Why No U-Pass Bus Program For High School Students in Metro Vancouver.

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In Todays World, Rapid transit is very important for all major cities as a population and immigration is growing at fast pace than before in developed countries. Metro Vancouver and Suburbs are way behind in transit services to connect all communities effectively, especially at night time. With detached house Touching million dollar mark , town houses 600k and two bed low rise condos around 450k in suburbs. Giving reference of Surrey, North Delta and Langley for price as I specialise in Surrey Real Estate. If we want our transit ridership to increase, we need to teach our kids to use transit as a mode of transport at early age which comes at a expensive price tag of regular monthly pass.
U-pass program by Translink`s main objective written on there website are as follow :-
  • Provide lower-cost travel for students.
  • Encourage students to make transit part of their lifestyle by including travel with the U-Pass BC Program for entertainment, recreation, and other non-school related trips.
  • Reduce single-occupancy vehicles, traffic congestion, and greenhouse gases.
  • Begin to create a sustainable transit program that provides students with a low-cost transit fare and a level of transit service that meets this demand.
Only public, post-secondary schools are eligible for U-pass program not high school kids, most of high school kids start doing part time job (my little cousins do) at McDonalds and similar work place. They go out with friends to watch a movie, dinner and birthday parties. They have game practices and matches. They either have to buy a monthly bus pass or daily transit ticket or they rely on there parents for ride which they prefer as they don't have to spend money on transit from there very first hard earned money. Other option they have is get a driver`s license and a car for daily use which also comes at a cost but is more convenient for them.
Conclusion is if we have better transit and cheaper monthly passes available for kids of all ages, People will use transit more often than there personal cars. Kids will learn to use transit at young age and get use to it. Good habbits are born at young age, very hard at later age. All of this can improve Transit ridership and decrease new cars, drivers coming on roads as our infrastructure will fail at the speed population is growing in our cities, Especially surrey with 1,000 new residents each month and prediction of surpassing population of Vancouver by 2041. These are the concerns I have as a resident of surrey for over 14 years and Realtor in Surrey for 7 years.

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