Mya Artibello presenting her youth engagement report to Tantramar Council. Photo: Town of Tantramar
A student working with Tantramar this summer on how to get young people involved in the community is suggesting the town needs an affordable transit system similar to the one in Antigonish, Nova Scotia.
“In a rural community like Tantramar, transportation is a major barrier to youth engagement,” Mya Artibello told town council at its meeting last Monday.
“Many youth without vehicles miss events, jobs or recreation simply because they cannot get there. As a Mount Allison student myself, I see peers skip activity due to the weather or lack of transportation,” she said as she delivered her report based on four months of research that included talking with six other municipalities across Canada.
Artibello suggested a pilot transit program, such as a shuttle bus on days when there are major events, or a system with regular stops at Tantramar Regional High School and in busy neighbourhoods.
“Before you call me crazy,” she said, “I wanted to share an example of a successful small town public transit which is in Antigonish, a town about the same size as Sackville and is also a university town.”
Artibello showed this slide of an Antigonish Community Transit bus. To learn more about the services offered to residents of Antigonish, town & county, click on the photo
Artibello explained that Antigonish Community Transit (ACTS) began with a single small bus that charged two dollars for a ride anywhere in town.
She said ACTS has since added more buses that also serve the needs of its large population of elderly people with regular stops where there are assisted-living homes and seniors residences.
“Being born and raised in Antigonish, I take pride in a community that is easily accessible and is able to support everyone’s needs,” she added.
A note on its website says that the transit system is supported by the Nova Scotia government, the municipalities of the Town and County of Antigonish, local businesses and community members. As a non-profit society, it is governed by a volunteer board of directors.
Local transportation services
“Community transit, the Antigonish model, is pretty interesting,” Mayor Andrew Black said after Artibello concluded her presentation.
He added that it’s something he and Deputy Mayor Matt Estabrooks could discuss with the Southeast Regional Service Commission which has a mandate for transportation.
The mayor also mentioned Urban/Rural Rides, which uses volunteer drivers with their own cars to offer transportation services to low-income families and the elderly primarily for medical appointments and food bank visits.
“In fact, Urban/Rural Rides is looking at having a bus just like that, a minibus for each of the 12 communities within the southeast region to help support an overall transportation network,” Black said.
He suggested that maybe they could consider rates that would be affordable for students.
To read Mya Artibello’s full report including her many other ideas for involving young people aged 14-25 in the community, click here.
It is long past the time for Mount Allison to ‘step up to the plate’ for this one. That is if they want to attract more students, decrease the need for a student to bring a car and even to have to provide parking spots for them. Mount A is currently spending many millions of dollars to increase parking availability and I believe, come Jan 1st, they are going to be actually charging the students to use a parking spot.
The University has to realize that this is small TOWN Sackville, and not a CITY like Fredericton, Saint John, Moncton or Halifax which have well established public transit systems that their universities students can take advantage of and get around without having to own a vehicle.
So Mount A, if you would like to at least hang on to your current enrollment numbers, I would suggest you perhaps research some sort of economical system of enabling future students that don’t have a vehicle, to get to where they need to go.
Mount A has a MASSIVE tax assessment break given to them by the NB Government, and the citizens of Sackville have had to ‘pick up the slack’ because of it via increased property tax bills. Perhaps the University could take some of the savings that they have there and use a wee bit of it for a student transportation system.
35 years ago students had a small fraction of the number of cars they have today. There wasn’t public transit then, either.
The students all have cars because they have more money than the students of the 1980s-90s, not because there’s a lack of community transit. In spite of the “divest from oil” protests on campus, many students have no hesitation to drive everywhere, even if they live a few blocks from campus. That’s a cultural change and a lifestyle choice, as is living off campus instead of in residence.