Ottawa youths call for greater involvement in transit consultations

Diya Praveen has had her fair share of frustration with Ottawa’s transit system. As a Grade 12 student at St. Paul High School who relies on the city’s buses and trains to get around, she says she has witnessed countless “inconsistencies,” namely late buses.

It wasn’t until she heard from her peers at a youth consultation session, however, that she realized the magnitude of the transit issue for youths in Ottawa.

“It was interesting to hear how some people have much worse experiences than I have in terms of safety and the unreliability of the transit system,” Praveen said.

As a program manager with Club Opti-Jeunesse Des Jeunes Adultes (COJA), Praveen participated in creating a preliminary report highlighting youths’ experiences and perspectives on Ottawa’s transit system.

The report was published on Oct. 1 following consultation sessions by COJA and Change Makers Club of Canada (CMC) on May 26 and June 5.

“My biggest surprise was the fact that different youths have different perspectives on transportation and that a lot of them are not even considered properly (by municipal leaders),” Praveen said.

Praveen says the City of Ottawa’s consultation process is an example of how policy consultation systems in general are built around adults. It has been a point of frustration not just for her, but also those who participated in the consultations in May and June, who according to the report want to be part of Ottawa’s civic process.

“I believe that a lot of young youths want to participate,” Praveen said. “I’ve seen that in friends, people that I have worked with, people in my school, (but) a lot of youths don’t know what opportunities they have.”

The city’s consultations often take place during work hours from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., which Praveen says makes it almost impossible for youths to participate since that overlaps school hours.

Praveen says including youth means politicians need to work around students’ school schedules and offer alternative solutions like online participation to increase accessibility and participation.

“It was interesting to see how a lot of youths were saying how those consultations should be more open to youth and how the decision-makers of the city, like the mayor, councillors or city staff, should try to involve youth as much as possible,” she said.

But Praveen says sporadic consultations are not enough, nor will they help solve transit issues for youths in Ottawa.

“The decision-makers of the city need to recognize youth as a core group of transit users and not just a group that they want to consult occasionally,” she said.

The preliminary report highlighted that a major takeaway from the consultation sessions was that oftentimes youth are asked to make tradeoffs between reliability, affordability, accessibility, convenience and safety. As well, despite efforts by the city and politicians to improve the system, service delivery has continued to fluctuate for all residents.

“A delayed bus can mean leaving home earlier, arriving late to school or work, missing an activity or paying for another way to travel,” the report read.

“Getting to school, work, an appointment, or an evening activity often requires making decisions before the journey even begins, and then making new decisions when something goes wrong. The challenge is that these decisions often come with a cost.”

Transportation planning in Ottawa includes much more than buses and trains, the report said, such as roads, cycling and pedestrian infrastructure.

The report found that youth were often deterred from cycling options because routes often felt unsafe. Their alternatives were to take the longer route (using buses) or to pay extra for ride-share service.

“When cycling feels unsafe, they can take a longer route or decide not to make the trip. When evening transportation is limited, they may leave an activity early or decide not to attend at all,” the report read.

For Praveen, the frustration around transit revolves mostly around the lack of progress in Ottawa’s transit system rather than inaction by leaders.

“The improvements need to happen at a faster rate because youths are struggling today,” she said.

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