“…we don’t have a system. We would need a system first to replace it.”
– Jawad Chowdhury, MUNSU
“It took me 45 minutes to go from MUN to my house, near [the]Village Mall, which would take seven minutes by car. Seven minutes.”
-An audience member
Journalism students host transit talk
Journalism students from College of the North Atlantic recently hosted a panel discussion called Moving Metro. The event, held on May 31, focused on solutions for public transit in St. John’s.
The students involved in the project decided to take a solution-based approach to the event in order to encourage some positive change.
“We took this approach because citing the issues is easy and overdone,” said Ariyana Gomes, one of the moderators of the Moving Metro panel. “Solutions are rarely discussed.”
Gomes, along with fellow student Madison Ryan, facilitated the discussion based on issues and solutions the journalism students had identified. Four panellists from various community groups took questions from the audience based on their areas of expertise.
Panellists included Mary Feltham, chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students in Newfoundland and Labrador; Antwone Aslan, senior manager of resettlement and settlement services at the Association for New Canadians; Jawad Chowdhury, executive director of campaigns for the Memorial University of Newfoundland Students’ Union; and David Brake of Happy City St. John’s and the Essential Transit Association.
Representatives from the St. John’s city council and Metrobus were invited to be part of the panel but didn’t attend.
Memorial University’s convocation was taking place the same evening in the same building. Graduates could be seen in their gowns from the windows of A.C. Hunter Public Library’s community room, but the room was still filled with people. Some of those in attendance even came to the Moving Metro panel after the ceremony.
Nearly everyone in attendance either asked the panellists a question or proposed a solution. One of the more popular topics of the evening was the state of the current Metrobus app.
One audience member called for real-time bus tracking on the app, much like the tracking features on the DoorDash and Uber apps. While the current Metrobus app tracks what stop a certain bus is near, sometimes the data is lost or delayed.
Another audience member suggested engineering students – and other students with technological knowledge – develop an improved app.
“The students, I feel, should be leveraging their own knowledge to advise the city and advise government because they don’t know– they simply don’t know,” said the concerned resident.
An improved Metrobus app would also be a great help to newcomers, says Antwone Aslan of the Association for New Canadians.
“In terms of our newcomers, not a lot of them are tech savvy and English is not their first language,” said Aslan. “So in addition to improving the accuracy of the Metrobus app and having a real-time tracking system, it would be better to include foreign languages.”
A question that could not be answered due to the absence of representation from the city council and Metrobus was about the length of routes.
“I’m going to ask about perhaps the most dreaded part of St. John’s as it goes for public transit, that being Kenmount Road,” one audience member said, pointing out how the city was built around the use of cars. He said it usually takes him over an hour to get to the top of Kenmount Road, and he lives by the Village Mall which is only a 10-minute drive away.
Later in the panel, this issue was brought up again by a passionate Memorial University student.
“It took me 45 minutes to go from MUN to my house, near (the) Village Mall, which would take seven minutes by car. Seven minutes,” she said, frustrated. “It (takes) me two hours of my life to go back and forth every day to school.”
In response, Chowdhury brought up funding.
“Metrobus is utilizing money to change their fleet and order a bunch of hybrid buses,” said Chowdhury. “While I agree that we do need hybrid buses, we need a more environment-friendly transit system, the problem is we don’t have a system. We would need a system first to replace it. When it comes to spending money wisely, it should be spent on getting that system up and running…”
In April, the provincial government announced over $35 million would go into 18 transit projects in the city. Eight of those projects involve the purchase of new hybrid buses. The money is coming from the provincial and federal governments, as well as the city of St. John’s. The projects also include lighting, rest areas and a shared-use path network.
Other solutions proposed during the panel included reintroducing the idea of the U-pass – a student Metrobus pass with a reduced fee – with an opt-out option for students who don’t wish to use Metrobus. On another point, audience members would like to see extended service to Mount Pearl and Paradise, as well as later bus service during weekends for those who have to work late at night.
Among all the solutions and conversations that evening, one of the most agreed upon ideas was the need for education about the benefits of an effective public transit system. This sentiment was even carried on after the panel ended.
In a response to a survey sent to all attendees, audience member Mark Nichols asked for a larger conversation.
“I would like to see more of a discussion around educating the general population in St. John’s of the benefits to everyone of a good, well-funded, public transit system. In the absence of such a discussion, panels and conversations such as this one are confined to people with a personal interest in better transit.”
Students involved in the Moving Metro project hope the panel will inspire larger conversations that will one day result in positive changes to St. John’s public transit.