Elementary and secondary students are getting an added bonus during March break. Between March 9 –15, students get a price break on the $1.70 cash fare and ride for a buck each way. This applies for cash city fares. Tunnel bus and special event (tunnel) services are excluded.
Students must show a valid secondary student card upon paying their fare. The Transit Windsor Board of Directors approved this initiative at the February meeting. A proposal was a direct result of the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Group (MYAC) and sub-committee of Student Ambassador Program (SAP) members desire to increase ridership during a time period when students traditionally ride the buses less frequently and hopefully encourage those students who don’t customarily use public transit to get on board.
The Board of Director’s Chair, Councilor Caroline Postma, stated, “this is a wonderful initiative that our Board members fully supported. MYAC and SAP members hope to show an increase in ridership and this initiative could serve as a base test for future fare strategies. We invite the community to provide the transit office with feedback regarding this initiative.”
Denny Timm, Co-Chair, MYAC and Transit Windsor Board member, said, “Members of SAP are excited about this initiative and will work at ensuring that elementary and secondary students are aware of the March price break”.
The objective of this initiative is to increase the number elementary and secondary student riders during the school March break and promote the benefits of using public transit. The ridership will be tracked through electronic fareboxes and compared to previous March break week statistics to determine changes.
Background:
The Mayor’s Youth Advisory Committee (MYAC) is a group of volunteers from various secondary schools and community groups within the City of Windsor. The MYAC identifies and reports to the Mayor and Council issues that effect youth in the City of Windsor, including communication strategies, placement/training opportunities, race, religion, youth culture, activities and venues, volunteer and community work recognition. In May of 2007, the Board appointed a member of MYAC to sit on the Transit Windsor Board as a non-voting member.
The Student Ambassador Program (SAP) is a group of volunteers from each secondary school within the City of Windsor. The SAP was established as a subcommittee of MYAC to promote public transit at the secondary level and assist in improving communications, increasing ridership and the environmental benefits of sustainable transportation.
Transit Windsor continues to increase public awareness of the importance of transit. A single bus can eliminate up to 50 single occupancy vehicles. Transit keeps our cities moving at the lowest possible cost, without, we would need to build more roads than taxpayers or the environment could support. Building public transit is vital to ‘smart growth’ strategies that help our cities reduce costs and undesirable impacts of urban sprawl and educating our youth to these benefits will go a long way to meet these objectives.
