While the London community struggles to maintain business entering the second week of a transit strike, members of the Western community are personally rallying to ensure staff, students and faculty get to campus safely.
Western and the University Students’ Council have initiated everything from free bike check programs to community van services to provide safe travel options for all members of the campus community. Learn more about these options at the university’s transit strike site.
But there’s also another less formalized expression of good old-fashioned generosity — people offering impromptu rides to students walking to class.
Personal safety remains a paramount issue when making arrangements for rides, and that’s why Western and USC have built safeguards into options such as Share a Ride and Flag A Ride.
Still, there’s been a blossoming of informal arrangements.
For example, on a recent trek to school, second-year King’s student Amanda Harris was offered a ride by a fellow Western student she’d never met before: “This girl driving up Richmond [Street] pulled over and yelled: ‘Hey, do you need a ride to school?’ ”
Harris is heartened by the compassion drivers are showing fellow students: “It was great to see someone in the Western community so excited to help people out. The student who picked me up borrows her car from a relative so doesn’t have it every day. But she was making the most of it, offering rides to everyone she possibly could.”
Harris lives in Old South, a neighbourhood bordered to the east and west by Wellington Road and Wharncliffe Roads and to the north and south by Horton Street and Commissioners Road. Her walk to King’s takes an hour and 20 minutes, and a cab ride costs $17 each way.
Although she continues to be impressed by the spontaneous generosity of strangers, Harris has also made concrete arrangements for rides to campus. Through carpool.ca, she connected with a Western staff member who lives in her neighbourhood and is able to drive her to campus three days a week.
“As soon as I heard about the strike, I combed Western’s website for resources,” said Harris. “The first link I followed was carpool.ca and that worked out really well for me.”
Although she acknowledges the strike is an inconvenience for students whose tight schedules don’t account for hours of walking, she’s impressed by the way the Western community is dealing with the issue.
“Surprisingly, I haven’t heard too many people complain about the transit strike,” she said. “Everyone seems to be dealing with it pretty well.”
And Harris puts it into perspective. The inconvenience she’s experiencing pales in comparison to the challenges facing some members of the London community.
“They can’t get to local food banks because the buses aren’t running and disabilities prevent them from walking. That’s the real tragedy of this strike”
Harris’s graciousness and concern for others is heartening. And it’s one more example of how the transit strike has unexpectedly brought out the best in the Western community.
If you have a personal story to share with the Western community, send an email to newseditor@uwo.ca