OCTranspo strike has cost the 280 million!!

And in other news, I saw Stephane Dion kissing Santa Clause. This article in the Citizen is full of crap. There is really no other way to spin it.

Mr. Lee, who measured the impact of the strike on the nearly 200,000 transit commuters who now drive, said it is important to find out the direct costs to people forced to commute by car. He puts the total cost to commuters at between $66.7 million and $85 million.

He estimated the average distance travelled to be 40 kilometres a day, at a cost of 50 cents a kilometre for a mid-size car. Estimating that about 97,000 cars would be on the road due to the strike over the 23 working days in a month, he arrived at a cost of $66.7 million. A higher number of cars on the streets, say 123,000, would yield costs of $85 million.

Wow, what is this man smoking?

• FACT: 108,840 take public transit in Ottawa-Gatineau, NOT 200,000.
• FACT: The average commuting distance in Ottawa-Gatineau is 16.2 KM round trip, NOT 40 KM.
  
• FACT: The CAA reports that the cost to drive your car is about 15.8 cents per KM for gas, tires, and maintenance NOT 50 cents per KM. These prices are based on 92.5 cent/litre gas, and would surely be lower today. It makes no sense to include the costs of loans, depreciation, insurance or any other "normal" costs as you would incure them with or without a strike.
• You can't use 23 working days a month in your calculations, that doesn't factor in sick days, holidays, or vacation.

Even if that 40 KM also included errands, that number would still be bull, very few people would take the bus for their errands if they owned a car. They would commute to work to reduce wear and tear on the car, gas prices, parking etc, but they wouldn't go and do their groceries taking the bus.