Tyler McKay | Assistant News Editor
Featured Image: StudentMoveTO is surveying student transportation needs. | Courtesy of Pixabay
On October 1, a new student survey opened for students to address their transit issues. StudentMoveTO is conducting this research along with collaborators from post-secondary institutions across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA). The study will accept input from around 600,000 students.
“The decentralization of population and higher education in the GTHA has created a new geography of unmet challenges regarding transportation equity in the region,” according to the StudentMoveTO website.
“Our regions’ current infrastructure is not always sufficient. Transportation policies and data are not currently responsive to the unique needs of students.”
From October 1 to November 15, students will be asked to participate in this survey. These surveys aim to “generate insights, debates, and actions to improve transportation experiences for post-secondary students,” says York professor Patricia Wood. Wood is on the research planning team of StudentMoveTO and will be working with the qualitative research team. This study will assess students in the area from 10 post-secondary institutions and will take around three years to complete.
“We want to know more about what modes students use, what kinds of trips they are taking, what the quality of those trips are, and what they would like to see changed and improved,” says Wood.
“I travel to school using both the GO Bus and the subway and in my free time, I travel using the bus primarily, but sometimes I get picked up/dropped off by my parents,” says fourth-year environmental studies student Rishav Panda, whose commute to York takes about two hours.
“I feel like infrastructure within transit could be improved. It seems like there is always a delay and that really messes with the schedule for riders.”
This an important issue to study because “the vitality and success of the colleges and universities in the GTHA depends on options for students to reach campuses effectively at all hours of the day.”
“Students participating fully in their communities, as well as their studies, enriches the vitality of the region as a whole,” as stated on the StudentMoveTO website.
The goal of this organization is to develop public resources for post-secondary institutions, as well as public and private sector organizations to aid in teaching, collaborative research, and policy making. StudentMoveTO intends to pursue collaboration with province and nation-wide partners in the long term.
Wood believes that York is in a relatively unique position when it comes to transit since it is a commuter school. York is not located downtown where transportation networks come together, but Wood says that York has the opportunity to become a transit hub. That is why the information from StudentMoveTO would be critical not only for the GTHA but especially for York.
“With better information about where students are coming from and how they get to York, and what their commutes are like in terms of time spent and the quality of their journey, we can recommend improvements to mobility to and from campus for them: more direct routes, better connections, better coordination of schedules and fares,” says Wood.
