It’s no secret that OC Transpo has a tendency to be unreliable. Carleton, University of Ottawa, and Algonquin students alike have horror stories about OC Transpo. If you hang around bus stops on campus, you’ll often hear students complaining about how the bus is an hour late.
While all three schools offer student U-Passes with their tuition, if it’s falling short of serving students, then what use is it to us?
Accessibility in a city is incredibly important. Public transport is great because it means you have greater mobility, but the transit system being on the worst side of things means that it becomes a chore to use it. As early as 7:00 a.m., the bus becomes more and more unreliable. There are times this happens right in the middle of the day, too.
When you’re a student, public transport is often your only option. Sometimes it’s possible to walk back to where you live, but other times you’re too far away or it’s too late at night to walk home safely. Although the option of texting the bus to see when it’s coming in real time is available, that falls short when the bus simply doesn’t show up five consecutive times in a row. There have been too many times when I have walked an hour back to campus, and have still beaten the bus there.
With the unreliable bus system, it’s no wonder that cities like Toronto and Montreal are more desirable. In Quebec City for example, the bus system is so reliable that people who go clubbing can rely on the bus to be there at 2 a.m. In Ottawa, students who go to clubs or bars have to get an Uber or a taxi for the way back. These options can get pretty expensive, even if you split between friends. Furthermore, Uber only works if you have mobile data or wifi to use the app while you’re out.
Being late is not just a concern for students out partying. Students commuting to jobs can also be late because of the bus not showing up for an hour. Yes, you should aim to be there early, but if you’re factoring in OC Transpo time, you need to allot two hours for travelling, just in case.
Students are the ones using OC Transpo most, but that shouldn’t mean that it’s shoddy.
