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Should rush hour commuters pay more to take the TTC?

Read More: http://www.thestar.com/news/ttc/2013...e_the_ttc.html

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With more people piling on buses, streetcars and subways, some observers believe charging a higher fare at busy hours could encourage people to avoid travel when there’s no room for them.

- A report by the Residential and Civil Construction Alliance of Ontario that looks at ways to pay for public transit and roads in the GTA says flat fares encourage overinvesting in “public transit infrastructure.” “You’re going to have those capacity problems and they will try to overbuild the infrastructure to take in that peak capacity,” RCCAO spokesman Andy Manahan said.

- Many other public transit systems around the world have separate prices at peak and off-peak times on some routes — including London’s Tube and New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Ottawa’s system experimented with a similar structure about 20 years ago and was successful in spreading out peak travel times, said Michael Roschlau, president and CEO of the Canadian Urban Transit Association. “That kind of fare structure would generate an incentive for some people to shift their travel patterns if they can do so,” Roschlau said. Generally, many people in large cities take transit by choice and have a vehicle they could use if they want, he said.

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