A
survey of passengers done by the HSR in late 1997
found that 85% were "captive", that is they did not
own a vehicle. It appears that almost no-one rides
the HSR who has a choice. The number of rides per
capita in 1985 was 76. In 1997 it was 48. Some other
Ontario communities have rates that are four times
as high.
In
1998, the Region cut another $800,000 from the transit
budget. The Commissioner of Transportation admitted
in a meeting earlier this year that this will cause
a further decline of 200,000 riders in 1998. The adult
fare was increased from $1.75 to $2.00 and the children's
fare from $1.05 to $2.00. Senior's bus passes were
also raised again (by $10 a year, from $155 to $165).
A mother who wants to take her three children to the
library now must fork out $16 for the round trip.
One
of the interesting features of this situation is Dale
Turvey, who has been the Regional Transportation Commissioner
since 1990. Most of the transit decline has taken
place under his leadership.
Mr.
Turvey graduated in engineering in 1968 and went to
work for Delcan, a transportation consulting company.
In 1977, Delcan was hired to work on the Red Hill
expressway. Mr. Turvey was manager of the Hamilton
branch of Delcan and he chaired the committee that
investigated the need for the road and possible alternatives.
He is the personal author of the 1982 Environmental
Assessment submission from the Region, and he was
a leading witness in the 1984-85 hearings on the project.
Those
hearings ended in June 1985 and in September 1985
Mr. Turvey was hired by the Region as their Director
of Transportation Planning. He was put in charge of
the expressway project after it received final provincial
approval in 1987. He continues to this day to be the
main bureaucrat pushing the expressway and the Region's
main expert on the project. In effect, it has been
his life's work.
The 1982 document is very interesting. In it Mr. Turvey
presents an argument that much of the cost of the
expressway will be covered by savings in transit!
He
calculates that building the expressway will reduce
HSR passengers crossing the escarpment in the east
end of Hamilton from 9,500 a day to 5,400 a day. He
estimates this will reduce transit costs by $8.1 million
(annual operating cost) and also result in $22.5 million
in reduced capital costs.
He
concludes: "The thrust of the foregoing discussion
is to demonstrate that, under common travel demand
assumptions, new road construction together with reasonable
assumptions regarding transit usage can represent
a cost-effective alternative. The apparent cost effectiveness
of the NO-ACTION [don't build anything] and MINOR
[widen existing roads] alternatives is offset to a
large degree by higher net transit costs..." (P.5-20).
This is the mentality in charge of the HSR!
This
mentality is obviously shared by Terry Cooke and the
dominant politicians of the Region. While they claim
to have no money to even pay the drivers, much less
upgrade the transit system, they are eagerly marching
ahead with plans to borrow $81 million for the construction
of the north-south Red Hill Valley expressway.
Part
of the transit decline is linked to the regional government
policy to encourage suburban sprawl and thus kill
off the downtown and older commercial areas.
Between
1971 and 1991, the total population of Hamilton below
the escarpment (between Dundas and Red Hill Creek)
FELL by over 42,000 people. In the same period the
area south of Mohawk Road on the escarpment grew by
nearly 50,000.
Between
1971 and the present, the population of the entire
city of Hamilton has remained nearly stagnant (increase
from 312,000 to about 320,000), but the physical area
of the city has greatly increased (perhaps close to
doubled).
The
implications for taxes are obvious (twice as much
infrastructure but the same number of taxpayers) as
they are for transit. The lower city is the main base
of the transit system so the population loss has also
affected transit usage.
The council subsidizes suburban sprawl with absurdly
low development charges, new expressways and infrastructure,
subsidies for new commercial development, etc.
