No. H162/06For release
November 23, 2006
MINISTER CANNON CONGRATULATES SMART COMMUTE
ON CARPOOL ZONE FIRST
ANNIVERSARY AND EFFORTS
TO REDUCE SMOG AND GREENHOUSE GASES
OTTAWA - The Honourable Lawrence Cannon, Minister of Transport,
Infrastructure and Communities, today extended his congratulations to the Smart
Commute Association on the first anniversary of the launch of Carpool Zone, a
web-based ride matching service. The service is designed to help commuters in
the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and Hamilton find carpool matches.
To date, the Smart Commute Initiative has yielded real results in the GTA.
About 100 cars a day were taken off the roads over the last year thanks to this
initiative. In addition to easing traffic congestion and noise, some 300 tons of
greenhouse gases were eliminated from the environment.
"I congratulate the Association for the success of its Smart Commute
Initiative as we mark the first anniversary of the Carpool Zone," said Minister
Cannon. "Canada's New Government continues to support projects that represent
real action towards reducing both air pollution and greenhouse gases to protect
the health of Canadians and the environment."
Carpool Zone is a service under the Smart Commute Initiative, part of the
Urban Transportation Showcase Program, a five-year program created to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions from transportation in Canadian cities. Transport
Canada has committed $2.5 million to the Smart Commute Initiative. This is one
of eight municipal projects across the country to receive funds from Transport
Canada.
Carpool Zone, accessed from the
www.carpoolzone.smartcommute.ca website was
built in partnership with Pathway Intelligence Inc., a producer of web-based
ridesharing platforms. The carpool matching service acts as a searchable
database of classified ads and serves a 250-kilometre radius from downtown
Toronto across the Greater Golden Horseshoe. Commuters create a free account
where they fill out a simple questionnaire about their commute, such as time,
origin and destination, in order to use the service.
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Contacts:
Natalie Sarafian
Press Secretary
Office of the Minister of Transport,
Infrastructure and Communities, Ottawa
613-991-0700
Robin Browne
Communications
Transport Canada,
Ottawa 613-993-0055
Transport Canada is online at www.tc.gc.ca. Subscribe to news releases and speeches at
apps.tc.gc.ca/listserv/ and keep up-to-date on the latest from Transport Canada.
This news release may be made available in alternative formats for persons with visual disabilities.
Backgrounder
URBAN TRANSPORTATION SHOWCASE PROGRAM
The $40-million Urban Transportation Showcase Program funds community
showcase programs that demonstrate and evaluate ways of reducing greenhouse gas
emissions from transportation and addressing other urban challenges, such as air
quality, congestion, safety and rising operating costs.
The program was developed in consultation with provincial, territorial,
municipal and other partners. Following a nation-wide call for proposals, eight
municipalities were selected to showcase their strategies for dealing with these
urban challenges.
Showcase proposals included: transportation services, infrastructure
investments, demand management initiatives, land use strategies, pricing
strategies, public outreach and advanced technologies.
The five showcases that are underway are:
the City of Whitehorse's "Whitehorse Moves" - A strategy to reduce automobile
use through active transportation infrastructure, public outreach and
transportation demand management;
Halifax Regional Municipality's MetroLink - An innovative Bus Rapid Transit
initiative that includes two new bus rapid transit corridors, transit priority
measures and multimodal stations;
the Region of Waterloo's iXpress - A high-quality express bus corridor featuring
transit priority measures, advanced technologies, multimodal stations and
community marketing;
the Greater Toronto Area and Hamilton's "Smart Commute Initiative" - An
initiative that implements regional and local transportation demand management
through a network of transportation management associations; and
TransLink's "Sustainable Region Showcase for Greater Vancouver" - A six-part
project that includes a bus rapid transit corridor, pedestrian priority, hybrid
buses, a 24 km greenway cycling path, transit "station villages",
household-based marketing and more efficient movement of goods.
Information sharing with municipalities and transportation authorities is an
important component of the program, and includes seminars, workshops and regular
reports on the implementation and results of the showcases. This approach lays
the foundation for communities to adopt the most successful showcase
technologies and strategies across Canada by 2010.
Detailed program information is available on Transport Canada's website at www.tc.gc.ca/utsp/.
November 2006
