Michael Ng, chemistry teacher at Paul Kane High School, has been using St. Albert Transit since he was in junior high and now he wants to let people know just how he rolls.
“I like it because of the convenience and great service,” Ng said. “They’re on time, their schedules are perfect and easy to interpret and I love the Google program that’s so easy to decipher.”
Ng is one of seven frequent St. Albert Transit users whose faces will be splashed on the sides and backs of local buses and on city bus benches in a new public awareness campaign to boost ridership entitled This is How I Roll.
Ng answered a call for volunteers posted on the St. Albert Transit website and sat down for a photo shoot. Ng said that, besides using transit in junior high and today to get to work at Paul Kane, he also took the bus for all of his high school and university.
“I can relate to the students in my class,” Ng said. “It’s way more economical.”
Marianne Grohn and her kids Brennon, 15, and Erica, 12, are also featured in the campaign, with Brennon and Erica getting their own separate poster.
Grohn said that, up until this year, both her kids attended school in Edmonton and St. Albert Transit was the easiest way for them to get around.
“The bus is reliable when the roads are bad. It’s always running and the kids even get to know the drivers some, so it’s a bit of a social thing,” she said.
All seven people will also have their testimonials featured in St. Albert’s Citylights ads, which run in Saturday’s St. Albert Gazette.
While all seven people have their different reasons for using transit, the department used one prop to tie them all together – the same pair of cheap sunglasses. All of them wear the shades in their ad.
“It worked for ZZ Top,” joked transit director Bob McDonald. “I thought it was a good idea. I think it was something to highlight the campaign.”
Other transit users could also receive their very own pair of sunglasses this year as part of the promotion, McDonald said. The goal, as always, is to increase ridership by showing residents just how convenient it is to take St. Albert Transit.
“We’re confident that other people will see the reasons the people we selected use it and will see why public transit would be an option for them,” McDonald said. “It’s a way to show people it’s a way to go.”
The campaign officially launches Monday, which coincides with the back-to-school season and the end of summer, McDonald said.
“People are establishing their travel patterns for the fall and winter and it applies to students and other people, so we’re just pointing out transit as a viable option.”
