'Isolating, debilitating and devastating'
Rural public transportation a growing need say experts
Elara Browne had to move from rural Nova Scotia. As a young adult without a licence - who couldn’t afford a car even if she could drive - getting around the Annapolis Valley was impossible.
“I had absolutely no independence, and it affected everything from socialising, shopping, and most importantly, really limited me for finding work,” says Browne.
This ultimately left her with no choice but to move to Halifax.
“I feel like a reliable local transit in the Valley would make a big difference to those in my situation,” says Browne. “Not to mention give seniors and families another option to explore their surroundings without the hassle of driving.”
Jude Keefe did the reverse. She had been living in Halifax, getting around by bike, on foot, or via bus with no problems - until she moved to Lawrencetown in the Annapolis Valley to attend the Centre of Geographical Sciences (COGS). She soon realized that a 15-minute drive to the grocery store became 30 on the bus, and the infrequent service meant she had to finish shopping at the right moment to catch the bus back home.
“I didn’t really understand how big a problem no car would be since it is a student community,” says Keefe.
OUT OF MIND
Transportation isn’t something we generally think much about, says Renata Tweedy, the manager of the Sou'West Nova Transit Association, a Barrington, N.S.-based group that provides door-to-door, wheelchair accessible transportation options to all.
“It’s something we take for granted until our vehicles, bodies, finances, or support systems break down,” says Tweedy.
The thing about rural transportation, says Tweedy, is that everyone who can drive already does. In areas of greater population density, you might have access to the city bus, car share, taxis, and active transportation, giving you the option to decide that with that many options, owning a car isn’t necessary or practical.
When it comes to living rurally, Tweedy says there really is no choice.
If someone is using public transit, such as a ride service, Tweedy says it is usually because of one of four reasons: social - they don’t have people in their life who are able or willing to drive them; financial - they cannot afford a car; mobility - can’t drive because of a mobility issue; or capacity - can’t drive because of a temporary issue like a medical condition or procedure.
SIGNIFICANT CHALLENGES
Most rides offered through Sou’West Nova Transit, says Tweedy, are for medical purposes. But doing these longdistance trips is not without challenges.
As Tricia Leggett of Pleasant Lake notes, it can sometimes take more than eight hours to get from Halifax to Yarmouth using public transit systems. That's a long trek for medical appointments, having to take time off work, and wait as the driver drops off freight and luggage from the airport along the way.
Then, there are issues with weather, early morning appointments, and appointments that are cancelled after the rider has already left the rural area, says Tweedy.
“Looking at the big picture, it's a very safe and attractive place to live, but once you have been here a while, the transportation issue is a big problem,” says Leggett.
As a student at COGS, while mapping food assets, Keefe included transit routes as part of the process to evaluate accessibility
with a mode of transportation other than driving and walking. This idea of access to food became the topic of her master's thesis at the University of Guelph, where she is currently studying.
According to her research and lived experience, Keefe says Kings County is well served by the bus network - but only along the route. Many of these regular riders are seniors and low-income folks. Many other residences, however, are still too far to walk to a bus stop in the more rural areas of an otherwise wellserved zone, she says.
Meg Hodges, the chairperson of the Kings Transit board in the Annapolis Valley, says without transit, many riders lose their independence and ability to function within our rural communities in terms of reaching employment, medical appointments, or groceries.
“Lack of transportation can be isolating, debilitating and devastating,” says Tweedy.
Not having rural-wide bus services means that people are forced to own a car or live where there are better, says Hodges. More people could take advantage of rural affordable housing if they could rely on transit to provide safe and efficient services, but instead, the price of operating a car is too expensive in tandem with the other costs of living, she says.
EQUALITY ISSUE
Transportation is a key social justice and equality issue, says Tweedy.
“It’s a challenge to find many causes that don’t have transportation wrapped up in there somewhere, on some level,” she says.
People have the right to get to a polling station to vote; go to classes, work, and medical appointments; access food, and be socially involved in their communities, says Tweedy.
If they can’t, their only option may be to move.
Hodges says she has yet to see any studies that suggest transit is the main reason youth leave an area. But, she says, large urban transit systems can be an appeal for young people to move to a city, such as with Browne.
It’s not just young adults who move, it’s also seniors.
Jessie Greenough, executive director of MusGo Rider, a community transportation organization with a focus on providing reliable and affordable rural transportation to communities within the Halifax Regional Municipality, says they have riders who cry with relief on the phone "when they realize that we are there to drive them where they need to go."
MusGo can take seniors to places like the grocery store or medical appointments.
"They are relieved as it means they do not have to leave their homes and move to the city," she says.
Greenough says she thinks rural transportation organizations in Nova Scotia are doing a good job, but they are all small organizations being asked by the government to do big jobs with very limited funding.
"The bus frequency and coverage in the Valley and other areas are 100 per cent affected by a lack of funding due to our smaller population," explains Hodges. "Building ridership is a chicken and the egg situation."
If you have poor frequency, then you have poor ridership; if you have poor ridership, then the service receives less funding from higher levels of government because funding formulas are based on use.
“When funding is attached to ridership, there is no way to build capacity within the service without a big and bold investment from all levels of government,” says Hodges.
INTANGIBLE PAYOFF
Megan Brobbin, who moved to East Pubnico from Ontario, would love to see trains and buses available all over the country. She says all towns and rural municipalities would benefit from investing in public transportation, even if it seems to run at a financial loss. She believes the intangible payoff would be sure to increase the overall tax base.
"The real truth is public transit didn't use to be about profit or even breaking even," says Brobbin.
The idea was a form of infrastructure investment in people moving, she explains. You move the people, and they will create wealth for the community.
“Does lack of transportation hurt an area, or make people move away? I don't know the empirical data, but anecdotally, yes. It also stops people from moving here,” she says.
Hodges says a new model of service needs to be created and supported by all levels of government. It should include smaller vehicles that run more frequently in towns and be connected by the larger buses that would move people faster and hopefully create a sense of value for the service.
The solution for most rural areas is not going to involve bringing in a fixed route system, running specific routes on scheduled times and days, says Tweedy. In remote and rural areas, she says, the door-todoor service - like that offered through the Rural Transportation Association where riders pay a fare that is offset by government funding, fundraising, and grants - is what is needed.
Transit is important for the vitality of our communities, says Hodges.
"If we can build a service that can attract more riders and reduce the amount of personal vehicles on the road, then we could focus on building more mixed-use residential neighbourhoods or parks that add to the vitality of our towns and growth centres, instead of arguing over parking lots. The environmental impact would also be great."
DID YOU KNOW?
Last January, a $200,000 investment was announced to launch a fixed-route bus system in Pictou County for a three-year pilot project. CHAD Transit will operate the new service in addition to its existing on-demand, door-to-door service offered for Pictou County residents.