As the olympics approach, residents of Vancouver are looking at alternatives for their work commute. VANOC has suggested to leave the car at home and choose transit, walking or biking instead as the roads should be extremely congested. At the same time VANOC has warned that commuter-ship will be so high that during typical rush hour periods, there could be up to 2 hours wait at some sky train stations. Along with the wait times, translink increased fares from YVR by $5 mainly targeting visitors to the city.
Recently work on the Highway 99 was completed to accommodate a $4.7M dedicated bus lane – but with the canada line in effect, people south of the Fraser river have to transfer from their ‘express’ bus to the skytrain. Many of those commuters have said they will be driving to avoid the new transit changes preferring the cost of gas over the $10 a day commute to and from work in Vancouver – and ridership is showing a decline car traffic increases on the road.
All these decisions have been made by a board of executives behind closed door deciding what’s best for the community. But what they don’t realize is that their changes are doing more harm than good. Perhaps they’re pocketing more money from commuters and taxpayers, and the kickbacks from their buddies in the construction business – and to add insult to injury, we, the taxpayers are ignored.
Is it a surprise that violence against transit operators is on the rise? The Bus Riders Union (BRU) and Translink blame eachother for increased violence on transit.With all the benefits and right-of-ways the transit operators get, you’d expect some sort of sensitivity training in all their people interactions – but instead the Canadian Auto Workers union wants to see more rights given to the bus driver, giving him/her the same status as an essential services operator like an ambulance driver or police officer – meaning anyone attacking a bus driver would have stiffer penalties and in some opinions, it is warranted.
While still a bit too fringe to be taken seriously, I applaud the BRU for their efforts in speaking up for the people using transit. My suggestion is getting some statistics together that measure ridership before and after multimillion dollar contracts by translink. I’d also like to have a voice in reporting bus drivers for their driving – i want to commend the good drivers and condemn the bad ones. I’d also like to either have a voice or listen to the board meetings of translink. Accountability, Transparency and Ownership by the people would give Translink the credibility it needs to improve how people move around our city. Without those, they will remain corrupt and unappreciated even under the fanciest and shiniest of sky train station depots.