Gearing up to be a highly effective community transit initiative, the Squamish Climate Action Network (CAN) celebrates the one-year anniversary of its Transit Leader project with a party on the bus on Jan. 22.
"On the bus with Squamish CAN," launched in January 2010, aims to create Transit Leaders in Squamish - residents who pledge to ride the bus at least once a month and challenge others to take the pledge. It was created in an effort to increase public transit ridership and spread awareness on the benefits of using alternative modes of transportation.
Here is a snapshot of the 2010 Transit Leaders and their thoughts about transit in Squamish:
January - Mayor Greg Gardner challenged Mountain FM's Rob Michaels to take the pledge. Michaels said his work starts at 4 a.m., long before Squamish Transit gets its engines running. "The weekend is really the only time that the bus would fit with my schedule," he said. His transit wish is for a Sunday bus service.
February - Chamber of Commerce manager Kenny Music pledged to ride the bus, which he hadn't been doing because, coming from a big city, Squamish seemed too small for transit. However, he was amazed by the route and said a bus ride would be a great way to show off the community to his many visitors.
March - Baldev Grewal and Jatinder Dhaliwal ride the bus three to five times per week. Still, they pledged to ride the bus twice more every month and said they would like to see improvements such as buses every 30 minutes.
April - Citizen of the Year 2009 Kristen McBride had a traumatic transit experience a couple of years ago. The bus was not wheelchair friendly and she was stranded at the bus stop for more than an hour. During a later trip, though, she was pleased to discover the buses are now all equipped with electric ramps to cover her needs.
May - Seniors Centre member Prue Fuller rides the bus infrequently and her transit wish is a bus stop at the centre. The schedule, she said, was out of sync with her fitness classes there. "You either arrive 40 minutes early or 10 minutes late," she said.
June - Snap Sea to Sky photographer Cindy Cardiff rode the bus and asked how she could include frequent bus rides in her busy schedule. Her transit wish was a direct service to Brackendale along Government Road, with no highway crossings along the way. The stop at Brennan Park, though, did the trick for her - she said will enjoy riding the bus there with her kids.
July - Teacher Linda Kelly-Smith took her students on the bus to visit their pen pals at Valleycliffe Elementary. The kids had fun riding transit and Kelly-Smith said she believes getting kids to use the bus is simple, and that the challenge lies in educating their parents.
August - Teacher Lori Barjaktarovic, a Valleycliffe resident, and her daughter Hazel love taking the bus. The ride to Brennan Park is five minutes by car, but a stop and a transfer downtown makes it a 45-minute journey each way. Barjaktarovic wished there was a direct bus to the pool from Valleycliffe, but said she was pleased to discover that buses only need five passengers to have a lower carbon footprint than a typical car.
September - Jade Dumas, a Squamish resident for more than 10 years, had never ridden the bus until she took the challenge. Dumas, an avid cyclist, said she would like to see more bike racks at the major bus stops, which would allow people to use the bus and bike in conjunction.
October - School board chair Rick Price uses the bus as a way to whisk his grandchildren around excursions to town. What would normally be a dull ride in a car is transformed into an adventure on the bus, he said. Price believes that the current schedule and routing does not provide the level of service that the system needs to promote bus use by most residents.
November - Eric Armour, president of the Business Improvement Association, said he believes the bus system is underused but if ridership numbers increased, everyone, including local businesses, would benefit. "Late-night buses on weekends would also help," Armour said, "by keeping the roads safer and giving people more options on how to get home."
December - Laila Mitchell, publisher of The Chief, was a big transit user when she lived in Vancouver. But she did not take the pledge to be a transit leader in Squamish, instead agreeing to ride the bus to highlight key issues to be addressed. She suggested extended bus hours, especially during the holidays, when shops are open later.
Squamish CAN co-ordinator Ana Santos said she thinks the Transit Leader program has helped convince more people to ride the bus.
"This already makes me extremely happy, but the success of the campaign goes beyond this very basic and obvious goal. While creating transit leaders, the program has also served as a wonderful tool to spread awareness on public transport issues and get the Squamish community talking about them," she said.
"This is already a great step forward towards making some changes, not only in our bus system, but also in our behaviour."
The Transit Leader celebration will occur on Saturday, Jan. 22 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Meet at the main bus stop, Chieftain Mall. Mayor Gardner and Trevor Webb, B.C. Transit director of transit operations for the southern region, will be on the bus with the Transit Leaders.
