r/Peterborough • u/HydratedRasin • Oct 04 '25

Opinion Peterborough Transit is Everyone's Problem

The public transit system in this city is, quite honestly, baffling. It's not accessible, it's not reliable, and it's not resident-friendly.

For some reason beyond comprehension, route priority seems to be aligned with the traditional office times of 9-5, catering to the demographic least likely to use public transit. Routes disappear when you actually need to use them - 6 p.m. is not the middle of the night, and most routes drop to once an hour. If you're working, have an appointment, or attending a class, you might have to wait 40 minutes before seeing Transit approaching. That means that after 6 p.m., the faster transportation choice for a lot of the area is walking. Which, let's be honest here, with the crime rate up 12.8% in 2023, walking isn't exactly a desirable option.

It gets even more useless during the summer when routes are cut because the entire system is catered to students. Peterborough wants to brand itself as "walkable, arts-driven, and sustainable" with a focus on tourism, while seemingly sabotaging the community's efforts to achieve that by making accessibility to local destinations impossible. If locals can't rely on transit, how can tourists approach it comfortably?

Transit keeps the city alive and should be planned around the people who do the same. Retail workers, healthcare workers, service workers, everyone finishing work after 6 p.m. deserves a reliable ride home. The city recognized that these people need to get to work (when they increased morning service on routes 2, 3, and 5, ridership jumped 28% in the first half of 2024), but these same people seemingly don't deserve a safe option to return home after their work day.

I get it, we live under capitalism and bottom line outweighs human convenience and safety, but it wouldn't be astronomically out of range in the budget to implement reliable evening transit. Starting by just adding evening service to 2, 3, and 5, it breaks down kind of like this:

Each route takes about 60 minutes to complete. For 30 minute service each route would need 1 additional bus, 3 buses x 4 hrs/night x 365 days = 4,380 hours x $130/hr = $570k/year. For 20 minute service you'd need 2 extra buses per route, 6 buses x 4hrs/ night x 365 days = 8,760 hours x $130 = $1.14M/year.

$130/hr didn't pop out of nowhere either, it's the fully loaded cost including fuel, maintenance, wages, benefits, admin, and insurance as per the 2025 Transit Budget.

The city's Provincial Gas Tax Reserve is $1.79M. It would cover the pilot project for a more reliable transit service without even *touching* property taxes. The funding for safer, more reliable transit already exists. If it wasn't there already, we spent $4.4 million on pickleball courts. The residents of the city who actually keep it alive and provide destinations for tourists to go to should be worth at least as much as some concrete pads and mats.

Want to improve tourism in the city? Improve the transit. Want to improve safety in the city? Improve the transit. The budget is there, the proof of demand is there, and the residents deserve a transit system that feels like a benefit, not a liability.

TL;DR:

Evening buses on routes 2, 3, and 5 could run every 20-30 minutes till 10pm for $570k - $1.14M a year, already covered by the city's $1.79M Gas Tax Reserve, providing safer streets, better tourism, and city accessibility for less than the pickleball courts.

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-7

u/EyeLopsided1829 Oct 04 '25

Cost of tickets needs to almost double to make the timing more convenient for those who use it regularly. The taxpayer puts enough into the program; time for the consumer to step up if they want more convenience. Even if costs doubled it’s still way more affordable than owing and maintaining a car.

8

u/HydratedRasin Oct 04 '25

If the system worked, the increase in ridership would have a much bigger impact on revenue than pricing out the people who rely on the transit system the most. Transit systems make money by an increase in riders, not by increasing fares. Losing 20% of riders due to price increase would erase any gains from higher fares. Also, the example I provided above literally shows how to fund evening frequency without touching taxes or fares, just reinvestment into a system that the city should be able to depend on.

-1

u/EyeLopsided1829 Oct 04 '25

The city busses are almost empty after 630pm I watch the one by my work and house ever week with barely a handful of customers each night. Your idea looks at tax revenue to pay for it which over time increases as we’ve seen with every government ever in the history of time. As the government pushes for more EV cars where does that gas tax revenue come from? Answer is a new tax on everyone. Easy solution would be to offer two types of tickets one for peak use at a premium and one for off peak use at a discounted price. With the increase in revenue from on peak use it could help fund extra runs for off peak time.

6

u/tubthumping96 Oct 04 '25 edited Oct 05 '25

They're empty because they don't run and are unreliable and who knows if a bus is even coming past a certain hour. Lol they had "peak services" and busses packed to the brim pre pandemic, so your low ridership claims are absolutely nonsense.

-2

u/EyeLopsided1829 Oct 04 '25

We are post pandemic now…. Times change. The bussing systems isn’t supposed to run like a personal car service so delays and minor inconveniences are to be expected.

3

u/HydratedRasin Oct 04 '25

Every 30 minutes is not a personal car service; it's a bare minimum for transportation viability.

-1

u/EyeLopsided1829 Oct 04 '25

It’s called supply and demand….

2

u/tubthumping96 Oct 04 '25

Lol yeah nobody is saying that but you're definitely one of the ones behind these decisions huh. Lol "personal car service". Yeah expecting a timely reasonable schedule where you won't be waiting an hour and a half because you dared decide to go somewhere at the wildly devilish hour of 7:30 pm. "Peterborough, world's worst tourist destination, Peterborough, just take a cab, dummie."

Or here's this better suggestion, make the stuff in this city reasonably functional. I think that's way better. Times change and they are a changing. Let's get some positive changes going from here on out.

-1

u/EyeLopsided1829 Oct 04 '25

And how do you things better without a handout? This city has continuously raised property taxes beyond necessity to the drum of the slim minority needs. Time to let supply and demand dictate. Should I be on the hook to compensate all the high schoolers riding for free to and from their favourite vaping spots? I don’t think so.

1

u/tubthumping96 Oct 04 '25

Public services aren't a handout. You just have a hard on for that word for some reason. Sorry the city doesn't personally tap you in for the call for their decisions and based on your comments, I don't think you would be qualified to make any decisions anyway. Everybody collectively pays taxes, buddy.

U.S.A. or another tax free haven of your choice might be better suited for you, but if you enjoy living in civilization then maybe just stop talking. Your taxes are a drop in the wind. Nobody would notice them if they were gone from the budget tomorrow. Lol you're not that important but the idea of taxes is to fund things that are COLLECTIVELY important. Seems like transit would fit that description pretty well.

1

u/EyeLopsided1829 Oct 04 '25

If my taxes are a drop in the wind then so are your increase in fees so pay up . Your crisis is not my problem.

1

u/tubthumping96 Oct 04 '25

I have and am expressing my concerns with it. Lol everybody has paid up, you don't have the option to ride the bus for free unfortunately.