public transit

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Talking Radical Radio

Public transit advocacy in a smaller city

January 11, 2017

| Mairi Anderson and Cam McMillan talk about the work of transit advocacy group Bus Riders of Saskatoon.

Length: 28:20 minutes (25.95 MB)

Sprawl is an enemy of the Left

Yves Engler

| December 27, 2016

The fourth in a four-part series on the "great Toronto toll debate."

Suburban sprawl is an enemy of the Left and progressives should support efforts to discourage it, including tolls.

In opposing tolls on Toronto's Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway, a number of leftists cite political strategy. They argue the tolls will elicit a rightist populist backlash and alienate potential supporters.

Car-centric landscape, not tolls, harm the poor

Yves Engler

| December 23, 2016

The third in a four-part series on the "great Toronto toll debate."

There's no doubt tolls hurt poor people, but a car-dominated transportation system does far more damage and everyone who wants a more just society should support measures that help rid our over-heating planet of private automobiles.

Private car, socialized costs

Yves Engler

| December 21, 2016

The second in a four-part series on the "great Toronto toll debate."

When are capitalists in favour of public ownership? When it earns them a profit. Nowhere can this be seen more clearly than when looking at car companies.

As auto interests have pocketed stupendous profits over the past century they've also pushed to socialize huge amounts of urban land. While this may contradict textbook economics, capitalists often prioritize socialized costs/privatized profits over "free markets."

Our transport system is structured around the private car. That needs to change.

Yves Engler

| December 19, 2016

The first in a four-part series on the "great Toronto toll debate."

What's left and what's right? Usually it is obvious, but sometimes you have to take a step back and consider the bigger picture.

For example, the Toronto toll debate has exposed a lack of scrutiny of the leading source of corporate profit over the past century by many supposed leftists. Without a political economy of the auto industrial complex, many Marxists have objectively allied themselves with the private car's awesome political, cultural and ideological power.

WATCH: No more delays. Fair TTC fares now.

People living on low income struggle to figure out how to pay for single TTC fares as well as monthly passes. This is because the earnings from low-wage (including minimum wage) jobs and money from income support programs (Ontario Works and Ontario Disability Support Program) and seniors’ pensions continues to be below the amount people need to meet their basic needs. Fares have increased steadily (tokens cost 31 per cent over the inflation rate; Metropass 26 per cent and cash fare 14 per cent). Benefits and wages have not.

Tags:

economic inequality public transit public transportation low income Poverty Reduction transit activism

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In a world breaking monthly temperature records, advertising cars should be criminal

Yves Engler

| September 16, 2016

A free daily newspaper targetting transit riders should never be wrapped in car ads.

On Monday the whole front of Montreal's Metro paper promoted Kia. All of page two and the back of a paper targeted at the city's transit riders also promoted an unhealthy, lethal, inefficient and utterly unsustainable mode of transportation.

Incredibly, public transit systems regularly glorify the private automobile. Car ads are not uncommon on buses or in metros. During a trip to Philadelphia a few years ago, the great hall at the city's beautiful old train station was covered with a 50 ft x 30 ft car ad. It seemed more than a little out of place. Would you see a promotion for trains at a car dealership?