Transit Windsor

A) Eastbound, westbound, northbound or southbound?

  1. A bus going from downtown to Sandwich Town is .
  2. A bus going from downtown to South Windsor is .
  3. A bus going from downtown to the Riverside neighbourhood is

.

  1. A bus going from South Windsor to downtown is .

B) Match the words with the definitions.

  1. weekday
/
  1. someone 60 or older

  1. holiday
/
  1. a piece of paper that allows you to continue your one-way trip on a second bus

  1. transfer
/
  1. the price of a bus ride

  1. get on
/
  1. a table showing what time the buses come

  1. get off
/
  1. able to be used by people in wheelchairs

  1. fare
/
  1. exit the bus

  1. driver
/
  1. a day when most people do not have to work; a special day of celebration

  1. bus pass
/
  1. the person who drives the bus

  1. schedule
/
  1. enter the bus

  1. accessible
/
  1. Monday through Friday

  1. senior
/
  1. a bus ticket that gives you unlimited rides for one month

C) Refer to the Rider’s Guide to answer 1 - 8:

  1. How much is an adult fare if you pay cash?
  2. How much is a sheet of five tickets?
  3. How much is cash fare for a senior? ______
  4. Can you pay senior fare if you are 57 years old? __
  5. Does the driver give change?YESNO
  6. How much is the cash fare for a four-year-old child? ______
  7. How can you get more information about the APP (Affordable Pass Program)?

D) True or False?

  1. You should ask for a transfer before you get off the bus.
  2. You can use a transfer for a free return ride.

E) In the Rider’s Guide, read “Calling of Stops.”

  1. What does that mean? (Use your own words.)

F)Read the schedule to answer the questions:

  1. On a weekday, aTransway 1A bus leaves the Transit Terminal at 10:27 a.m. Is it northbound or southbound? _
  2. What time does it arrive at Ouellette and Wyandotte?
  3. What time does it arrive at Howard and Tecumseh?
  4. What time does it arrive at Devonshire Mall?
  5. On a weekday, aTransway 1A bus leaves Devonshire Mall at 10:35 a.m.. Where is it at 10:54?
  6. Pocho lives near Ouellette and Wyandotte. He needs to meet his friend at Devonshire Mall at 5:00 p.m. He doesn’t want to be late to meet his friend. What time should he catch the southbound Transway 1A? ______
  7. What time should he arrive at the bus stop? ______
  8. If he misses that bus, when will the next one come? _

E) Now imagine that Pocho has a job interview at Devonshire Mall at 5:00. Which bus should he take? _

Why?

Dialogue 1: Where can I catch the bus?

A:Excuse me, where can I catch the Walkerville 8 bus?

B:At the Transit Terminal.

A:At the what?

B:Sorry, at the bus station.

A:Where’s the bus station?

B:On the corner of Dougall and Chatham.

A:Thank you so much.

B:No problem.

With your partner, practice asking where you can catch different buses.

Dialogue 2: Which bus goes there?

A:Excuse me, which bus goes to Devonshire Mall?

B:I think the 1A goes there.

A:Where can I catch the 1A?

B:On Ouellette Avenue. The southbound bus stops in front of The Bargain Shop.

A:Thank you.

B:You’re welcome.

With a partner, change the underlined parts of Dialogue 2. Use the Route Map to find the answer to A’s questions.

a) You want to go to Tecumseh Mall.

b) You want to go to Wal-mart on Dougall Ave.

c) You want to go to ______.

Dialogue 3: At the bus stop

A:Excuse me, is the bus coming soon?

B:Let’s look at the timetable.

A:Where do I look?

B:Right here where it says Saturday.

A:Oh, I see. It will be here in about 6 minutes.Thank you!

B:You’re welcome.

Write your own dialogue.

  1. Teacher’s notes:the instructor will need several copiesof the Transit Windsor Rider’s Guide as well as at least one Route Map, available at the Windsor International Transit Terminal. You may also need to edit some of the departure and arrival times in these worksheets, as schedules can change from year to year.

Worksheet page one is intended to be used after the class has:

  • learned the names of Windsor neighbourhoods: Sandwich Town, downtown, Walkerville, Pillette Village, Riverside, South Windsor.
  • read the GENERAL INFORMATION pages of the Rider’s Guide and discussed the vocabulary
  • become familiar with the layout of the bus schedules

I take at least a week to teach this topic. To make the timetables more tangible, I cut out a cardboard bus and have it “travel” along the streets that I’ve pulled up on the classroom computer screen. As I move the bus along the avenues, I have students shout out whether the bus is eastbound or westbound, etc. Students can also answer the question, “What neighbourhood is the bus entering now?”

The next lesson is a speaking lesson using the dialogues. For dialogue 3, it can be fun to create a bus stop in the classroom using a row of chairs for the bus bench. Students can make a sign and timetable for the wall over the bench.

After practicing the model dialogue, students can decide on other scenarios to act out. For example, now it is Sunday at 3:00. When is the next bus? Now it is Monday at 10:00 a.m. When is the next bus?

Worksheet pages 4 and 5 are intended as an assessment following a few days of lessons on reading the schedules and maps in the Rider’s Guide. Students by this time will understand the following steps:

  • schedules are in numeric order; find the right bus
  • find the right schedule for weekday, Saturday or Sunday/holiday
  • find the bus going in the right direction
  • find your starting point bus stop
  • find the departure and arrivals times

Note: For question 5.b. on page 4, students may wish to discuss how much extra time one should allow when traveling by public transit to a job interview. Buses can sometimes be late. How important is it to arrive on time for a job interview? E.g., How early would you leave home if you were Pocho?

For a final fully communicative activity, students can ask each other how to get to various real places around Windsor and then help each other by using the maps.

YMCA staff: bus stop signs have been laminated and are available to be borrowed from Kelly or resource library.

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