Data discrepancy at MRU

Julie Patton, News Editor | 

Public transportation at Mount Royal University (MRU) has seen its improvements over the years thanks to the advocacy of the Students Association of MRU (SAMRU). 

Joseph Nguyen, SAMRU Representation Executive Council (REC) President, said their biggest win recently was decreasing the Max Yellow wait time from 19 minutes to 11 minutes.

“Overall, our relationship with transit is good,” he said. 

With the UPass system, a student subsidized transit pass, students who rely on public transportation to get to school can do so efficiently.

However, Nguyen said it does have its faults.

“Typically during peak hours, there are times when the bus gets so full to the point where students are left waiting and the bus just passes them by because it’s too full,” he said.

No scan equals no buses

A frustrating experience for students, SAMRU has told the City of Calgary that the university needs more buses. However, the City tells SAMRU that according to their data there are not enough people on the bus to warrant the increase.

How could this be? Nguyen said it’s due to students not scanning their UPass.

“As we’ve seen, [from a personal perspective and from reported instances], bus drivers would just tell students to come on without scanning their QR code,” said Nguyen.

The City relies on data recorded from the QR scans as well as bus driver counts. With head counts subject to error, the number of QR scans give a more realistic picture of the bus’ riders. However, seeing as students are not scanning their UPass and simply only showing it to the driver, the data has been skewed.

In an effort to correct this issue and encourage students to scan their UPass, SAMRU has been spreading the word to students, “More scans equals more buses.”

Personal ride

Nguyen lives in the Northeast of Calgary and is a public transit user himself.

First catching the bus to Whitehorn station, he takes the train downtown, and then uses the Max Yellow or 66 to get to the university.

“I would say that overall, it is smooth,” he said. “The main issue that I encounter, outside of the ones we’ve already mentioned here, are inconsistent bus times.”

Due to construction, he said bus stops may change, and when they do, the Calgary Transit app as well as Google Maps don’t always update with the change.

“You’ll be running around finding where the alternate bus stop is,” he said.

Additionally, the transit apps don’t always update when a bus is canceled or delayed, adding another hurdle for transit users to make it to their destination on time.

Nguyen said that SAMRU is advocating to the government on these issues in addition to the lack of buses at the university.

Advocate

“As the Representation Executive Council, my team and I, we are professional complainers,” laughed Nguyen. “We advocate to the city and an important piece of advocacy is information.”

Students on campus need to be the REC board’s eyes and ears. By informing the council of barriers, trouble, or disadvantages they’ve witnessed on campus, the council can document the complaints and present it to the necessary stakeholders.

“At the end of the day, information is power. So the more information we have, the better,” he said.

Lastly, Nguyen asks that students using public transportation advocate the message of “More scans equals more buses” to their fellow classmates, as well as the bus drivers.