qathet's car/bus dilemma

qathet’s car / bus dilemma

BY PIETA WOOLLEY

Owning a car is expensive. Buying it, fueling it, insuring it, maintaining it and fixing it when it breaks: these are hundreds-of-dollars-a-month costs.

In most places in BC, people who cannot afford a car, are too young to drive, don’t have a driver’s license, or have a disability that prevents driving, are able to take public transportation – such as a bus – to work.

But here in qathet, the bus isn’t a realistic solution for many people. For example, the Stillwater bus doesn’t run Thursdays or Sundays at all. It’s the only bus serving people living south of Pacific Point Market.

To catch the bus from Saltery Bay, you have to call ahead, and can only catch it twice a day… but not on Thursdays or Sundays. The last bus serving south of town leaves Town Centre Mall at 5:40 pm four days a week (or 2:30 pm Saturdays). Anyone working past then – or Thursdays and Sundays - in retail, health or hospitality is out of luck. When qathet Regional District chair Patrick Brabazon was first elected to represent Area A (north of town) – back in 2005, there was no bus. He was shocked, because he witnessed widespread poverty there. Indeed, Lund has Powell River’s lowest incomes. The median family income for the lower-earning half of Lund families is just $27,105, or $2,259 a month – before tax. Half of families there, in other words, realistically can’t afford a car.

“Lund residents wanted a bus service so they could get to work in the morning, make a living and come home at night,” Patrick said.

He and others lobbied the Province to co-fund a bus, and secured two-days a week service to Lund. After years of advocacy, a third day will soon be added. Now the people who elected him can catch a bus Tuesdays and Fridays. The first bus leaves Lund at 11 am. The last bus returns at 4:05 pm. You’d need a very understanding boss to accommodate three days of work a week, from 11 am until 4:05 pm.

Within the city limits, the bus travels more frequently. The three routes serving Townsite/Wildwood, Upper Westview and Grief Point run every hour or half-hour weekdays, between about 7 am and 10 pm, less on the weekends. In addition, the Zunga Bus pilot project is a federally-subsidized bus-on-demand system using an app that serves the City only for one year, starting in early February.

The City has allocated up to $170,000 from the Climate Action Reserve Fund towards the Zunga Bus pilot. $200,000 is covered through the Federal Built in Canada Innovation Program. Most of the City’s costs are for the drivers’ salaries. Generally, BC Transit bus service is a shared cost between riders, who pay about 20 percent of the cost in fares; local governments (through property taxes and other revenues), which pay between 10 and 30 percent of the cost; and the Province, through the Ministry of Transportation’s BC Transit, which pays between 47 and 67 percent depending on the type of service.

For qathet, the 2020 requisition for transit operating costs south and north of town was $131,642, or about onethird as much as the qRD spent on the Powell River Public Library. Of course, the qRD does not have absolute control over how much transit is delivered here; that is negotiated with the Province.

Bus fares are $2.25 each way for adults on most routes, or $18 round trip for a family of four, depending on the age of the children. The Texada bus, which includes ferry fare, is $8 for adults.

What do relatively low levels of transit service mean for the region?

Hitchhikers dot Highway 101. Half the rural population lives in chronic poverty. Most people who can afford one choose to drive a private vehicle. And governments and taxpayers save a few bucks.