Since that time, councillors have seen a groundswell of pushback from citizens. The item comes to a full meeting of council at a busy May 26 Regular meeting of Calgary city council.<\/p>\n
Ward 4 Coun. DJ Kelly said that he\u2019s had more people contact his office about the free fare zone than he had contact them about citywide rezoning. Further, he said that he hasn\u2019t seen a compelling reason to end it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not going to be voting to remove the free fare zone come next week at council, as I just think that the downside is far steeper than the upside at this particular point in time,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n
According to his office, they\u2019ve received 195 people contacting them in support of keeping the free fare zone, two looking for an alternative, and none asking for its removal.<\/p>\n
Though the vote to remove the zone was 7-4 at committee, there are 15 members on Calgary city council. With Kelly\u2019s vote against the removal, it inches closer to failing at city council.<\/p>\n
Mayor Jeromy Farkas, who has also recently stated that he\u2019s against the removal of the free fare zone<\/a>, also didn\u2019t vote at committee.<\/p>\n Ward 9 Coun. Harrison Clark, who doesn\u2019t sit on the committee either, has since dug into the issue more with citizens and posted online that he\u2019ll continue to consider if it\u2019s the right move<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cEnding the Free Fare Zone doesn\u2019t create a fully closed system,\u201d he wrote. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt introduces friction in one portion of an otherwise open network. That forces a larger choice: do we try to incrementally close a system that wasn\u2019t built for it, or do we focus on making that open system safer, more reliable, and more attractive?\u201d<\/p>\n Farkas, Clark and Kelly would make the vote a 7-7 tie. That leaves Ward 1 Coun. Kim Tyers as the final vote at council unless others have changed their minds.<\/p>\n Tyers voted in favour of the sub-bullet to remove the free fare zone during last year\u2019s budget deliberations.<\/p>\n Safety benefits touted by supporters<\/p>\n Ward 6 Coun. John Pantazopoulos said earlier in May that he would have preferred a middle ground. He attempted an amendment to charge a reduced rate through the downtown route, though it failed at committee.<\/p>\n He said adding the fare would help with revenue, but also with safety.<\/p>\n \u201cYou make transit safer by having people on transit, but we also have to make sure that it\u2019s safer by making sure that our officers, our transit officers, have the ability to go and enforce the bylaws that we\u2019ve made when it comes to fares and making sure that you\u2019re there for the right reasons,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n MORE: Calgary is about to end free downtown transit. This councillor wants to expand it city-wide. <\/a><\/p>\n Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot said that with a free fare zone, anyone can get on the system. Then it\u2019s a question of how you force them to comply with safety and security.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce they\u2019re on the system, it\u2019s kind of hard to get them off beyond the free fare zone,\u201d Chabot said.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, this at least allows them to be proactive to ensure that people at least have a paid ticket to ride the system, to provide greater certainty and security for the paying customers who were paying a fare expecting that they\u2019re going to be able to get on a bus that\u2019s going to be safe and secure.\u201d<\/p>\n Ward 5 Coun. Raj Dhaliwal doesn\u2019t buy the security argument. He said that\u2019s the leg the councillors in favour are trying to stand on. The city\u2019s own free fare zone report suggested that while platforms could see safety improvements, it would likely just displace the social disorder to the periphery around station areas.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a seriously unserious plan,\u201d said Dhaliwal.<\/p>\n \u201cI haven\u2019t seen any numbers to show me that that will improve the safety.\u201d<\/p>\n
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