TRANSPORTATION
Find A Way offers an environmental rebate to any student who travels to a lesson by subway, bus, bicycle or walking. A $5.00 rebate (before tax) is given for a one-hour lesson or $2.50 (before tax) for a half-hour lesson. We want to encourage you to leave your car at home! Living in Toronto or the Greater Toronto Area means that we have access to a broad network of public transportation, as well as cycling paths and routes, and two companies, which rent out cars by the hour.
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Car-Sharing
Autoshare and Zipcar provide member-based, self-serve car-sharing. Their quality vehicles can be picked up and dropped off at any time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, at any of their 100+ pickup points throughout the city. Autoshare is Canadian and locally owned; Zipcar is American. Rates range from $5.25 to $10.50 per hour, depending on the type of membership you sign up for. This is a very good option for anyone wanting to get rid of their car but needing access to one several times a year. Whether or not this works out cheaper for you than a regular car rental company depends on your type of usage. Visit their websites for details, www.autoshare.com, www.zipcar.com/toronto/check-rates.
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Cycling
Die-hard cyclists will even pedal throughout the winter but it is acceptable if you stick to cycling in more reasonable weather! Toronto has a total of 166 kilometres of bikeways. While this does need expanding on, there exists a current Bike Plan with objectives on becoming a more bike-friendly city. Visit the City's website, where you can find comprehensive information on cycling courses, user groups, and cycling events. A free Toronto Cycling Map is available at City Hall or most bicycle stores, www.toronto.ca/cycling.
You can join a cycling club to meet like-minded people for social, scenic fun-rides, or find a club for mountain-biking or serious long-distance and competitive road cycling. For a listing of bike clubs in Ontario, go to www.canadatrails.ca/biking/bk_clon.htmlM or find out about some of our Toronto-based clubs:
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Public Transit
The Toronto Transit Commission, known as the TTC, offers us a comprehensive network of buses, streetcars, and subway trains within the City, and GO Transit provides bus and railway service to the surrounding suburbs. The TTC touts its service as 'The better way' and it certainly is. Mass transit vehicles significantly reduce the environmental impact by replacing the duties of large numbers of personal vehicles. One TTC bus can carry around 50 to 55 passengers, thus has the potential to replace around 40 cars. During rush hour, one subway line in Toronto takes 53,000 cars per hour off the road (TTC, 2007).
Taking public transit is mostly the better way - it is cheaper than owning and operating a car, eliminates the need to find parking downtown, and reduces the stress of driving in the city. So Ride the Rocket whenever you can!
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Walking
Combining public transit with walking to your place of work, recreation, or shopping is also a good way to stay fit. It also provides you with the opportunity to explore the City's interesting neighbourhoods and eclectic stores. For leisure walks and hikes through our park systems and ravines, join a hiking group.
