weren’t commuter lots designed to encourage using the TTC in the first place? Regardless of usage, they are still shared TTC resources. As a paying TTC rider, I also pay for the operating costs the 85 bus (you can look up where it is in relation to Vaughan) which I will most likely never use and neither will the other TTC riders from the 905 area. Using TTC’s logic, only riders that use the 85 bus should pay for it. Why are the commuter lots any different then the 85 bus?
So, beware TTC riders – I can see a proposal that the single fare metro pass will not cover all buses, trains or streetcars or not all the time. Why doesn’t the TTC just say that they are suggesting fares based on usage? Maybe even creating additional fare zones? Maybe, this is not such a bad idea. Fare zone systems have been around for years in other parts of the world. They make sense for riders’ pockets as long as paying for the one TTC zone that you actually use costs less then for the all TTC services. In this fare zone system, the 905 commuters could pay more then people who live downtown. But wait, the TTC doesn’t know how to lower fares! And the 905 commuters like myself are already paying more. How would the TTC manage this model? How can fare zones even work in other countries? Do they get money from somewhere else? Maybe the TCC can convince the Ontario government, who subsides the transit, to get money from people who take buses in Ottawa. Those riders don’t take the 85 bus either.
