Transit Skills Training

Teach students how to travel by public transit

Theme

  • Education
  • Encouragement
  • Enforcement
  • Engineering
  • Evaluation

Audience

  • Students
  • Broader Community
  • Municipality
  • Parents
  • Teachers
  • School Board
  • Principals

Grade

  • 4-8
  • 1-3
  • 9-12
  • Kindergarten

Mode

  • Cycle
  • School Bus
  • Scooter
  • Skateboard
  • Walk
  • Transit
  • Car
  • Wheelchair

Issue

  • Student Skills
  • Traffic Problems
  • Student Supervision
  • School Culture
  • School Site
  • Lack of Data
  • Routes to School
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Theme: Education, Encouragement
Audience: Parents, Students
School Grade: 1-3, 4-8, 9-12, Kindergarten
Mode: Cycle, Scooter, Skateboard, Transit, Walk, Wheelchair
Issues: School Culture, Student Skills

Purpose:

To encourage students to use transit services by giving them the knowledge and skills they need to be able to do so safely and confidently.

Description:

Education session(s) designed to teach kids about the transit services in their community and how to use them. Offering Transit Skills Training can help young people develop independent, sustainable mobility skills that will serve them throughout their lives, not just for the school journey.   

A Transit Skills Training program typically covers the following elements within its learning curriculum:
– The many benefits of public transit
– What public transit services are available locally and how to plan a trip 
– Knowledge and skills to use public transit confidently, including how to board and pay, rider etiquette, how to know your stop and get off, and how to store a bike on a bus bike rack.
– Experiential learning through taking a test ride on a local bus and/or train  

These are skills that some parents may teach their children on their own, but to proactively encourage transit riding for the school journey, consider offering a formal Transit Skills Training program. It can be effective to combine the skills training with a broader effort to increase public transit ridership, e.g., by offering free or subsidized bus passes for youth and/or by encouraging transit use through promotional communications. 

If you are also running a Pedestrian Skills Training program, be sure to consider how it could be delivered in coordination with Transit Skills Training to improve efficiency of program delivery.  

What you will need:

Trained instructors, curriculum (see the Resources section), suitable learning space and equipment (classroom, gymnasium, school yard, community centre, local transit station/bus/train).

Help:

Teachers, public health nurses, transit staff, municipal staff.

Resources:

Engaging Students to Increase Public Transit Ridership (featuring City of Kingston’s Transit High School Bus Pass Program) by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities 

‘Kids Ride the Bus’ Education Package for grades K-5 by BC Transit 

Teaching children how to use public transit by Mobycon – MobyKids©  

Key Words:

public transit, bus, subway, streetcar, train, students, curriculum, sustainable transportation, transit, route planning, tickets, ridership, life skills
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