Prince George, B.C.-In a recent presentation to Prince George City Council,   BC Transit noted that of riders surveyed, only  4% identified themselves as a senior.

The City of Prince George is now  launching  a project to  identify the barriers  that may be preventing seniors from using transit service.

The  project is called the Seniors Transit Challenge.

“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,” says 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.”

In addition to  providing training to  encourage seniors to try transit,  thee will be an opportunity for seniors to provide feedback  to help  make the system  better.

First,  there will be a questionnaire to learn how seniors currently travel around town and a secondary participation phase includes three workshops to develop a travel training guide. The workshops  will run one hour, once a month in  March, April, and May.

The questionnaire is available until March 3rd 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.