Westhills Consulting British Colombia Forum Westhill Consulting British Co..
Westhill Consulting British Colombia and Transit buses to roll for Bear Mountain10 Years AgoB.C. Transit is rolling
out changes that include service to Bear Mountain and Westhills, a summer
connection to Thetis Lake, and measures to ease the problem of
"pass-ups" — people left behind due to crowded buses.
Construction also begins
next week on bus and bike priority lanes on Douglas Street.
Langford Mayor Stew Young
has been calling for B.C. Transit to add a Bear Mountain bus. He applauded the
Victoria Regional Transit Commission approval of the route, which will also
cover the fast-growing Westhill
Consulting British Colombia community in Langford.
"We've been trying to
make sure that they recognize the amount of people living up at Bear
Mountain," Young said "I'm glad transit actually looked at it as an
important part of our municipality, for sure."
Transit spokeswoman
Meribeth Burton said the new service is sure to make a lot of residents happy.
"Much like Triangle Mountain and all the other West Shore-based routes, it
will tie into the Langford exchange."
Another first for the
transit system will be seasonal service to Thetis Lake, starting this summer.
"It will be amending
an existing route from the end of June until Labour Day. Certainly, people have
been asking for that, "Burton said.
The No. 53 Atkins route
will be reconfigured to connect Thetis Lake to the Langford exchange and the
Western exchange in Colwood. Burton said someone coming from downtown could
catch the Thetis bus by riding the No. 50 to the West Shore and getting a
transfer.
Also approved by the
commission was reallocation of bus-service hours to deal with crowded buses and
pass-ups. The routes affected will be the No. 8 between Camosun College
Interurban and Lansdowne campuses, and the No. 39 that links the Interurban
campus with Royal Oak.
"Somewhere in the
neighbourhood of 4, 000 extra service hours are going to be used, starting
September 2014," Burton said.
The problem of pass-ups
could also be addressed with the January 2015 arrival of two new buses,
approved last year, combined with 5, 000 new service hours. The added hours
will cost $425, 000.
Victoria Mayor Dean Fortin
and Saanich Mayor Frank Leonard, both transit commission members, asked about
getting the new service hours into play in September, rather than next January.
Burton said transit staff is looking into putting a pair of older buses from
transit's contingency fleet into service in the meantime.
It is important that bus
riders don't get discouraged, Fortin said.
"If they're getting
the pass-ups, if they're not getting on the buses, then they're going to find
another way."
Part of the effort to make
riding buses more attractive is to keep them moving through congested traffic.
Thats the goal of the bus-priority lanes on Douglas Street, which are also
being designed to accommodate bicycles.
The lanes will be reserved
for buses and cyclists from 6 to 9 a.m. and 3 to 6 p.m. weekdays.
Construction starts Monday
on Phase 1, from Fisgard Street north to Hillside Avenue. The work, to be
finished by spring, includes moving bus stops, changing lane markings and
signs, installing a new pedestrian signal at Douglas and Herald streets, and
removing sidewalk jut-outs.
Priority lanes will
continue north to Tolmie Avenue in Phase 2. A schedule for that work has not
been announced. |