Ottawa Transit Strike

As you may be aware, workers for the City of Ottawa’s transit system have been on strike since the end of December. According to an article at CBC.ca, the strike and the lack of transit service is costing the local Ottawa economy $4 million dollars a week just in commuting costs alone. It has also played havoc with businesses and work schedules. The situation is such that the City of Ottawa is looking at opening up their busway (which I blogged about earlier) to general traffic and removing parking restrictions in their downtown. This, of course, is not good for businesses that requires a flow of traffic aka costumers. You hear some people say that transit is a waste of money. Clearly it is not in Ottawa. Transit helps connect communities in social, economical, and environmentally friendly ways that the car can't. Imagine Metro Vancouver with no public transit, or Downtown Vancouver if it was all parking lots. (I know there was a bus strike a few years back, but I believe the SkyTrain still ran), not good.