GRT optimistic for the future despite 80% of residents still taking cars
Posted Nov 30, 2017 12:16:35 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Grand River Transit remains confident in the future when it comes to how many people choose to leave their cars at home.
Recently released numbers from the 2016 Census show 80 per cent of local commuters still drive a car, or other type of vehicle, to get to and from work.
John Cicuttin, Manager of Transit Development for GRT, tells the Mike Farwell Show the iON LRT system will be “a huge game changer for the competitiveness of transit.”
He says it will offer fast, reliable, and comfortable transoprtation.
The LRT, he says, along with the i-Express lines, are key pieces that will sustain long-term transit ridership growth, and the percentage of people driving will decline over time.
Cicuttin points out the 80 per cent figure for commuters-in-cars is a general overview of Kitchener, Waterloo, and Cambridge.
In specific neighhourhoods, he says, like around the universities and in the downtown core, the number of people driving is significantly lower.
He adds, density and mixed-use residential areas in urban design can get people out of their cars, and the LRT line will also help with that, with an increase in development already along the route.
Cicuttin says they need to make transit improvements each year, and plans are already in place to increase GRT’s transit reach by 5 per cent each year.
He says right now, half of GRT riders are students, either in high school or post-secondary; most of the other half are adults, with some seniors.
Cicuttin says getting more commuters is a goal they plan to achieve.
