Booklet

TTCRiders

TTCriders is a membership-based organization of transit users. Between February and May 2021, TTCriders volunteers had conversations with over 300 people in focus groups, held in English, Tamil, Marathi, Hindi, Gujarati, and Mandarin. One event had American Sign Language Interpretation. We surveyed an additional 322 people online.

Research findings: Riders overwhelmingly identified unaffordable fares and infrequent, unreliable, and crowded buses as their top challenges. Riders’ top two concerns about COVID-19 are bus overcrowding and lack of mask enforcement. Other findings include safety and security in public transit, racism in public transit, and inaccessible public transit. Youth and low-income people are disproportionately impacted by unaffordable fares.

World-class cities are introducing lower fares and more frequent, reliable service to win back riders and address inequalities. TTC ridership dropped significantly during the pandemic. The provincial and federal governments provided emergency operations funding because the TTC relies on fares to fund over 60% of its operating budget. Based on our online survey and focus groups, these are TTCriders’ recommended fare policy changes to win back riders and transform the TTC. These will require investments in transit operating funding from all levels of government.