City says Charlottetown youth transit project a success, but barriers still exist

A pilot project to get more youth using public transit in Charlottetown shows more teens would ride the bus, but cost is a barrier.

'They took transit more often than they would have otherwise'

Natalia Goodwin · CBC · Posted: Aug 09, 2019 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: August 9, 2019

Two green and white coloured buses are shown parked along a street — The survey concluded that education was a major factor in getting more kids to ride transit. (Pat Martel/CBC)

A pilot project to get more youth using public transit in Charlottetown shows more teens would ride the bus, but cost is a barrier.

The city embarked on the project in the spring giving students at Colonel Gray High School free monthly passes for three months, in exchange for their feedback on surveys.

There were 53 students that participated in the trial.

"Overall the kids responded that they benefited from the pilot," said Jessica Brown, sustainability officer with the city.

"They took transit more often than they would have otherwise. It gave them the ability to take part in more evening and weekend activities without needing drives from their parents, kind of that additional strain on the home, and gave them some increased confidence in using the system."

Cost an issue

The students mostly used it for after-school activities as opposed to going to and from class. Brown said part of the project was an education component about using the system and schedules.

The teens reported that that helped with their comfort level, but there was a major barrier preventing them from riding all the time.

From left: Jacqui Scaman, Charlottetown sustainability intern, Julia Brown, Grade 12 student at Colonel Gray, Bill MacKenzie, T3 Transit driver, Ramona Doyle, Charlottetown sustainability officer, and Matthew Cassidy, vice president of T3 Transit. (City of Charlottetown)

"They did find one of the limiting factors was cost for them moving forward, that they may not feel comfortable or be able to afford a monthly pass or the individual ridership fees."

Right now a student pass is $40.50 a month and a single fare is $2. The hope for the project was to increase ridership, and by targeting young people, develop lifelong riders.

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Next steps

The capital area transit co-ordinating committee is now looking at the report and it may come forward with recommendations or ideas for the future, but there are no firm timelines. In the meantime, Brown thinks there are a couple of initiatives that could work.

Jessica Brown, sustainability officer with the city, says the hope is to have young people become lifelong riders. (Laura Chapin/CBC)

"I think education just like we've been doing around how to use it, trying to make it a norm, making it easier," she said.

"So if it is a subsidized pass or education in the schools in the orientation at the start of every year, kind of a little info session on how to use transit and schedules — it seems like that's the biggest barrier. So just overcoming those would make the most sense."