Public discussion of Burlington's transit system yields
diverse viewpoints
Bob Wood Special to Burlington Post
Burlington Post | 3 hours ago
Burlington
Mayor Rick Goldring was among members of council who accepted a
challenge to ride city transit for five days in the same month.
Last
Saturday’s transit users forum at the Central Library was structured
differently than most public meetings you might attend.
Typically,
you will find a roomful of charts and exhibits and staff ready to
interpret the graphs and maps and answer your questions.
But this day belonged to the riders.
It was their day for input, according to Burlington for Accessible Sustainable Transit (BFAST), the organizers of the event.
The
approximately 85 people attending had good opportunity to air their
concerns. While four of the seven members of Burlington council and
Burlington MPP Eleanor McMahon heard about what was wrong with public
transit in the city; there was much that was positive articulated as
well.
A short film called theBurlington Youth Transit Surveykicked
off the morning, followed by a transit user panel. During the last
portion of the forum, participants moved into small groups for
discussions.
In
the panel discussion a comment about the great work done by the bus
drivers was met with applause. The prevailing attitude seemed to be that
system shortcomings such as poor signage, inadequate shelters, poor
communication and scheduling conflicts and gaps are not the fault of the
drivers.
Panelist
Glenna Cranston noted, for example, that keeping on tight schedules was
difficult for the drivers particularly on some routes like No. 10.
Cathie
Pym was very pleased with the Handi-Van service that is used by people
who, due to a functional limitation, cannot use the conventional system.
With some of the bad weather conditions this year, “no one else made it but Handi-Van,” she declared.
Another
Handi-Van user, Paul Benson, prefers using the conventional system as
it offers him more flexibility. He uses Handi–Van occasionally.
He characterized his trips as “fairly successful, on most occasions.”
That’s
because connecting with different routes and different systems — Benson
often goes to Oakville for appointments — isn’t always easy.
Enduring
40-minute waits, with riders sometimes forced to sit in unsheltered
transfer locations, particularly in winter, poses such challenges for
seniors and others that people may not go out. Social isolation may be a
consequence.
One
panelist described how while attending a Realtor’s open house a bus
drove by. On the spot she decided to buy the house because it was on
that bus route.
That
was 17 years ago. In 2013, however, that route (No. 4) was deleted.
Users got together with Burlington Transit (BT) staff and “a really
clever solution” to revise the route was fashioned.
Unfortunately,
the solution was only effective for the morning rush hour. In the
evening, riders often face 40-minute delays when transferring from the
GO train to BT buses.
From
youth, there was a concern that many young people want to continue to
live in Burlington but may not be able to stay unless they can afford a
car.
Longtime
users of BT recalled how most routes use to run every 15 minutes and
there was very little GO service. Today, GO trains are more frequent
than BT buses and the percentage of travellers using public
transportation has dropped from seven per cent to just under two per
cent, commuter James Smith told the forum.
“It’s all about money,” said Smith. “We need to re-invest in transit.”
But Burlington appears to be going in the opposite direction.
Judy
Goodings, who facilitated one of the discussion groups, reported that
Burlington’s “spending per capita is 50 per cent less than other
municipalities.”
All participants were asked to fill in comment sheets.
BFAST
will be organizing the comments and putting a report together that will
be forwarded to council and available to all who attended.
Earlier
this year, BFAST had challenged the city’s mayor and councillors to
spend five days in a month using Burlington’s transit system.
At the meeting BFAST Chair Doug Brown acknowledged those council members who had accepted the challenge.
“You can’t really understand how the system works without getting on a bus,” said Brown.
No comments:
Post a Comment