A little correction

While I am happy to hear about any expansion to transit, I have to provide a little correction.

Premier Campbell says “Today, the percentage of transit ridership in the Metro Vancouver region is about 12 per cent. The leading cities of the world, be they London, Paris or Hong Kong, see ridership in the 20 to 25 per cent range.”

Unfortunately we are much further behind with non-car transportation than the Premier believes.

New York 50-55 percent train, bus, metro, bike or foot.

London 55-60 percent train, bus, metro, bike or foot.

Tokyo 57 percent train and metro.

Paris train 65-70 percent, bus, metro, bike or foot.

Moscow 85 percent train, bus, metro, bike or foot.

Hong Kong 95 percent train, bus, metro, bike or foot.

So why do these cities have such high rates of ridership? Their systems work. It is very easy to get around these cities using the public transit system, and very slow and annoying using a car.

We have a long way to go, but a good first start would be using the interurban line to get rail service in the Valley.