CFS jumps into the Transit Fray

Even before Richard had pointed out the website to me, I had spotted stickers at the SFU Library advertising the We Ride Transit website. Those stickers clearly indicated the campaign as a project of the Canadian Federation of Students – which, given its rocky history with the Simon Fraser Student Society, prompted me to raise an eyebrow at what this transit site was saying and who it was claiming to speak for. We Ride Transit is also collecting stories through its website, and calls (by rendering text in a graphic without appropriate alternate text for all those dear folks using screen readers) for three things:

1. a “big-picture plan” to increase service to campus, reduce fares and increase night and express bus services;
2. “political commitment” to transit from the highest levels; and
3. “provincial and federal funding to make it happen.”

The site is certainly pretty to look at (I love the subway map feel in the header). I’m curious to know, how much this campaign is being promoted to students at UBC or other post-secondary institutions that aren’t part of the CFS?

Transit’s been a heady issue at SFU – this week, we voted in a referendum to approve a $1.60 per month raise on the price of the Upass or to scrap the program altogether, and transit’s had basically a story every other week in The Peak this semester. The SFSS has been collecting transit stories, and was continuing to do so in the form of a yellow slip at the voting booth for the referendum, which will pass with 50% plus one of the voting public, if 5% of the student body votes.

I also noted that there’s going to be an “SFU Transit Consultation” at SFU Burnaby hosted by “SFU We Ride” this coming Wednesday – so far I’ve only seen this on Facebook, so here’s the link to the Facebook event page, for those of you permanently logged in (like me). A cursory reading of the event description (emphasis on free food, an unnamed keynote speaker) seems to frame the event as an outlet for frustration. “We all have our stories,” they state repeatedly. But are they asking us our stories so that we can sit around being angry and feeling helpless about it, or are they encouraging us to share our stories of transit’s problems, in order to turn this will for change into a constructive conversation?

That said, I’m a sucker for free food. Starving student and all.