Residents experiencing low income in the Region’s seven priority neighbourhoods² are more likely to travel by transit to precarious employment with earlier and later start and end times than residents in other communities.

There are several groups that that requiring additional consideration when planning DRT services:

• Indigenous people
• People from various ethnic and cultural communities
• Immigrants, refugees, and undocumented people
• Lone parent families
• Persons with disabilities
• Persons experiencing low income
• Age (Seniors, Youth, Children)
• Gender
  • Second language and literacy barriers

In naming these equity priority groups; DRT acknowledges that these communities are not mutually exclusive. Individuals may self-identify as belonging to more than one group.

Priority Neighbourhoods

The seven priority neighbourhoods identified by Durham Public Health are home to approximately 91,000 residents (15 per cent of Durham Region’s population) that require focus to build on health and well-being. These neighbourhoods rank poorly in terms of overall income, education levels, and employment.

The seven priority neighbourhoods are:

1. Downtown Ajax – Ajax
2. Downtown Whitby – Whitby
3. Downtown Oshawa – Oshawa
4. Lakeview – Oshawa
5. Gibb West Oshawa
6. Central Park – Oshawa
7. Beatrice North – Oshawa

• Many rural areas have faced challenges with maintaining opportunities for young people resulting in many young residents commuting to larger communities for education and work opportunities or moving out of rural areas due to a lack of local work opportunities.
• Public transit access is becoming more important as more youth delay obtaining drivers licences or don’t have access to a vehicle due to financial or medical reasons.
• Transit can provide access to educational and work opportunities either within a rural area or to neighbouring communities. The availability of transit assists youth living in rural areas to be able to work in their community.

• Many residents in rural areas are aging in place, increasing the number of residents that will be unable to drive due to medical or age-related reasons.
• Older adults in rural areas may need to travel to specialized medical care in larger urban centres, and either cannot or do not want to drive into busy areas, such as the downtown Toronto Hospital Row.
• Transit can provide older adults with access to shopping, medical, and leisure services in their local community, or in neighbouring communities. Access to transit will help older adults age in place or within the communities that they call home.

• For some residents in the rural areas, driving is not an option.
• Transit can provide access to educational, medical, and work opportunities either within a rural area, or to neighbouring communities. Transit can increase independence, as these residents no longer need to rely on rides from family or friends.

• Many rural businesses and farms rely on employees travelling into the rural area from neighbouring urban areas. For many of these employees a car is not available.
• Transit provides the link between employees and employers, giving rural employers a larger labour pool to draw from, and the same access to labour as their urban counterparts.

• Depending on travel needs within the Region, many customers face challenges accessing the transit network due to limited pedestrian networks, road conditions that favour fast moving vehicles, subdivision design, and gravel shoulders.
• DRT will work with Municipal partners to address the accessibility challenges for the first mile, last mile accessible, including in rural areas.

People and participation

• When identifying the community groups that will benefit from or be impacted by a proposed initiative, have you asked, “who’s not here?”
• Have you collaborated with community members and learned their needs?
• Have you identified relevant performance metrics/indicators that address equity and the social wellbeing of the community?

Destinations, routes, vehicles and stations

•  Does the proposed project increase access to essential goods and services and/or employment for equity priority groups?
• Have you considered the social and political history of the area?
  • Have you considered physical and social safety issues and safety for all genders and abilities?

Service design guidelines

DRT leverage a monitoring framework to establish the type of service delivered (demand response or scheduled routes), and that the service is sustainable and efficient.

Ridership minimums in priority neighbourhoods

The ridership productivity minimums influence the span and levels of service.

The type of service and frequency planned for an area and shelter installations are based on ridership and boardings. For example, a bus shelter is considered at a bus stop recording 20 or more daily passenger boardings. In priority neighbourhoods, recorded boardings and ridership will be increased by 50 per cent to accelerate the deployment of bus shelters, moving from demand response to a scheduled service, and increases in service frequency during busier times of the day. For example, in a priority neighbourhood, a bus shelter will be considered at a bus stop recording 15 or more daily passenger boardings.

The ridership productivity guidelines for rural service already reflects a lower minimum average boardings due to lower density and greater distances travelled.

Washroom designs will include gender neutral facilities and spaces for infant changing and nursing.

New initiatives will be implemented to improve access to electronic trip planning, information, and real-time information by considering Wi-Fi access through mobile devices, electronic customer kiosks, real-time information displays and customer information lines.

Wayfinding information will be improved and expanded, including the use of accessible formats.

A customer’s journey starts from their home, school, work, or other location, and getting to the transit stop, hub, terminal, or station. Travel experiences will be improved by removing barriers and reducing distances to bus stops and hubs.

DRT will work with Regional and Municipal partners to identify, address, and remove barriers to accessing transit services in their neighbourhoods by:

• Identifying gaps in the sidewalk network connecting transit stops, hubs, terminals, and stations.
• Developing opportunities for additional protected road crossings.
• Identifying opportunities to increase proximity of new and existing neighbourhoods through new multi-use pathways.

Calls that generate feedback assist to determine areas for improvements. Each call related to boarding point relocation, safety concerns and route alignment is tracked and reviewed by staff including improvements implemented resulting from customer feedback.