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Season 2 - Conversations on Urban Research
In this second season of Temporarily Urbane, the SFU Urban Studies podcast, urban researchers within the program engage with their partners to present their ongoing research project as these develop. The conversations on urban research are exploratory and open, thinking through research questions, choices, and impacts as forks in the road, paths less travelled, and surprise openings for new kinds of insight.
How do transit subsidies affect the commuting choices of workers at downtown Vancouver hotels? Partnered with the City of Vancouver, TransLink, Unite Here Local 40, and participating hotels, SFU Urban Studies professors Peter Hall and Anthony Perl investigated the effects of commuting choices for Vancouver hospitality and tourism workers when provided with subsidies worth 15 to 50 per cent on their monthly transit passes. With a focus on equity and making transit affordable and accessible to those who depend on it, the aimed to analyze the acceptance and effectiveness of transit subsidies in Metro Vancouver. Researchers collected study data in 2018 and 2019, in order to understand any changes before and after the transit subsidy was provided to hotel workers. They then used statistical analysis, combined with other data sources, to produce 12 findings, the highlights of which they discuss in a public presentation, which took place on December 15, 2020.