Runners from Carleton University and the University of Ottawa hit the pavement downtown Thursday, racing to beat the bus as part of a larger transit advocacy project by both schools’ student unions.
In a seven-kilometre run, Carleton students did, in fact, beat the 7 St-Laurent line from Carleton’s P6 Rideau House parking lot to uOttawa’s University Square, where they met up with uOttawa students running a different route downtown.
The event was put on by the Carleton University Students’ Association, the uOttawa Students’ Union, CU Run and uOttaRun.
Aidan Kallioinen*, CUSA’s vice-president of student issues, said the idea came from a desire to highlight local transit issues and encourage students to be active.
Kallioinen said repeated transit delays, service breakdowns and rising costs are a top issue hurting Ottawa university students, with an estimated 70 per cent of students relying on OC Transpo.
From there, he said, the idea that a group of runners could “very conceivably” beat the number 7 bus in rush hour traffic was born.
“If you’ve ever been on Bank Street at about 5:30 p.m. in a car on a Thursday night, you’ll know we probably have a good shot,” he said before the race.
“I’ve been dreaming of this day for the last five days,” he said.
In addition to the Beat the Bus race, Kallioinen said CUSA’s joint report on student transit issues is expected to come out toward the end of this year.
He said it will spotlight student testimonies about their experiences with public transit.
Through the report, Kallioinen said CUSA hopes to improve communication about transit issues with the city.
“You can send a million emails, put a million Instagram posts out, do whatever we do on the government relations front — but at the end of the day, it’s public events like these that get students engaged, and get them talking.”
*Aidan Kallioinen has previously contributed to the Charlatan.
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Featured image by Sophie Mohamed/the Charlatan.
