Our City's 2020 Budget must invest in equitable transportation

Help win a better 2020 City Budget

198

Goal: 300

We need a more equitable transportation system in Ottawa, and $35 million invested in the City's 2020 Budget will help achieve it. Please voice your support today by emailing the Mayor and your City Councillor.

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Dear [recipient name will go here],

The City has made some progress on transportation equity over the past few years. However, if we are to have a transportation system that truly works well for everyone, much more progress is needed.

I am submitting the following Budget 2020 requests to you, so that Ottawa will soon become an excellent place for pedestrians, cyclists, and public transit riders. Please ensure the City’s Equity and Inclusion Lens is rigorously applied to the budget decision-making processes:

1) Affordable and Inclusive Housing Near Rapid Transit 
I ask that you commit at least $15 million/year of City funding, over and above federal and provincial grants, to build new affordable housing near rapid transit stations. This affordable housing should be deeply affordable, meaning people living on very low incomes should be able to live there. And, the housing should be accessible for people living with disabilities.

2) Affordable Public Transit:
I ask you to freeze transit fares in Budget 2020 for people who use the Access, Community, and EquiPasses (the City Treasurer's office has estimated this would only cost $400,000).

3) Snow and Ice Clearing of Sidewalks: 
Please commit $7 million a year to bringing winter sidewalk maintenance to a class 1A standard, starting in the 2020 Budget. People should not be confined to their apartments in the nation’s capital of a G7 country, and yet that has been the case these past few winters because not enough money is being spent to properly clear snow and ice off of sidewalks. People across Ottawa were trapped in their homes, unable to access transit, or experienced numerous slips, falls, and inconveniences due to lack of snow removal on sidewalks and at bus stops. Immediate action is required to ensure that no more people suffer from isolation, injuries and aren’t required to take great risk to leave their homes.

4) Vision Zero Road Safety Action Plan Improvements
Too many people biking are being killed and injured on City streets, therefore a minimum of $12 million must be spent on building cycling infrastructure for all ages and abilities, based on Vision Zero principles and international best practice. Vision Zero principles must be implemented into planning documents, alongside consultation with those found to be most at risk (specifically seniors and children). These cycling safety improvements could be partially funded by charging for parking on evenings and weekends in on-street paid parking areas, and in City-owned parking lots (as per Chair Blais's Motion at the Oct. 2, 2019 Transportation Committee meeting).

5) ParaTranspo on-line booking system
Please invest $1 million in an online booking system for ParaTranspo riders, and it should be fully functioning and operational not later than end of 2020. Due to the fact that some people cannot use or cannot afford computers, 50% of seats available to be booked on Para should be saved for people using the online booking application, and 50% for those who use the phone service, so as to allow for everyone to access these services. To be changed accordingly, reviewed quarterly.

Can you please let me know what actions you will take to ensure that my budget priorities are included in Draft Budget 2020 prior to it being tabled on November 6th at City Council?

Sincerely,
[your name will go here]
[your email address will go here] [your location will go here]

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