Here's my delegation of Feb. 13:
According to Report # F-04-14, the City is planning to close
the John Street Bus Terminal for a savings of $8,000.00 this year. I believe this would be counterproductive
because:
The downtown terminal is one of four mobility hubs in
Burlington. It connects people to the
Hamilton buses and the Greyhound buses.
It’s close to offices, residential, retail and restaurants. If you close the terminal, it would be the
only mobility hub in Burlington to not have a public washroom or a place to go
inside to seek shelter from the bad weather.
The John Street Terminal a very convenient place that people
gather together to get warm in the winter and to cool off during a summer heat
wave. A person also has the option to
buy a drink or a snack while they’re waiting for their connection. It’s a pleasant place to wait and to strike up
a conversation.
Currently, you can buy bus tickets there or add money to
your Presto Card while still keeping an eye out for your bus. Having to go to City Hall means you will miss your connection and you won’t
be able to keep an eye out for your bus until you walk back to John Street
again.
Walking to City Hall, two blocks away, will pose an extra
and unnecessary hardship on people using canes, walkers, crutches, pushing a
carriage, the elderly and those who are blind, especially in bad weather.
I believe the John Street Terminal was recently refurbished
so closing it would be waste of money already spent.
Until recently, the washroom at the terminal was available
for the bus drivers as well. I’ve heard
of a plan to build new washrooms for the drivers at the Burlington GO
station. What would that cost? It seems silly to get rid of what we already
have and build something new elsewhere. If
you want to save the taxpayers some money and make using transit easier, put
the bus schedule back to what it was before it became so complicated and use
the John Street Terminal the way it was
intended.
By the way, if tickets are to be sold at City Hall which is
2 blocks away, I hope the sales counter is easily accessible to everyone.
Business Case #21, Revise Local Sidewalk Plowing
Conventional Burlington buses are now wheelchair accessible
and as a result, the budget for Handi-Van services was cut by $90,000.00 last
year. (2013 Current Budget Business Case
Form #65)
Now that the buses are accessible for people who have
mobility problems, why would anyone consider making the sidewalks more
difficult to navigate?
I think someone may have misinterpreted the phrase, “Keeping
seniors in their homes”.
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