Bus Tickets Now Available in Hipster Purple

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Photo credit: Jonathan Rausseo

There is an old hipster adage, "if you want to sell something, put a bird on it". The idea being that hipsters love birds and so if you put a bird on it, they will buy it in droves. I kind of think that this is what OC Transpo had in mind with their new "hipster purple" bus tickets.

Seriously though, last year it could be argued that the U-pass saved transit for the City of Ottawa. Ridership was down after the strike and a fresh injection of the "youthful" variety has really helped out. Carleton University turned out to be the big winner with a huge increase in ridership.

Anyways, when the U-pass was brought back to council this year for renewal, there was a resounding yes from the transit committee and the program was re-implemented at the same price of $145 per semester (this is not at anyone's expense, this is simply because the program is revenue neutral so the addition of thousands of more students to both institutions will make up the cost increase).

What I wanted to really point out is the price on the purple tickets. Transit fares now stand at $1.30 per ticket. This was a scheduled increase that took place in July. But the U-pass program remains the same cost. Why? Because the transit system will actually benefit from increased ridership... more people actually getting onto the bus.

Hopefully the Universities in Ottawa can help expand their programs so that even more students can partake in the glory of public transit (currently only full-time students have access to the program). And hopefully we can transit to t a respectable level ahead of the introduction of the LRT tunnel.

-jon