Editor's note: This is a letter to the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District. It was copied to The Chief for publication.
There are 23 daily transit buses, each way, between Gibsons and Sechelt. Eight trips extend north to Halfmoon Bay. The Sunshine Coast has been building and improving its regional transit system since 1989.
Every day 30 express buses leave Horseshoe Bay to travel the Upper Levels Highway to Vancouver. Another 40 travel via Marine Drive. There are more than 1,000 bus trips across the Vancouver Harbour bridges each day and the Seabus makes more than 125 crossings. Still, there is frequent congestion and occasional gridlock on the bridges and the highway.
The Sea to Sky Highway was built for 2025 traffic levels. Already some intersections are frequently above capacity. On Friday and Sunday afternoons it can seem like an endless mass of slow-moving cars.
It is time to consider a transit system connecting the people along Highway 99 from Lillooet Lake to Britannia Beach. When we have it working, it can be extended to Vancouver and Lillooet. The question remains: Do we start building it now or wait until walking becomes quicker than driving?
Many things have changed in the 21st century. Squamish has become a satellite of the Lower Mainland. Medical, government and business services are closer to Pemberton and Whistler than ever before. People in the southern SLRD deserve transit to get to work, visit doctors and government services, attend university, pursue recreation and yes, shop. People from D'Arcy, Seton Portage and Lillooet deserve access to services and shopping too.
Until we have a regional transit system, let's preserve what little transit we have. Extend the Squamish Commuter, as I have described before, to provide three trips each way between Squamish and Pemberton or Mount Currie.
Print a schedule that contains trips for both commuter services. Make the schedule available to everyone, but don't just do it once. Every Friday a bag full of sales flyers lands on my doorstep. Retailers don't assume that a flyer today will bring me to their store next month or the month after. Transit is a service, a business. A client base is always a work in progress.
Building transit needs more than buses, shelters and schedules. Like recreation centres, retail outlets and professional services, it needs to be promoted and advertised. Ridership needs to be built and developed. The notion that "if you build it they will come" makes a wonderful movie, but it does not work in the real world.
Real estate companies buy whole pages of advertising even though we can find more information at their offices or on their websites. The most prominent feature on the front of a newspaper is the name of the publication, even though we already know who they are.
Transit needs to be promoted as the alternative to congestion, pollution and parking problems.
Transit is necessary and inevitable. We can fight it until it overwhelms us or we can create a foundation and build on it.Murray GambleSquamish
