A group of Arlington teenagers is preparing recommendations on how to improve Arlington’s mass transportation system.
The 18-member volunteer advisory board of Arlington high school students is part of the county’s Teen Transit Initiative, a project aimed at getting more young people to use public transportation.
Arlington County Transit provides public transportation that supplements the regional Metro and Metrobus systems. Earlier this year, county board Chair Chris Zimmerman announced the teen initiative to get young people’s input on the transportation system.
“It seemed like a really good opportunity to expand service to a segment of the population that can use [transit] and learn from them,” he said. “They’re users [of the system], and they can identify a number of areas we can work on.”
Teens “are a large part of the population when many times driving is not an option,” he said. “The transit system should be a good option for them to get around. We think the transit system can serve them better.”
To start the program, about 700 teens in Arlington were surveyed on the transportation system.
The survey found teens believed bus service to be confusing, fares too high and parents who were reluctant to allow their children to ride the bus.
“We have to get better information out there,” Zimmerman said. “We have to make it easier to figure out how to use the system.”
The survey also found direct connections to places of interest to teens was unavailable in some places. For example, Zimmerman said teens from the northern portion of the county were not served by a bus route to popular destinations like Barcroft Park.
The teen advisory board is now working on ways to alleviate these problems.
Zimmerman said the county would take the panel’s recommendations and create an action plan that could include discounts for teens, route redesigns and new routes to new destinations. He said he hopes to accomplish some of these goals within the year.
“These are 18 kids from all four Arlington high schools,” Zimmerman said. “It’s really an impressive group of kids.”
