Letter to editor - U-Pass brings more than 'mayhem' to Vancouver

Important info about riding the bus in Vancouver....


U-Pass brings more than 'mayhem' to Vancouver

Georgia Straight Publish Date: 31-Aug-2006

U-Pass has brought significant benefits and not just overcrowded buses, as some have posited [“U-Pass brings bus mayhem�, August 24-31]. Since the Student Society of UBC introduced U-Pass in cooperation with TransLink and UBC, automobile traffic on routes to UBC has declined by over 20 percent and traffic congestion has almost disappeared. Students have reduced their greenhouse-gas emissions by 16,000 tonnes per year [equivalent to 11,520 passenger cars not driven for one year (U.S. figures) - Al] despite an inadequate supply of buses, which has led to severe overcrowding.

Our members use U-Pass on every route in the TransLink system; if the system works for UBC students, it works for people throughout Greater Vancouver.

In initiating U-Pass, the students and administration of UBC have made sustainable transit an indispensable part of daily life. It is now time for the government to invest in public transit so that we may entice others to do so. We need hundreds of new buses on the road to relieve overcrowding and so that U-Pass can be expanded to the colleges.

> Ian Pattillo / Vice President, External Affairs, Alma Mater Society of UBC

http://www.straight.com/content.cfm?id=20125
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