There continues to be a push for public transportation in Steinbach.

Steinbach City Council recently heard from the South East Equity Coalition (SEEC) which presented survey results, possible transportation options, and letters of support from the community.

Starting off with the survey, they had 751 respondents.   

Surveys were distributed and collected by employees of human services organizations in Steinbach who work directly with clients accessing their services.  

The first question on the survey asked how respondents get around Steinbach.  

According to the results, 32% walk, 27% drive themselves, 23% catch a ride, 12% take a taxi, and 6% bike.  

Another question asked how often respondents would use public transit in Steinbach if it was available.   

To this question, 26% said 7+ times per week, 27% said 4-6 times per week, 23% said 1-3 times per week, 13% said twice a month, and 11% said never.  

One presenter, Dr. Val Hiebert, breaks down those statistics.  

“If you crunch those numbers to figure out how many times public transit would be used in one day according to these 751 respondents, it would be 381 times per day. That does not include seniors, students, or those who are environmentally conscious.”  

She notes that they had an optional question at the end of the survey for residents to expand on their experience.  

From this, she found many single-income families in the area can’t afford a second car, which in-turn means they can’t get a second income.  

“It’s hard to get a job without a car, it’s hard to get a car without a job.”  

In addition, teenagers in these economically marginalized families can’t get a part-time job to help out because their family has only one car.  

Dr. Hiebert also says public transit is essential, not just income-wise, but for belonging in society, as lack of public transit has negative mental and social impacts.  

“The survey saw a theme of respondents being unable to put their kids in any recreational programs because they don’t have a vehicle to get them there.”  

“So, what happens is economically advantaged children get the social and mental health positive impacts, while kids who are economically disadvantaged don’t.”  

The next part of the presentation was different options for types of public transit.  

Another presenter, Audrey Harder, points out that Steinbach is not built for bus loops.  

“A loop is not necessarily something we are talking about in the near future. Other communities don’t have the loops, and some of them do and say you shouldn’t do it.”  

She also mentions volunteer transportation programs, which we already have in Steinbach on a small scale with Steinbach Accessible Transit.  

Harder says a problem with this is that it’s unreliable as volunteers are not always available.  

“Unfortunately, we have to say ‘no’ to a lot of people because we don’t have the means to provide transportation for everyone to get to appointments at all times with volunteers.”  

She says one option they are looking at would be a flex-route, which is a blend of fixed and on-demand.  

“You would have your smaller vehicles doing a majority of the work, like we do with Steinbach Accessible Transit right now, and maybe 2-4 routes a day that make sense and are timed well.”  

Harder notes this wouldn’t be all at once.  

“That would probably need some growth to get there, we have to start smaller, we have to start where we can afford and where it will work.”  

She gives some 2023 statistics for Steinbach Accessible Transit to help council better understand the frequency that transportation services are used by the community.

They have seen 33% increase in one year, as in 2022 they gave out around 3,800 rides, and last year they provided 5,477 rides.  

“Today alone, I listened to Cathy several times, and her having to say, ‘Sorry we don’t have time there, there is no driver, both vehicles are busy.’ So that doesn’t include all the people we can’t provide transportation to.”  

Lastly, they presented their letters of support.  

Gay Boese with SEEC stresses that they have a large portion of the community behind them supporting this cause.  

She provided Steinbach City Council with letters of support from 21 different organizations in the community including enVision, ROC Eastman, Steinbach Family Resource Centre, Soups On, Southern Health, and Clearspring Centre. 

Steinbach City Council and the South East Equity Coalition will continue working together to create a solid plan for public transit in Steinbach.

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