Editor,
Many Whistler people use the number 98 bus. Whistler needs to maintain its portion of the subsidy for 2011.
Everyone needs to spend 2011 working on ways to improve service and make it a truly functional Regional Transit System.
I have been counting people on the bus and comparing notes with people who travel at other times. We estimate that over 15 per cent of trips on the number 98 buses originate in Whistler.
On the 7:45 a.m. bus there are often more people from Whistler than Squamish.
It isn't a simple split though. It is mostly the same group of people who commute from Squamish every day. Most of the trips originating in Whistler are people who use the bus infrequently, but there are a lot of them.
At 12 to 18 people per day there may be 300 to 500 different people from Whistler using the bus each month.
These are mostly people who have heard about it from someone else, without advertising, without schedules designed for mid-day trips.
There are retail, government, medical and other services in Squamish which do not exist in Whistler. The only way they have enough business is because people from Whistler and Pemberton use them too.
Many people from Whistler and Pemberton have many reasons to go to Squamish and they do it frequently.
Questions? Should low-paid seasonal workers, who can't afford a car and sleep on a bunk bed in a hallway have access to an affordable way to get out of town once in a while for recreation, shopping and appointments?
Should the rest of the people, who appear to prefer driving, pay for it? Should the people who usually drive be making some of their trips on a bus?
As I requested in my last letter, guarantee the existing service for the next year. Perhaps a 20 per cent fare increase would go over better than 60 per cent.
During the next year gather all levels of government, BC transit and anyone else who can help to study the existing routes. Examine the routes, schedules, fares, who uses it and why.
Let 2012 begin with a transit service which will serve the different but inter-dependant needs of these two communities.
There will always be some people commuting from Squamish to Whistler.
There will always be many people with many reasons to go from Whistler to Squamish.
There are hundreds of vehicles traveling between Whistler and Squamish every day, more of them should be buses.
No Whistler, you are not subsidizing a bus for Squamish. You are developing a bus for Whistler.
Murray Gamble
Squamish
