THUNDER BAY — City officials in Thunder Bay say they want to hear residents’ thoughts on city transit.
The city has launched an online survey to “better understand people's experiences, concerns and needs,” with regard to the local bus system, said Amy Coomes, the program lead for asset management for the City of Thunder Bay.
“We really need customers' input on how do they use transit right now, how do they plan their … transit trips and are they satisfied with it, and all of the experiences that they have utilizing transit.”
The survey is set to accomplish two things, Coomes said — to help inform ongoing city asset management program development and to get input prior to any implementation of proposed changes to how transit operates. The city wants to transform the system into a hybrid model of combining fixed routes with some level of on-demand service.
“When we're looking at planning or changing our services, we need to understand how people use the services and how they want to use the services in the future,” she said.
“If we want to do any improvements, we need to know, first and foremost, what are the challenges so we need to have people give us their feedback in order to understand those services.”
Coomes said people can expect to see questions ranging from how people plan their trips and why they use transit, to queries about the state of the buses, whether they’re on time and where people typically transfer.
Riders will also be asked about what tradeoffs they’d agree or disagree with in future operational changes.
When doing these types of public surveys — depending on the topic — Coomes said the city typically receives anywhere between 50 and 250 responses, but “obviously we want as many people as possible to fill out the survey.”
The survey is open until April 11, Coomes said. According to the city it should take about five to 10 minutes to complete.
