12-12-2016, 02:37 PM
(12-12-2016, 02:15 PM)nms Wrote: It would be interesting to hear the Region's explanation for the decline in transit ridership use over the past five years. If it is truly, as Regional staff have claimed recently, due to changes in the school board bus policy, then there is the potential that the ridership simply got knocked back temporarily but will grow in the future. If, on the other hand, this decline is due to something else, then that will need to be looked. Toronto has had stagnant ridership recently with several explanations. One that I thought most likely, is that if everything is centralized to a small, walkable/bikeable area, then there would subsequently be less demand for transit between home-work-play areas.
On the subject of boomers aging, I can foresee that self-driving or otherwise semi-autonomous cars will become more attractive. Many seniors prefer to stay in their own homes for a variety of reasons rather than to relocate to a smaller, more centralized facility (and even then, some seniors living facilities are not very central at all). Having access to a self-driving car would mean that seniors could still maintain a certain degree of independence as well as the rest of their lifestyle without the need to relocate.
The region gave several reasons for the decline (over 2-3 years I believe, not 5 years), including the change in student passes, as well as delays due to construction, further, changes to schedules often have an immediate decrease in usage, even if long term gains are made.
Further there is a country wide decrease, my guess, driven by the huge drop in gas prices. Which are now on the rebound.
As for boomers, I believe the traditional belief was that they stayed in their homes, but that knowledge is becoming out of date, people stay in bungalows that were common long ago, but not the later two story homes.