During its pilot run, the Youth Opportunity Pass reached about a third of the students C-Tran officials hoped, but the results were good enough that the program likely will be approved for another year by the C-Tran Board of Directors.
The one-year Youth Opportunity Pass pilot program was a collaboration of C-Tran, the city of Vancouver and the Vancouver and Evergreen school districts. The program made available 1,500 free passes to low-income middle school and high school students at 23 different schools in the Vancouver and Evergreen districts. However, only 544 passes were actually handed out to students.
Qualifying student were determined by school staff and partially based on the students’ eligibility for free or reduced-price lunch. Almost half of the students in the Vancouver and Evergreen districts meet that threshold.
C-Tran Director of Planning, Development and Public Affairs Scott Patterson said staff wanted to extend the program another year to increase the number of participating students and to increase the survey response to get better information.
The passes allow students unlimited access to the C-Zone, which covers most of Clark County, during the school year. A student pass for the zone typically costs $30 per month. The youth passes aren’t valid on the express buses, which travel to downtown Portland, or on TriMet.
The program got a late start. Passes weren’t handed out until November, rather than at the start of the school year. C-Tran staff also noted that some schools with affluent students had leftover passes while other schools needed more.
Of the 544 students that used the passes, 55 returned surveys about their experiences. Of those that responded, 90 percent said they’d continue to ride the bus.
In one of the surveys, a Evergreen High School student wrote that “having access to this takes stress off my parents’ shoulders …and I no longer worry about being on time.”
Vancouver City Councilman Bart Hansen, who advocated for the program’s creation last year, said he wanted to see the program expanded and extended to the smaller cities in its second year.
“They’ve contributed in the first year to something they’ve received little or no benefit from, but out of their good graces decided to see the pilot program go one year,” he said.
Vancouver City Councilman Jack Burkman said that newly participating schools should make sure they have enough passes to meet student demand.
“If there’s some way of gleaning the best practices … I’d like to have schools avoid reinventing the wheel,” he said.
Washougal City Councilwoman Jennifer McDaniel suggested extending the free pass program to all high school students.
“I think we want to increase ridership and expose these kids to alternative forms of transportation and we’ve figured out it can be done safely,” she said.
Ridgefield City Councilman John Main suggested that the passes should be expanded beyond the school year so students can meet their other obligations.
“Jobs don’t stop in the summer,” he said.
C-Tran Executive Director Jeff Hamm said the program was limited to 1,500 passes in part because the potential revenue loss.
He said some transit agencies that made youth transportation free throughout the summer have had problems with passenger behavior.
“With this program we sent a letter home to the family and the family had to understand what was being given to the student and to agree to certain things about behavior on the bus,” he said.
Hamm said the transit agency’s staff will look into expanding the program to more schools and potentially bring a representative from the Evergreen or Vancouver school districts to the next board meeting.
C-Tran staff will bring the board a recommendation about the program in August.
