Transit Motion Success

I am very pleased to announce that, thanks to your advocacy, my transit Motion was approved today by Council’s Urban Planning Committee. A report will come forward to City Council in the late fall. I want to give a special thanks to Karin and Andrea for coming down from Ward 4 and taking time out of their day to speak to the Committee.

Since I was elected, I have pushed hard to make transit better for Edmontonians. This Motion asks for a new way to envision transit in our city, to fix the problems, and provide the necessary resources to build the kind of system we need. Instead of encouraging transit use, the City is putting up more barriers for people. This needs to change. Now that my Motion has passed, it will give us the information and tools we need to get it right.

You need transit to be there for you where and when you need it. 

Currently, the City is investing enormous amounts of money in LRT, but making it harder for people to access LRT stations from their local communities. It is approving developments with more density and less parking, but not serving those communities with adequate transit. It is cutting bus stops for people who rely on transit, many of whom have mobility issues, but services like DATS are running on fumes. Park and Ride facilities are a great option, but the facilities are almost always full, which forces people to make the choice to drive to work instead of taking transit.

We have to do better.

I have heard from hundreds of Ward 4 residents that the transit system simply isn’t working for them. Now that this Motion is passed, we can look at our transit system more holistically and make it work better for all Edmontonians.

For more background on the transit motion, visit my Facebook page. Please follow my page to stay up to date on my activities and other news for Ward 4.