The Editor:
Re: New West approves bus speed and reliability plan — but some say it's moving too fast (July 12, 2024)
I want to echo a sentiment I heard expressed by a councillor at City Hall when the plan was passed: “Can we do this faster?”
In 2007, I was a first-year student at UBC, living in uptown New West. Every day, I’d cram onto the standing-room-only 155 bus towards 22nd Street, and then watch with dismay as the bus would crawl at a snail’s pace along 6th Avenue only a few stops from the station, stuck in gridlock traffic heading towards Vancouver or onto the Queensborough Bridge.
I and the dozens of others on that bus — folks going to work, school, or maybe an appointment — would see the minutes tick away as we slowly realized that we would, again, probably be late.
No matter how much earlier I left, this bottleneck would threaten to ruin the entire commute. Sometimes I would get off four stops early and just walk to the station, often in the pouring rain.
I wonder how many people on those buses decided to eventually give up and drive instead, only further worsening the problem.
On the other hand, if we had a bus priority lane, I wonder how many drivers stuck in traffic would see buses breeze past them every day and decide to switch to transit instead.
A person in a car takes up about 10 times more road space than a person on a bus. Our road space is fixed, and we need to be more efficient with it. That means carving out more room for buses, the most efficient form of transport we have besides the SkyTrain.
I took the bus through the area the other day and was sad, but not surprised, to see that it’s become even worse.
How much longer can we delay these improvements? How much damage are we doing to the social and economic fabric of the city by creating this experience for the thousands of New West residents who rely on the bus?
Another sentiment I heard at council: "This plan can't be delayed."
I could not agree more!
- Mihai Cirstea, Vancouver, raised in New Westminster
