Students’ Union begins transit demographic initiative
By Matty Hume, July 10 2018 —
During executive reports at the July 3 meeting of Students’ Legislative Council, Students’ Union president Sagar Grewal discussed his involvement in an internal study in which the SU is researching where students live within Calgary and what those students’ Calgary Transit options are.
Though the internal study is in its early stages, Grewal said the SU has already approached the University of Calgary with the goal of collaboration.
“We’re hoping to use postal codes — anonymously of course — so [we’re hopefully] working with the Office of Institutional Analysis because they would have all of that data,” Grewal said. “If we could work together on that, that would be great for both parties to better understand how to serve the community.”
According to Grewal, the SU wants to gain a better understanding of where U of C students live and create accessible data to highlight how those students can use transit to get around the city.
“By overlaying what transit options look like for those areas, we are hoping to better understand how accessible and efficient transit options are for students throughout the city,” Grewal said. “If we find that there is a great disparity in transit services, or that services could potentially be improved in certain areas of the city, we would work to incorporate that information into our advocacy, to ensure that Calgary Transit is an accessible option for our students.
“Otherwise, if it’s working, that’s great to at least know,” he continued. “We’re just revisiting our municipal priorities, so obviously we have the appeals process for things such as transit issues as well as like electronic fair. This is one new thing we’re exploring — ‘Is transit as effective as it could be?’ ”
Grewal said the SU has already begun working on this student demographic and transit initiative. No information about the project is currently publicly available, but the SU will present the information once it has been collected, according to Grewal.