Service Key To Best OC Transpo: BENN

It’s not the fares that limit the ridership. It’s the service.

If public transit doesn’t go where you want to go, the fare is irrelevant. Why? Because you aren’t boarding the bus or the train. If public transit goes where you want to go but not at the time you want to go, the fare is irrelevant. Why? Because you aren’t boarding the bus or the train.

If public transit goes where you want to go, when you want to go, but takes a lot more time to get there than other modes of transportation, the fare is irrelevant. Why? Because you aren’t boarding the bus or the train. In short, the only time the fare is relevant is if public transit actually goes where you want to go, when you want to go, with a total trip time that is acceptable, relative to the alternatives.

So, where should public transit go? Where potential riders want to go. When? When potential riders want to go. How long should the trip take? Not much longer than the alternatives. Simple to diagnose. Not so simple to implement a viable solution. Or is it?

Ottawa is surrounded by large satellite communities to the east, south, west and north (yes the residents of Gatineau are part of the supply of riders on Ottawa public transit) that are largely bedroom communities. Satellite communities with limited local employment, relative to their population. They are housing people needing (as contrasted to merely wanting), to get to work. Where they work. When they work. In a reasonable amount of time, compared to the alternatives, to get there. And back.

Where they work is vital. Downtown might have been, who knows, could even still be the major employment centre. But it isn’t the only employment centre. Kanata has been the second largest employment centre in Ottawa for decades.

People who work in Kanata are not well-served by Ottawa’s centre focused hub-and-spoke public transit system. Not even the people who live and work in Kanata are well-served.

Why? Because when cities reach a certain size, the centralized hub-and-spoke structure of public transit no longer works. Ottawa reached that critical mass at least a decade ago. When cities reach that point, they need a public transit system that is more web-like in design. Look at all the larger cities with successful transit systems. Do you see a centralized hub-and-spoke design, or do you see a design that criss-crosses the city?

How could the transit system be improved to attract new riders? Start with making the routes more direct, with fewer transfers.

Residents of Barrhaven looking to get to Kanata’s tech centres need to take a local service to a major transit centre, such as Fallowfield. There they transfer on to another bus to Lincoln Fields. Then transfer to another bus to the March Road transit centre. Then transfer on to a local bus that may get them somewhere near where they want to go. Four buses to travel two long sides of what is essentially a right-angle triangle. That’s a route that is about 40 per cent longer trip, Did I mention the extra time between stops, waiting to catch the next bus?

Or … they could take a local bus to a major transit centre such as Fallowfield, transfer on to an express bus that takes them directly to one of the two major advanced technology employment centres in Kanata.

The same concept could be applied to a variety of communities and significant employment centres.

When? Mornings and evenings, every five minutes.

How long? Not in the same amount of time as by car, but in far less time than the current routing would require.

How many residents would take this service? Not sure. Start by  studying the master transportation plan  and the master transit plan. Supplement that by asking the employers in Kanata to provide statistics based on the first three digits of the postal code of their employees. This would provide an objectively determined population.

What would the uptake be? One way to find out would be to try it. If, after a few months it isn’t attracting enough passengers, tweak it a bit. If it still isn’t financially viable, well at least OC Transpo tried. And it didn’t need to make significant investments in fixed-location infrastructure.

In short, the people who make the public transit decisions in Ottawa need to develop a far more comprehensive understanding of why people don’t use public transit. For far too long, far too many of these decision-makers have been asking the wrong people the wrong questions, without understanding that the highest probability outcome of that combination is the wrong answer.

Ron Benn, a finance executive, has been a member of the Centrepointe Community Association for the better part of three decades.

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