The AMS is supporting Access for Everyone — a campaign from the Mayors’ Council and TransLink advocating for increased federal and provincial funding for public transit.
The AMS held a booth in the Nest to collect signatures for the petition.
The initiative's immediate priority is to ease overcrowding on existing transit lines, with longer-term goals to expand the system — with SkyTrain to UBC being among the main objectives — to meet projected population demands.
Access for Everyone is pushing to secure $21 billion dollars from the provincial and federal governments over the next ten years and a funding commitment by April 2024.
As the housing crisis pushes students further and further away from campus, commutes to UBC are long, crowded and negatively impact students’ physical and mental well being, as well as their academic performance.
The AMS is acting as a stakeholder for the initiative, along with student unions from Capilano University, SFU and BCIT.
“50 per cent of our UBC Vancouver students are commuting with transit every day. I think we are … a significant portion of the transit ridership in this region,” said Kim.
The importance of transit in the quality of student life is not limited to commuting students, it is integral to adapting to the broader affordability crisis; particularly important to addressing housing affordability, according to Kim.
“When we have meetings with MLAs, ministers as well as MPs and also city councillors in Vancouver, we really emphasize the fact that you know, transportation is not really a specific issue. It's really strongly tied to housing,” said Kim. “If you only complete one of them, then there will inevitably be some sort of an issue that might arise.”
In the long term, the ultimate benefit of increasing funding for transit is realizing the dream of SkyTrain to UBC. While Kim acknowledged current UBC students will likely not experience it, maintaining optimism and empathy for the future can help current students and commuters.
Beyond an eventual Millenium Line extension, the campaign also seeks improvements to the frequency and reliability of existing transit.
Other medium-term objectives such as the restoration of the 480 bus and the construction of bus rapid transit routes along 41st and 49th avenue would require further federal and provincial funding, according to the campaign.
Kim remained optimistic from the momentum the campaign has built, and the enthusiasm expressed by students for better bus service in the short term.
“I think that the optimism is still present in the campaign ... There's an increasing momentum in the support of this campaign," said Kim.
Beyond signing the petition, Kim encouraged students to contact local MPs and MLAs to further amplify student needs and concerns.
“I strongly encourage students to just learn more and read more into the plan [and] to familiarize themselves with how much potential this plan has once it's implemented for the students “