Make Buses Functional Again: project looking for input to revive intercity motorcoach services in Canada
A national advocacy group for public transport wants to bring intercity buses back to life in Canada, and they are reaching out to passengers and travellers across the country to help gather their views and experiences.
CHMA spoke with Transport Action Canada president Terry Johnson to find out more:
“About 40% of the population does not drive,” says Johnson. “That includes seniors, all our kids, a lot of people who have often quite minor disabilities… It prevents people from fully participating in society, or means they’re reliant on somebody else.”
Transport Action Canada is quite likely the country’s longest-lived advocacy group for public transportation. This year, they have taken on a research project aimed at policy options that could return intercity bus connectivity, functionality, and just plain old service to towns and communities across Canada.
Part of the research is the Canada-wide Motorcoach Travel Survey: a five minute questionnaire for anyone with thoughts, experiences and aspirations to share on the future of Canada’s intercity bus network.
“There’s an awful lot of social and economic opportunity that just goes down the drain when you have a totally car dependent society,” says Johnson. ”Not to mention all the pollution impacts, and all the costs. The physics of individual cars are really very bad. And they don’t even get much better when it’s an electric car.”
Transport Action favours public transport options because, “if you have a lot of people sharing a vehicle, not only can you massively improve the economics, you can include everybody,” says Johnson.… Continue