This is great!
Voting wrapped up yesterday in a general election that saw undergraduate students at the U of A endorse the Universal Transit Pass by a wide margin in a show of support for affordable transit and the environment.
Students voted 84 per cent in favour of the $75 per term pass that will allow them unlimited access to regular scheduled transit service in Edmonton, St. Albert and Strathcona County. The vote represents the last political hurdle in the long-running process.
"This is a win for public transit, a win for our environment, a win for big ideas, and a win for students working together," proclaimed Samantha Power, President of the Students' Union, in a statement given today at the Students' Union Building.
The final price was the result of lengthy negotiations between the three municipalities, students and the University of Alberta.
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10 comments:
Congrats Dave! You ran a good campaign, but I really don't think you ever had to worry about defeat. :)
Practical and common sence approach to student transit. It should have been done years ago. Way to go.
Here here. Congratulations. Not a lot of student executives can manage to actually DO something in the course of their year. You've really done something that's going to change the lives of future students, the university, and the cities involved.
No small feat.
OK Dave - congrats are in order. Good for you and Sam and thank you for doing this.
I have a bigger challenge for you now - based on you obvious capabilities. Take what you have learned on this fine example of intelligent inter-municipal cooperation and take it to the next level.
Hire yourself out as an advisor to the local goverments in the greater Edmonton region and help them take this example and appply it to other areas were regional service approaches make sense.
You have the skills, and given this example, you have some experience and the success speaks for itself. Consider the bus pass project as a pilot project for the larger intermunicipal issues within the region.
The local governments in the greater Edmonton region need to take the outcomes from this project and apply the learnings to other challenges.
You could help and I am serious BTW.
On that note, wouldn't it be cool if we could have a transit pass for all Edmontonians? Some of us drivers would end up subsidizing the buses for sure, but if we all had to pay $20/month and as a result transit was free, I'm sure we'd get a few people out of their cars.
Stop the social engineering madness!
I think it stops being "social engineering" when 84% of voters agree...
84% of voters with around 25% turnout. The fact that the rich kids from Sherwood Park who drive their parents' cars to school are too lazy to vote doesn't stop it from being social engineering.
And it was more like 84.77% in favour.
It is only mildly offensive social engineering. And the SU seems to have done a good job negotiating. But it is still madness. :)
Hi Dave:
Thought you might enjoy this.
http://www.hyperscribe.ca/OneVoice.html
Cheers,
Ian Patton
This is great! Good work!
I just finished my degree at the U of C last year and used my U-Pass all the time.
Didn't have to use my car anymore. Saved a ton on gas.
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