Take the “Free Ride” Challenge

To celebrate Clean Air Day, and promote public transportation, the City of Kingston is offering free bus rides all day long on June the 4th. With the price of regular and diesel fuel skyrocketing throughout Canada, the convenience of owning a personal motor vehicle is becoming a severe financial burden for some. This has resulted in more and more people relying on public transportation, while others choose to take the bus for equally important environmental reasons. Whether your reasons are green, or to save your green, you can participate in Clean Air Day just by riding the bus tomorrow.

Over the past few years, Kingston Transit has made numerous improvements to their services, including more convenient routes, as well as longer hours of operation. The result has seen a noticeable spike in local ridership that is more than double the national average of 3.1 percent. An interesting statistic to note is the 25 percent increase in youth ridership, which the City measured between 2006 to 2007. Are more adolescents becoming environmentally conscious, or are parents simply forcing their teens to take the bus as a cause of rising fuel costs? Either way, it’s a positive trend that could help justify other environmental initiatives in the Limestone City.

For those of you who don’t take public transportation on a regular basis, did you know that you can take your bike with you on the bus? The Rack and Roll initiative has been allowing cyclists to store there bikes on designated exterior racks for the past five years. This enables commuters to travel with increased convenience, while promoting an active lifestyle and reducing vehicle emissions. As well, monthly pass holder are now eligible for a 15.25 percent federal tax credit, making it even more appealing for the entire family to take public transpo. So what are you waiting for? Give our buses a good work out tomorrow, participate in Clean Air Day, and take the Free Ride Challenge. We’d love to hear what you think about the Kingston Transit system. Give us the good, the bad and the ugly.