The mayor of Kamloops says the idea of free transit for seniors is a much more complex concept than it sounds.

A motion by former Councillor Donovan Cavers on offering free transit to seniors was punted at council Tuesday afternoon but discussion on the idea itself was kicked down the road.

Ken Christian says free transit for seniors sounds like a great idea but the devil is in the details.

“Is it just free for seniors? Or is it free for youth? Or is it free for the homeless? Then you get into all of the time of day, day of week, routing issues. So there is an awful lot more to it than simply saying we are waving a certain revenue stream away. It is a nice idea but to go with something that came out of the blue is sort of like the council saw a squirrel.”

Christian says he is not opposed to free transit.

“When you look at issues related to free transit there are examples in the world but they are generally in places where there is a bigger population and more frequent transit service. I don’t know that in Kamloops if we get all of the car and truck drivers to support free transit that, if that is really going to increase ridership.”

Christian says outside of the motion he has two other people even raise the idea to him or council.