EP 251 DAN HENDRY: These kids are throwing car culture under the bus - a youth transit revolution

In this episode, I connect with Dan Hendry, to talk about North America's youth transit revolution and the inspiring Get On The Bus campaign. We also talk about how and why he got engaged in doing this work and cover some of the results he has seen over the past decade empowering kids to use transit and have mobility freedom within their communities.
Themes discussed in this episode: Free Range Kids, Youth Riding Transit, Independent Children, Self Confidence, Self Efficacy, Range of Freedom, Mobility Independence, Walk and Biking to meaningful destinations (school, parks, friend's houses, and even transit)
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Helpful Links (note that some may include affiliate links to help me support the channel):
- Dan's TEDx talk: • Throwing Our Car Cultu...
- Climate Reality profile video: • Throwing Car Culture u...
- Get On The Bus: www.getonthebu...
- Small Change Fund youth transit project: smallchangefun...
- Dan's personal site: www.dhendry.com/
- Mayor Paterson video: • Kingston Transit High ...
- Design For Social Innovation case study: bit.ly/4auPXKD
- Right to Roam - Tim Gill episode: • Safe for kids means sa...
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Credits: Video and audio production by John Simmerman
Music via Epidemic Sound: bit.ly/3rFLErD
Resources used during the production of this video:
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- Editing software Adobe Creative Cloud Suite: bit.ly/35DBDDU
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Background:
Hi Everyone! My name is John Simmerman, and I’m a health promotion and public health professional with over 30 years of experience. Over the years, my area of concentration has evolved into a specialization in how the built environment influences human behavior related to active living and especially active mobility.
Since 2010, I've been exploring, documenting, and profiling established, emerging, and aspiring Active Towns wherever they might be while striving to produce high-quality multimedia content to help inspire the creation of more safe and inviting, environments that promote a "Culture of Activity" for "All Ages & Abilities."
The Active Towns Channel features my original video content and reflections, including a selection of podcast episodes and short films profiling the positive and inspiring efforts happening around the world as I am able to experience and document them.
Thanks once again for tuning in! I hope you find this content helpful and insightful.
Creative Commons License: Attributions, Non-Commercial, No Derivatives, 2024

[@DougWedel-wj2jl]

This is great! Maybe someday Youth Ride Free will refer to bicycling?

[@ActiveTowns]

Precisely!

[@sarahrose9944]

My city recently launched “Youth Ride Free” and I can’t wait until the bus reads “YOU Ride Free”!

[@ActiveTowns]

Love it! 🙌

[@kookamunga2458]

Transit in my city is underfunded and mismanaged. Buses are called loser-cruisers . I'm looked down on for taking buses but don't care about that innuendo anymore. People in Europe don't frown at transit that way.

[@ActiveTowns]

Yeah, it's unfortunate that this is the narrative in far too many cities globally and is an example of car-brain thinking. As you can tell, I just love it when I see examples like Kingston and Boulder where riding can transform into being pragmatic, empowering, and even cool. Thanks so much for tuning in and sharing your experience. I really appreciate it. Cheers! John

[@HigherQualityUploads]

Some do. British prime minister Margaret Thatcher famously called bus riders "failures." It's a disgusting mindset.

[@ActiveTowns]

Well said. That is entirely disgusting and, unfortunately, not at all surprising.

[@qjtvaddict]

@@ActiveTownscar brain is beyond the USA? Yikes so we just getting started then

[@ActiveTowns]

@@qjtvaddict Oh yeah, car brain is everywhere... it's like a very contagious virus. 🤣

[@JustClaude13]

Thank you for the "south of the border" phrase. I now have that song stuck in my head. "South of the Border, Down Albany way, I fell in love with flashing eyes in a red Chevrolet." I love the program to use the public buses as school buses for field trips. Beyond familiarizing students with the idea of riding the city bus, it also saves a fortune on maintenance and hiring extra drivers.

[@ActiveTowns]

Hehe, you bet. Yeah, such a great program. Cheers! John

[@DougWedel-wj2jl]

It sounds like this is planning to use city transit to replace school buses?

[@ActiveTowns]

Sorta, kinda, but not really. They striving to teach kids to ride transit so they are independent and mobile, that’s not quite the same as replacing the regular route school bus, although it certainly could. Now the other initiative of using excess transit capacity for field trips could definitely result in fewer school district buses need for these extracurricular activities. Either way it’s a super cool initiative. Cheers! John

[@bucketofbarnacles]

Fantastic.

[@ActiveTowns]

Indeed! Thanks so much for tuning in. Cheers! John

[@erikwestberg5348]

One afterthought, with all those buses in Kingston, have they ever considered trams as an alternative?

[@ActiveTowns]

Yeah, that's a valid question. I'll let Dan chime in on this one.

[@incheondan2007]

@@ActiveTowns Great idea. I believe Kingston had a tram years ago, but most mid-sized cities don't have them anymore for some reason! It is really a shame....

[@ActiveTowns]

@@incheondan2007 Yeah, it sure is.

[@erikwestberg5348]

@@incheondan2007 Take a look at Lund, smaller then Kingston with a new tram. But yes, it did cost some.

[@DougWedel-wj2jl]

The vulnerability of a bus system is that you need a minimum grid, which requires a minimum of transit riders to make it work. Elon Musk claims autonomous cars will be cheaper than taking the bus and it will go door to door. If that happens, it can draw off enough bus riders that the bus system won’t be worth doing despite the fact many people take roughly the same routes at the same time, so they would fill the buses. Bicycling can be done with a low number of cyclists as well as a large number. One of the great things about bicycling!

[@ActiveTowns]

Yeah, I can't help but think about places like The Netherlands, Copenhagen, and even Boulder, where many, if not most, kids have the mobility freedom to walk, bike, and use a well-designed and convenient transit system. The networks work well together.

[@GeoffreyMorrison-xh2eo]

Yeah, good luck, Elon: Your vehicles have a great many expensive issues. People also tire of fealty to banks and all other stripes of financiers. Personally, I have given up on autos. The way I see it is that having a vehicle requires good resources--as does not having one. . Given crazy, greedy prices, auto-driving should already be included--where is it? It's nowhere to be found--and, it will take decades We can't rely totally upon vehicles getting that right: It will require pesky gubnint and infrastructure. You may note that Tesla attempted simply "leap-frogging" that issue--relying on the cars. They did get far--but, no cigar....

[@GeoffreyMorrison-xh2eo]

I would also add that the US is hell-bent on becoming India: Purchasing Teslas will remain onthe bottom of the totem-pole of citizen needs....

[@DougWedel-wj2jl]

Bicycling seems to go together with bus/subway systems. Take public transit for the long chunk of a trip, start and finish by bike (BTB).

[@GeoffreyMorrison-xh2eo]

Yeah, Doug: Use bus sys every work week. Boonie buses are comically limited.

[@nikhilsrl]

Glad to hear about Kingston. I did my masters at Queen's and live in Oshawa now, but visit Kingston often. It's always been a cosy place.

[@ActiveTowns]

Oh cool! So nice of you to tune in. Thanks so much. Cheers! John

[@nikhilsrl]

​@@ActiveTowns Always looking forward to your videos. Entertaining and educative. Oh and before I forget let me add that I used the transit in Kingston, when I was there in 2013-14. Frequency wasn't great then, but I loved it regardless. As you mention in the video, it gave me that freedom to move around when as a student you can't afford to have a car.