What is this Service?

Transit Services provide citizens with a safe, reliable, efficient and affordable means of
traveling to work, school, home or play. Greater use of public transit systems in a community eases
traffic congestion and improves air quality.

Specific objectives include:

• Providing mobility options for all residents to ensure access to work, education, health care,
  shopping, social and recreational opportunities
• Providing affordable transit for everyone in the community, while being fiscally responsible to
  taxpayers and supporting the goal of improving the environment
• Ensuring services and costs reflect and encourage residential and commercial growth

Influencing Factors:

• Demographics: Average household income, auto ownership rates, age of population and communities
  with higher immigrant levels impact transit market share.
• Economic Conditions: Fare increases, fluctuations in commodity and energy prices, foreign
  exchange rates, magnitude of external contracting and contractual obligations with labour.
• Environmental Factors: Topography and climate.
• Nature of Transit: Diversity and number of routes, proximity and frequency of service, service
  coverage and hours of operation, automated fare systems, GPS, advance and delay traffic signals and
  the use of dedicated bus lanes. Subway systems can involve much more costly infrastructure to be
  maintained.
• Non-Residents: Catchment area for transit riders may extend beyond municipal boundaries.
• Size of Service Area: Higher costs per capita to service large geographic areas with small
  populations. Higher density development corridors and contiguous development contribute to a lower
  cost per capita. Service and costs are also affected by type of development, topography, density
  and total population.
• Transit System and Vehicles: Loading standards of vehicles, composition of fleet (bus, subway or
  LRT), diesel versus natural gas, high floor versus low floor accessible and age of fleet.