Barrie council adds additional day of free transit for seniors

A city bus parks at the terminal in Barrie, Ont. (CTV BARRIE NEWS)

Seniors in Barrie will soon have an extra day to use transit for free throughout the city.

On Wednesday council approved a plan to extend the free transit for seniors program to two days a week.

Currently, seniors can ride for free on Thursdays, which has been in place for roughly three years.

City staff determined that the program will be extended to Tuesday once they have consulted with members of the senior and accessibility advisory committee.

"If we can make a small move to try to nullify some of those impacts and make it so that our senior population can get out and about and access the grocery stores, the pharmacies and things that they need and the Parkview Centre, then I think it's obviously a very good thing," says Mayor Nuttall.

Nuttall says it will cost the city roughly $30,000 in revenue annually.

He believes that splitting up the days will help seniors living on fixed incomes, and with inflation and rising living costs, this is one way to help.

"These are folks that have paid taxes and have worked in our communities for many, many, many years and built up what we get to take advantage of. So we need to make sure we take care of them when they are more vulnerable in their elderly ages," says Nuttall.

Council also approved a plan to install bike lanes on Grove, Dunlop and Blake streets.

With the change, vehicles will not be allowed to park on Grove Street East between Bayfield and Johnson and on Blake from Dunlop to Steel.

Before the project goes ahead, city staff will look into the feasibility of building the bike lanes into the existing roadways, which could take a few months to plan.