When Getting on the Bus Became a Financial Decision

 When Getting on the Bus Became a Financial Decision

I remember when my child was younger and taking the bus wasn’t simple—it was a calculation.

There was a time when children were charged fares starting around six years old. For a while, I tried to navigate it any way I could. I remember once thinking I could still get her on under the rule, just until things were clearer or easier. We were getting ready for something special that day—both of us dressed up, everything feeling important in a quiet, ordinary way.

But the bus driver looked at my kid and asked me to pay.

It wasn’t dramatic in the way policy debates are dramatic. It was small, immediate, and final. A rule applied in real time, at the door, in front of everyone. But the impact didn’t feel small. It turned a simple trip into another moment where survival and dignity had to be balanced against money I didn’t really have.

Years later, I was still doing the same math.

During my kid's high school years I had to come up with about $50 a month just so my child could get to high school.

That might not sound like much in policy terms, but for me it created real pressure. It was another fixed cost in a life where nothing else was fixed.

Even now, I still feel it. I clean once a week in Surrey and get $50 for the job. The bus alone costs over $11 round trip. Before anything else—before food, before savings, before anything unexpected—that money is already partially gone.

When Enforcement Replaces Understanding

Last year, I saw transit officers board a bus in Surrey—three at the front, three at the back—checking everyone. I saw people being flagged, and I heard about fines that now sit around $173 for fare evasion under Metro Vancouver transit enforcement policies.

It felt less like “catching offenders” and more like a system tightening around people who are already stretched thin.

What stood out wasn’t just the enforcement. It was the sense that the system assumes a level playing field—that everyone has the same ability to pay, plan, and comply. But that isn’t the reality for many people using transit every day.

Students, workers, newcomers, people between paychecks—transit isn’t optional for them. It’s how life happens.

The Question We Keep Avoiding

There’s a bigger question underneath all of this:

Is transit a service you purchase when you can afford it, or is it essential infrastructure like roads, water, and emergency access?

Because right now it sits in between those two ideas. And when systems sit in that middle space, enforcement becomes the default way to manage inequality instead of solving it.

I don’t think most people “choose” not to pay. I think a lot of people are trying to choose between paying and something else that can’t be delayed—rent, food, childcare, or just getting through the week.

And that’s where the tension lives.

Not in the rules themselves, but in what it means when basic movement through a city becomes something that can tip a household over the edge.

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Reflective Questions

What does “fair access” to a city mean when transportation has a cost attached to every trip?

At what point does a transit fare stop being a small fee and become a barrier to basic participation in daily life?

How does enforcement (like fare checks and fines) feel differently for people with stable income versus people living week to week?

Should essential mobility—getting to school, work, or medical appointments—be treated like a paid service or a public right?

What alternatives could exist so that transit funding doesn’t rely so heavily on individual fares?

How do small, repeated costs (like $10–$20 per day) shape long-term inequality in a city?

What role should governments play in ensuring that children and students can move freely and safely through the transit system?

When we see fare evasion, are we seeing “rule-breaking,” or are we seeing a system that is mismatched with people’s realities?

Keywords (comma-separated)

transit affordability, public transportation, fare enforcement, Metro Vancouver transit, TransLink, social inequality, low income commuting, student transportation costs, housing and mobility, urban poverty, transit fines, accessibility, essential services, cost of living crisis, Surrey transit, social justice, lived experience, transportation policy, economic stress, everyday survival, BC public services

Hashtags

#TransitJustice #AffordableTransit #PublicTransportation #CostOfLivingCrisis #MetroVancouver #TransLink #SocialJustice #HousingAndMobility #SurreyBC #StudentLife #WorkingPoor #UrbanInequality #EssentialServices #AccessibilityMatters #EverydayStruggles