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Going greener—Duncan offers half-price bus passes

Thursday, June 21, 2012 - 1:13 PM
By Natasha Riebe
Duncan

The city of Duncan is hoping a 50 per cent off rebate on monthly transit passes will entice more people to take the bus.

Mayor Phil Kent hopes the discount will be an incentive for city residents to change their habits, which in turn would help improve the city’s track record on greenhouse gas emissions.

“To see whether we can encourage people in the urban area to use transit more extensively,” he said of the initiative. “We figure that by making it very cost effective that people will see it as a great alternative to using their vehicles for shorter trips.”

Kent also admitted that because Duncan still functions on the Cowichan Valley Regional Transit System, the city doesn’t provide the same level of service as bigger urban centres.

“We can’t get that kind of regular service as this point, so we think if we can make the price reasonable that people can hopefully look at changing their routines a little bit to take advantage of the cost saving.”

According to a 2007 community-wide evaluation, 75 per cent of Duncan's greenhouse gas emissions came from vehicles. The city aims to reduce these emissions by 33 per cent by 2020.

The rebate program is retroactive to May 1, so if you bought a transit pass last month, you can go into City Hall and get the 50 per cent rebate. The program is set to last until December.