Missing the bus: How public transit gaps are impacting P.E.I. residents
- Judith Mendiolea Lelo de Larrea
- Oct 21, 2025
- 7 min read
Mabel Chu realized she was stuck when her daughter spiked a fever one night.
Her car was in the shop, there were no buses running, and neither taxis nor driver apps responded to her calls.
Searching for help, she reached out to neighbours through a WhatsApp group used by newcomers in East Royalty, P.E.I., hoping someone would help her. Eventually, two families answered by bringing her to the emergency room.
“I asked my two friends. One friend to take care of my daughter in the hospital. The other friend to bring me to the airport so I could rent a car,” she recalls.
She kept the car for three days to make sure she could take care of her daughter.
“No one should have to go to the airport to rent a car to be able to access the hospital,” she said.
Car heavy, transit light
This was in 2024. Today, due to conflicting schedules, limited routes and transit unavailability, Chu has been forced to buy a car.
Similar factors often weigh heavily on those living farther from Charlottetown’s downtown. These lived experiences are the reason Barbara Dylla founded Transit Matters Charlottetown.
After moving to P.E.I. in 2017 from Montreal, Dylla noticed a lack of advocacy specifically for public transit. As a non-driver herself, by both choice and circumstance, she relies on walking, biking and the bus service.
“I don’t use it much because it doesn’t go where I want it to go at the times that I want it to go,” she said.
Transit Matters Charlottetown is organizing Charlottetown’s first Week Without Driving, a campaign imported from the U.S. that challenges drivers to experience what it means to navigate the city without a car from Sept. 29 to Oct. 5.
“The Week Without Driving is to allow a driver to be conscious of what it means to get around without a car,” Dylla said. “Transit advocacy is to encourage, push, urge policymakers to understand the importance of public transportation as an essential service.”
Organizations including Fusion Charlottetown, the Women’s Network of P.E.I., UPEI Student Union, Cooper Institute, P.E.I. Fight for Affordable Housing, United Way and the UPEI Climate Action Association have committed to take part in the challenge, she said.
Dylla also described meeting with Mayor Philip Brown, who “was very enthusiastic about it.”
“At the heart of it, the challenge of the week without driving is really directed at the elected representatives. So for them to try and go a week without using their car,” said Dylla.
Dylla describes how transit touched affordability, climate goals and mobility justice.
“Transit matters to a lot of people because otherwise they cannot get to work, to appointments, to school, to socialize, to activities, to recreation, to visit friends, to visit family,” she said.
Problem bigger than just one week
For residents like Chu, however, the challenges of living without a car go far beyond a one-week campaign.
Even though T3 Transit has expanded, it still serves only a portion of the total demand, especially after hours and on weekends.
Compared with Fredericton, N.B., the difference is striking: Fredericton Transit runs fixed-route buses seven days a week, with service spanning from early morning until late evening.
Still, with the T3 Transit major expansion for East Royalty and other areas of Charlottetown, Stratford and Cornwall in late August 2025, Chu said the service continues to not be enough, making it impossible to attend after-school activities or evening shifts.
“After 6:45, I cannot catch the bus… For me, it’s so hectic. If no car, I cannot go back home,” Chu said.
“Even for groceries, no bus on the weekend means no grocery shopping. In East Royalty, we have only just one bus shelter. In the winter, all the kids and the elderly stand outside. How can we do like this?”
Improvements needed
Many bus stops currently lack shelters or seating. Charlottetown council recently began budgeting heavily to address this, releasing official plans to set aside $100,000 per year from 2024 to 2033 for bus stop amenities (shelters, benches, lighting, signs), adding six to nine shelters a year.
Charlottetown has approximately 45 of 400 stops that have shelters.
Coun. Norman Beck, who sits on Charlottetown’s Environment and Sustainability Committee, said East Royalty had been identified as the first area for improvement.
“Anyone who’s gone out there has noticed there’s been tremendous growth,” he said. “Right now, the main priorities would be route expansion and fleet replacement.”
However, updates take time, and the full expansion can take up to five years.
“Within the next five years, we’re hoping to get to… currently we have 20 buses in the system and we’re hoping to get to 35,” he said.
The city cannot meet demand all at once, he said.
“If you have a limited number of buses, you’re going to be limited in the number of routes. You can’t get to everybody all the time,” he said.
“If you could do them all in one year, we’d do it. But you know it takes time. We’re going to have 13 new buses here by the end of 2026… 11 diesel and two electric, and they’ll be replacing some of our older fleet.”
According to him, 11 of those new buses will replace older models.
A system of inequities
As time passes, citizens in areas with limited bus service continue to face daily challenges.
Chu explained how the lack of transit was tied directly to her housing choices. With rent higher downtown, newcomers and lower-income families looked to the outskirts for affordability. But without cars, they were locked into a system that did not allow them to move freely.
“Because the service doesn’t match us, every family needs to purchase a car,” she said.
Though precise local numbers vary, a typical experienced driver in P.E.I. spends, on average, $885 per year just on insurance. Add to that fuel, maintenance, parking and vehicle costs, and owning a car becomes a major household expense.
Meanwhile, Charlottetown’s transit system is among the cheapest: fares are low ($2 cash, or about $20 a month for adults), with discounts or free rides for seniors, students and youth.
The discrepancy means many low-income families spend more overall just to access essentials if transit isn’t viable.
According to the Public Transit Plan Report of April 2024, demographic data show children, seniors and newcomers are the groups most likely to rely on transit. About 15 per cent of Charlottetown’s population is under 18, and youth ride free. Seniors pay $10 a month for passes, the same rate as students.
Roughly 10 per cent of the city’s population is foreign-born, and many arrive without a driver’s licence. If at least half lacked a vehicle, it would equal the entire college population.
This has proven popular as T3 carries about 10,000 riders under 18 each month.
When asked about demographics, Beck said, “I see the number of young people that are actually… I’ve never taken the bus. There is a whole generation that are not used to taking buses.
“So I think we’ve done a bit of that change of mindset. I think that is a good part of the success, too. So I think just sort of the numbers, sheer numbers, but also the changing mindset of approaches because we’re a very car-centric city.”
Dylla argued this made Charlottetown’s climate goals harder to reach.
“A car is parked 90 per cent of the time. It’s only in use on average 10 per cent of the time,” she said. “Bus riders are by nature also pedestrians. So directly or indirectly, we are also pedestrian advocates for good sidewalks, safe sidewalks.”
Inconsistent routes
Despite the improvements in areas like East Royalty, the bus service remains inconsistent.
In an area visit, Chu pointed to six different stops, such as Anne Avenue and Gilbert Drive or Norwood Road and MacRae Drive, that were marked on the street but not listed online.
Others, like Horseshoe and MacRae, were located in spots inaccessible to people with disabilities.
And on St. Peters Road, the bus stops of Rilla and Robertson to the next one of Gilbert Drive and MacWilliams Road are separated by one kilometre, a difficult distance in winter.
When asked about those issues, Beck said he had no immediate response.
“But I would hope that if it is a gap that needs to be addressed, we can try to work towards addressing and filling it,” he said.
He also encouraged residents to bring anomalies to the committee.
Beck pointed to growth in ridership as evidence of progress.
“We’ve seen in the numbers of increased ridership that there’s a demand for it,” he said. “T3 is a real success story. If you think about where we started and where we’re at today, people, other municipalities, have been looking at this site.”
In 2023, Charlottetown’s transit system carried about 1.2 million trips, roughly 200,000 more than the pre-COVID record. Provincial subsidies had made fares among the lowest in Canada: just $20 a month for adults, $10 for seniors and students, and free for youth under 18.
Between climate goals and daily realities
Charlottetown and P.E.I. have pledged to reach net-zero emissions by 2040.
But with transportation being such a large part of current emissions (about 41–42 per cent), meeting those goals depends heavily on expanding transit service, building more shelters, adding routes and ensuring reliable hours.
“If we can make it work, we’ll fill as much as we can,” Beck said. “But there’s an annual budgetary process that goes on. There’s many competing demands.”
For residents like Chu, however, the transition could not wait.
“I want to expand my living style. I don’t want just to live in the house, watch TV, play games. But with no bus on Saturday or Sunday, I have no choice,” she said.
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