Public Transit won’t be vibrant unless it can attract middle class riders in sufficient numbers. That claim being made by Yves Bourgeois of U-N-B’s Urban and Community Studies Institute.
The President of the Transit Union, Tom McGraw estimates 90 per cent or more of the bus riders in the city are getting by on income assistance or lower wage jobs.
Bourgeois tells CHSJ News the way to attract middle class riders is to make it faster and more convenient for them to take the bus than drive their car.
Bourgeois says you might also realign bus routes to take people from where they live to where they work and that may not necessarily be the city centre. He also points out there’s an uptick in the number of riders when commuter times are shortened.
