The City of Prince George is launching an initiative to address the barriers that may prevent seniors from using transit.
The Seniors Transit Challenge will provide training to encourage seniors to try the city bus, information about the variety of options available, and opportunities for seniors to provide feedback to city staff to help improve the system.
“According to feedback from the Prince George Council of Seniors, many seniors find the hours of operation and the ability to make last minute trip plans on the handyDART system challenging,” said Josephine Macharia, the city’s transit planner. “During the Seniors Transit Challenge, seniors can learn about our local transit options including handyDART, as well as city bus scheduling, and accessibility capabilities like ‘kneeling’ buses, and buses that can accommodate mobility devices.”
The challenge involves a questionnaire to learn how seniors currently travel around town and a secondary participation phase including three workshops to develop a travel training guide. Respondents to the questionnaire can choose to participate in the workshops, which will run once a month for an hour in March, April, and May. Willing participants will be contacted by the city with details about the events.
The questionnaire is available until March 3 and can be found online or in print at City Hall, the Seniors Resource Centre (721 Victoria Street), or any of the Senior Activity Centres in Prince George:
- Prince George and District Seniors Activity Centre at 425 Brunswick Street
- Elder Citizens Recreation Association at 1692 10th Avenue
- Spruce Capital Seniors at 3701 Rainbow Drive
- North Central Seniors Association at 5401 Moriarty Crescent
- Hart Pioneer Centre at 6986 Hart Highway
All questionnaire entries will be entered into a draw for a free monthly transit pass and a 10 visit aquatic pass. Responses are limited to one per person.
What do you think about this story?