ON THE BUSES

In January, a flood of complaints reached the elected officials offices about transit. The calls were from commuters – both students and people going to jobs.

I decided it was time that I got off the phone and onto the bus, so I called a friend and asked if her husband would agree to be my bus buddy for my first run from Oak Street into downtown metro. I do mean my first trip – in a few decades! I drove the Ford pickup truck to his house, realized I did not have exact change, did not even know the fare. Once my $ 5.25 was in my pocket, and we walked briskly to the stop I felt a little better. He went to the back of the bus while I got to know my fellow transit riders up front.

I spent the next few weeks taking different routes to the Edmonton Library and City Hall as well as to Grant MacEwan and the U of A run. I have to tell you I met a lot of great people – many of whom took their earplugs out and were kind enough to tell me about overcrowding and their frustrations that Strathcona County Transit does not use open data and apps to offer fundamental customer service: Trip Planners, Detours, maps and buying online….all the basics provided by Edmonton Transit. I was amazed when I got back and googled ‘Edmonton Transit’ then ‘Strathcona Transit’ the difference is like game boys compared to black and white TV! Try it – you will wonder as I did what in heck is going on.

Apparently #sctransit is an existing hashtag for twitter and facebook. When I tried it I got Santa Clarita buses! I suggest we claim back our own hash tag and use it often when we experience delays, have issues, or just want to say thanks.  

I also experienced their dissatisfaction about parking (or lack thereof). I could only console myself and my new transit friends with the fact that that new Bethal Terminal will open up in December with 1200 parking spaces.

About the overcrowding…it seemed that Transit did not handle the back from vacation volumes well at all. Apparently all the scheduled buses were operating but there were not as many additional non scheduled buses as there could have been. As a result the numbers of transit riders standing as the commuter buses rumbled from Wye and Baseline terminals into the metro area was unacceptable.

The idea of adding buses is good: overload buses are added or reduced on-the-fly as passenger volumes warrant, just not shown on the time tables. This system improves cost-effectiveness without changing published time tables. But we need to be more flexible and faster as we evaluate the transit rider volumes.

Students tell me that there is also some misalignment between when classes start and end. Seems to me we need to check out those class schedules every semester.  

One woman told me about the need for bus drivers to look before they pull out and take an extra few seconds to wait if they see someone running, slipping and sliding towards the bus door.

I have to say that the high point of almost every trip was the bus driver. They almost all smiled and greeted me and other riders. And when I asked stupid questions…like so what is the closest stop to the Sutton Place?...they did not laugh.

Each weekday, 58 buses service 27 routes and carry four thousand passengers. And best of all, they offer us almost stress free travel into a traffic congested city. We can read, tweet or just listen to our IPods as the drivers safely deliver us to school and work. That really is not a bad deal for $10.50 a day.  

See You On the Bus,

Roxanne Carr

Councilor, Ward 2, Strathcona County

Roxanne.Carr@Strathcona.ca

780.464.8002