A former city councillor said it's time for London to "go big or go home" when it comes to public transit.

Sandy Levin, who also served on the London Transit Commission, was among observers who yesterday lauded a proposed $105-million, nine-year overhaul of the city's bus system.

While not everyone interviewed yesterday embraced the LTC's plan for a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system, several agreed it's a good start to a debate.

"If city council doesn't accept this plan, it's not accepting a big-city transit system that's important for a creative city that is environmentally responsible," Levin said.

"The alternative is the status quo and that just means our public transit system gets worse and the traffic congestion gets worse."

The BRT system would move passengers faster across the city along major routes, using policies and technology to give buses priority on the roads and at intersections.

The aim is to entice more drivers to keep their cars at home, easing air pollution and traffic congestion and saving the city tax dollars on road widenings.

Most observers agreed the transit plan has to be debated in the context of the city's overall transportation management plan, which includes all forms of transportation and parking.

"I think it's generally a good plan and there's no doubt we need to invest more in our buses," said Gerry Macartney, general manager of the London Chamber of Commerce.

"I think the big stumbling block will be whether we can afford it or, maybe, whether we can afford not to."

If approved and the system works, the LTC says buses would be carrying 54-per-cent more passengers, or about 28 million riders a year (up from 19 million), by 2024.

In other words, 10 per cent of all travel during rush hour would be by bus -- a major goal of the city's transportation master plan.

The LTC is expected to approve the plan this month before it's sent to city council and a new transit working group in February.

For the plan to work, the LTC says it needs to be involved in the city's land-use planning.

The plan also calls for a comprehensive parking strategy that reduces the number of parking lots downtown, drives up rates and makes bus travel more financially attractive to motorists -- a suggestion Deputy Mayor Tom Gosnell says he's not convinced will work.

Gosnell, the city's budget chief, wants to spend millions of tax dollars on downtown parking garages to draw more offices to the core.

"By and large, I've always wanted significant emphasis put on mass transit and I think this report is a terrific starting point," Gosnell said.

"But you can't solve all the problems downtown with just transit. If it was that simple, it would have been solved by now. It's all about balance."

But will council -- hampered by a heavy debt load and high tax hikes in recent years -- buy into spending $49 million (its share of the $105-million capital cost) and an estimated $19 million in operating costs by 2024?

"I don't know," said Coun. Harold Usher, chairperson of council's environment and transportation committee and the LTC's vice-chairperson.

"So far, I find council one-track-minded and look at these kinds of issues in isolation. We can't look at transit alone and we can't look at parking alone."

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REACTION

"London Transit needs to be seen as an attractive, viable and timely alternative to cars and this plan puts us in the right direction. . . . It's important to have a system that doesn't just reach people who need to use the bus but reaches those who will also use it as an alternative." -- Stephen Turner, chairperson of the city's transportation advisory committee

"I think it's pie in the sky, a classic case of putting the cart before the horse. We're suffering from terrible traffic congestion, a very poor road system as it is now and a major portion of this plan is to dedicate our major arterial roads to bus lanes. The result (of higher parking rates) would be that people simply would not go downtown. The underlying thing we have to keep in mind is the fact people are not going to leave their cars." -- Coun. Paul Van Meerbergen, who instead favours better roads and lower taxes

"If we don't get more people using the buses, we're not going to be that special, viable, creative city. One of the things we need to achieve that is a good, viable transit system that gets them where they want to go and back home, efficiently and at a reasonable cost, safely." -- Coun. Harold Usher, vice-chairperson of London Transit Commission and chairperson of council's environment and transportation committee

"If you do the math, you reduce the money the city would spend building or widening roads and invest in transit instead. Financially you're going to be ahead in the end." -- Sandy Levin, former city councillor and member of London Transit Commission

"Whether this is a plan that is going to change people's views about their cars and buses, I don't know. But we need this kind of dialogue if we're going to be one of the leading municipalities in Canada." -- Gerry Macartney, general manager, London Chamber of Commerce