The Executive gave a Sustainable Action Grant of £12,247
to Edinburgh Youth Social Inclusion Partnership for 2002-03
towards promoting the use of public transport to young
people in Edinburgh.
Promoting the use of public transport and reducing the
levels of car use are key environmental goals, policies and
issues in cities around the world. A Viewfinder survey,
conducted in partnership between City of Edinburgh Council,
Edinburgh Youth Social Inclusion Partnership and Lothian
Association of Youth Clubs, revealed that more than 75% of
young people in Edinburgh use public transport as their
main means of getting around.
Young people are therefore a key target group in
developing a long-term and sustainable environmental
strategy for the city. If public transport is a good
experience for young people they are more likely to use it
in their adulthood and less likely to resort to using a
car. However, the Viewfinder survey found that young
people, although regular bus users, were dissatisfied with
the level of bus fares, the level of service and the
attitude of bus drivers.
The objective of the Young Edinburgh Passengers (YEP)
project was therefore to address these issues in order to
make public transport a better experience for young
people. The YEP Forum met between September 2002 and March
2003. 20 young people attended initial forum meetings and
10 became regular members. The young people got more
involved as time passed.
The project identified three broad issues to work on -
Bus Design and Safety, Customer Service and Fares. It was
decided that whilst routes and timetabling was an important
issue it was perhaps too ambitious for the YEP Project to
tackle. It was also decided that the YEP Project should
conduct a Youth Jury on transport in order to get the YEP
findings and message across to transport planners and
providers. The YEP jury was held over 2 days in March 2003
and gave the young people the opportunity to engage with
transport planners, providers and experts, on the issues
they had been working on.
Safety was a common theme which ran through most of the
issues around the design of buses. The young people
expressed views in relation to their own safety and that of
others whilst on the bus as well as waiting for the bus.
Furthermore the young people surveyed gave some suggestions
as to how buses and transport of the future should look and
feel. They preferred a modern, clean and spacious
environment as well as a safe one. The group concluded that
bus environment and design can be an important factor in
the 'travel experience' which could be decisive in whether
or not young people will use buses in the future.
Many young people said that they were sometimes afraid
to travel on buses late at night due to the threat of being
attacked or hassled by other passengers. There was
discussion of more on-board staff or security presence.
The group considered whether the media had a role to play
with attention-grabbing headlines which are out of context
with the reality of the situation.
Customer service concerns included: drivers' negative
attitude to young people, lack of consultation on route
changes affecting schools, frequency on certain routes,
accessibility of timetables and the availability of
Teencards. Young people were also concerned about the
experience of other passengers e.g. elderly people,
wheelchair users, unemployed people and parents with
pushchairs.
There was a clear indication that young people feel
wrongly treated by bus drivers but there was some balance
as both young people and adults recognized that not all bus
drivers are 'grumpy' but when they were this has a negative
impact on the journey and feelings towards public transport
generally. On the first day of the jury the young people in
the customer services group presented bus drivers with
these findings and questioned them about their views on
them.
The fares group concluded that the level of fares was an
issue for young people - unfair for young people compared
with adult fares in relation to income. It appeared that
recent free travel entitlement for older people has added
to the disgruntled feelings young people have towards
increasing travel costs. They agreed that the
responsibility was with government but felt there should be
an element of joint responsibility with bus companies.
Other research has suggested bus companies do not view
young people as a potentially fruitful market. The fares
group were of the opinion that a concessionary scheme for
young people aged between 16 and 21 would cost less than
the current scheme for older people.
From the jury agreed action points included:
Bus Companies/YEP to plan a strategy to: (a) Arrange for
young people to have an input on driver training. (b) Bring
young people and bus drivers together to draw up a charter
and a possible award scheme for drivers.
Plan/organise work in schools to promote bus use amongst
young people and a positive image of bus drivers and bus
companies. This could include having a poster competition,
issuing teencards, careers advice etc.
EYSIP will feed the project work into the Youth Services
Advisory Committee, which is responsible for implementing
the Youth Strategy for Edinburgh. Through the work of the
YEP Project partnerships have been set up between local
public transport companies, decision makers, lobbyists and
researchers. There has been significant commitment from
Lothian Buses and the City of Edinburgh Council in terms of
support for the project and for the action points.
The YEP project aims were wide i.e. by looking at all
young people in Edinburgh and sustaining their use of
public transport. Initially the bus companies were keen to
address some narrower or more specific issues e.g. youth
'disorder' on buses etc. By working with EYSIP, the police
and other youth agencies, the bus companies have been able
to separate these two issues and therefore adopt different
strategies in working on them.
The young people who took part in the project have
benefited from their involvement in different ways. They
have developed skills in information gathering, research
design and delivery, writing and giving presentations. In
October 2003 two young people from the YEP Forum
facilitated EYSIP's 'Have A Blast' event on the issues
surrounding the introduction of trams and congestion
charging.
Contact
Edinburgh Youth Social Inclusion Partnership
F/1 54 Timber Bush
Edinburgh
EH6 6QE
Telephone: 0131 555 5111
www.youthinclusion.org