Transportation Futures
Rapid, Frequent, Dependable, and Safe: Transit Experiences and Desires of Equity-Deserving Riders
Metro Vancouver’s transit ridership has surged post-pandemic in areas with high proportions of equity-deserving populations. We hosted multilingual conversations with equity-deserving riders in Metro Vancouver to ask about their experiences and desires as transit riders in the region.
These conversations found that while riders appreciate that transit offers affordability, accessibility and sustainability, riders deal with real challenges in their transit journeys, including overcrowding, infrequent service and safety concerns.
This article shares findings from our conversations, showing that the hopes and experiences of equity-deserving rides can inform strategies on creating better transit for all riders.
✅ “We [need to avoid having] such a car-centric mindset... if we can get more people out of their one-person cars, we’re going to have a better society in terms of mental health and the environment.”
❌ “[When I'm on transit], it’s like every sensation is activated. The floor is sticky, the smells are so strong, and you hang on to the rail and it’s sticky. And when it rains, it’s all too much.”
This article was originally published in Plan Canada.
Plan Canada is Canada’s national planning magazine, published quarterly by the Canadian Institute of Planners with the editorial leadership provided by the Plan Canada Editorial Committee.
These multilingual conversations were hosted in collaboration with Movement: Metro Vancouver Transit Riders