Public transit is the key to maintaining healthy cities in the coming years. Choosing GO is one way that you can contribute to a healthier Greater Toronto Area. Consider these facts:

• The largest single source of air pollutants, reports Pollution Probe, is the automobile.

• During rush hour, the average Toronto-area car carries only 1.15 people, so one 10-car GO Train carries about the same number of people as 1,400 air-polluting cars, and one bus can replace about 50 cars.

• In just one hour on a typical weekday morning, some 45,000 passengers arrive at Toronto’s Union Station by GO Train — if all those people drove instead of taking transit, we would need to build four more Gardiner Expressways and four new Don Valley Parkways.

• This photo shows you how GO does its part for the environment. These three GO Train railcars hold the same number of people as the 300 cars in this photo of the Don Valley Parkway.

• City traffic congestion costs money in lost time, and new road construction eats up land and destroys the beauty of our landscape.

• Getting on the GO can save you thousands of dollars every year. The cost of owning and operating a typical, mid-sized car travelling 24,000 kilometres a year is more than $10,000 annually, excluding parking costs. This number jumps to almost $12,000 for a full-sized vehicle. A year’s worth of monthly passes for commuting by GO Transit between Oakville and downtown Toronto amounts to a little more than $2,200.

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