Students must show a valid student card, upon request when paying their fare. New this year, students may ask for a transfer slip when boarding and redeem the slip at participating venues for discounts and free stuff.

This added value bonus is available to students with a transfer at XS Family Fun Centre, The Super Bowl, Rougues Gallery Comics, Gino A. Marcus Community Centre, all branches of the Windsor Public Library, and New Beginnings. Details are available online at www.windsoryouth.com, 311, by visiting customer service at the Windsor International Transit Terminal or Devonshire Mall Customer Service. Students should be prepared to provide valid ID at participating venues upon request.

The Transit Windsor Board of Directors approved this year the addition of post-secondary students as eligible for the $1 fare March Price Break. This proposal was a direct result of the Mayor’s Youth Advisory Committee (MYAC) and Student Ambassador Program (SAP) as a way to increase ridership during a time period when students traditionally ride the buses less frequently and hopefully encourage those students who do not customarily use public transit to get on board.

The Board of Director’s Chair, Councilor Caroline Postma, stated, “MYAC and the SAP worked diligently last year and successfully increased ridership by 40%. This year, the group has taken an innovative approach by implementing unique discounts around the City. I also want to recognize the group for organizing a youth concert in support of the Windsor Special Olympics Summer Games.”

Equally exciting and in conjunction with the March Price Break, the Transit Windsor Student Ambassador Program will be hosting a live concert featuring One Man’s Opinion and Inoke Errati (pronounced: I know karate). This event takes place at the Boom Boom Room on Wednesday, March 18 and proceeds of the event will go towards the Windsor Special Olympics Summer Games. The concert is in partnership with 89X, The Boom Boom Room and The Windsor Star.

Denny Timm, Co-Chair, MYAC and Transit Windsor Board member, said, “Members of SAP are excited about how this program has grown from last year. It is exciting that the Transit Windsor Board fully supported the inclusion of post-secondary students this year.”

The objective of this initiative is to increase the number of 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 student volunteers from the Windsor community. The MYAC identifies and reports to the Mayor and Council on issues that affect youth in the City of Windsor. 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.