TTC meeting - U Passes

I'm taking a course on local politics, and one of our assignments is to attend a meeting of a municipal decision-making political body (whether city council, or one of their boards). So, of course, I decided to go to the TTC meeting, the timing of which just so happened to coordinate well with my procrastination technique of studying and writing essays. (It's due in three days - lots of time!)

Two councillors (among others) really impressed me today, and I've never heard of them before: Glenn De Baeremaeker and Michael Thompson really stood out with their progressive thinking and their insightful comments. I love living in a lefty city! It isn't perfect, but it's not half bad this side of the revolution. ;)

There were three issues at the meeting that I think might be interesting to discuss here. The first one was the possibility of having a U-Pass or discounted fares for post-secondary students. The second one is the outsourcing to cab companies of Wheel Trans work. The third is the density zoning along transit traffic corridors such as the Spadina subway expansion to York.

Obviously this is all too much to tackle all in one post without putting people to sleep, so I think I'll do these issues separately over the next day or two, taking on the U-Pass now.

I went to Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario for a few years, and while Kingston public transit leaves a lot to be desired, at least they had U-passes for university and college students. All students paid in their fees, and everyone used their student card as their bus pass all year.

I was pretty amazed when I came to Toronto (having grown up in Kingston) to discover that Toronto has no such plan and that postsecondary students pay adult fares. Proposals were made today, particularly by De Baeremaeker, to give postsecondary students the same discounted rate that seniors and secondary students get. A U-Pass was also discussed as an option, where the universities and colleges would guarantee a block of income to the TTC from non-opt-outable student fees, and each student would then get a bus pass for the school year. This is how it's done in Kingston. If they can do it there, surely we can do it here!

Sure would be nice if postsecondary students in Toronto didn't have to line up in their student unions every month to save a few bucks on their metropass. (I just passed such a lineup today at Ryerson's student union today.)