Success! City of Ottawa reinstates "student" fare for mature students

Thursday, September 17, 2009 Posted by Travis Saunders

During the past few months, I have written several posts on the recent decision by Ottawa City Council to exclude students over the age of 27 from "student" transit passes. The move upset a lot of people for a lot of reasons. Aside from hurting students financially, I argued that reducing access to public transit could also influence physical activity levels of some students, since transit use and subsidized transit passes are associated with increased levels of physical activity. Despite widespread criticism of the move, City Council appeared to be standing firm on their decision, as evidenced by a recent email from my City Councillor which included numerous reasons why he supported the move to restrict the "student" bus fare to those 27 and under.

Imagine my surprise then, when City Council voted unanimously to overturn their earlier decision, and to extend the "student" fare to students up to and including 64 years of age. This is wonderful news, and while I doubt Obesity Panacea played a large role in the process (it probably had more to do with the students who packed City Council chambers prior to last week's vote on the issue), I wanted to share the good news with all of our readers. And thanks to anyone who did send a letter to their City Councillor urging them to rethink their earlier decision - it seems to have worked.

Travis

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