Aiming to improve student ridership, Long Beach Transit (LBT) announced last Wednesday a partnership with students in Poly High School’s business program, Pacific Rim Academy.

The goal is to obtain student comments and perspectives towards bus ridership and develop new ways to enhance transit and encourage more students to use them.

LBT began working with two 10th-grade classes in October to learn why Poly High students are not using public transit. The students developed and conducted a survey to give to their peers and elaborated on marketing strategies to increase ridership.

The 10th-graders gained real-world experience tackling an important issue faced by LBT and other transit systems across the country, according to officials.

“This is just the beginning of our involvement with Poly High School,” said LBT CEO Kenneth A. McDonald in a statement. “We are planning to implement a summer high school internship program partnering with students who worked on this project.”

The Pacific Rim Academy was named a California Partnership Academies Distinguished Academy by the California Department of Education for its partnerships with local businesses and organizations, including LBT.