The city of Burlington, Ont., has taken a big step toward making public transit more accessible for seniors and students.
Starting Aug. 1, adults aged 65 and older will be able to take the bus free of charge any time of the day, while youth aged 13 to 19 will get free rides on Burlington buses on evenings and weekends.
The decision was approved by Burlington city council on Tuesday.
The city began offering free transit to seniors as a pilot program in 2019 and Catherine Baldelli, Burlington’s director of transit, said that pilot resulted in an increase in ridership among older adults by 41 per cent.
She said the hope is that expanding free transit service to teenagers will lead to the same kind of boost for that demographic, as it’s something that the neighbouring town of Oakville has also implemented.
“We’re going to gauge the ridership and determine how students have changed their behavior with these evenings and weekends,” said Baldelli.
Burlington mayor Marianne Meed Ward said the initiative is about getting more people on buses, which has a positive impact on the environment, the economy, and traffic.
“One of our delegates at committee, Jim Young – who also represents Burlington for Accessible Sustainable Transit (BFAST), said it best: If we put 40 people on a bus, you’ve now taken 40 people off the road in cars, and removed the greenhouse gases those cars would generate,” wrote Meed Ward in a post on her website.
City staff have also been directed to investigate the cost and potential service impact if free transit were expanded to riders of any age.
Seniors make up about 11 per cent of those taking the bus in Burlington and youth comprise 12 per cent, while adults make up the bulk of the remainder of ridership – about 75 per cent.
Expanding free transit for youth was part of the 2023 budget at a cost of $84,000.
It will cost $160,000 to expand free service for seniors; Baldelli said that will be part of next year’s budget process.
Youth and seniors can opt into the free transit program through Presto by visiting the downtown Burlington terminal or going to a Shopper’s Drug Mart or GO station to register with their identification.
“By providing that ID, it’s already attached to the Presto card – so we don’t have to ask for ID when a person boards the bus, that information is just stored on their Presto card,” said Baldelli of the reasoning for registration.
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