Come on Gabriola, take a leaf from Bowen's book

It's almost two years now since Gabriola floated the idea of Car Stops - a concept pioneered by the local community on Pender Island which, like Gabriola, has no public transportation.

The Pender Car Stops scheme started back in 2008 with 16 signs funded jointly by the Regional District and the Lions Club of BC. Because these were permanent signs, permission had to be obtained from the Ministry of Transportation & Infrastructure (MOTI) before they could be erected. A further 13 Car Stops were added in 2009, with the aim that there should be a Car Stop within walking distance of every home on the island.

Gabriola's hopes of establishing a similar scheme in 2009 were dashed by bureaucracy - when a generous $3,500 grant offered by MOTI flew right out the window while we waited in vain for the Regional District of Nanaimo to issue permits for the signs and to decide whether they would accept liability and maintenance responsibility. Since then - nothing. Despite every good intention, the community seems to have accepted that the whole idea is just too complex and there's nothing we can do about it.

Back in the UK, hundreds of small rural communities have developed voluntary car schemes with no formal signage and no intervention required from local government. So why can't Gabriola do the same, I asked. No, it can't be done here, I was told - the insurance regulations wouldn't allow it. And anyway, there's probably no-one with the time to co-ordinate such a scheme.

So now, along comes Bowen Island with a voluntary lift-giving scheme that does just what it says on the tin


Launching their new website this week, Bowen LIFT needs no roadside signs, no co-ordinator, no funding from MOTI and no government permits. It's just a self-help website on which offers or requests for rides can be posted, and self-printed car signs to let folks know that you're able to offer a ride in the direction indicated on the sign. So simple, it could have been invented for Gabriola.

How often have we walked onto the ferry and trekked the lines of cars hoping to see a friend or neighbour who can offer a ride home? Or set off up the hill, telling ourselves that there's no point thumbing a ride until we've made the turn into Taylor Bay, North or South Road?  With a small sign in the front of the car, it would be so easy to spot cars heading in the right direction - even on the ferry.

So come on Gabriola, don't sit there with your head in your hands saying it's all too complicated. It can be done - and I, for one, will be watching with interest to see how Bowen Island's initiative pays off.  And if, like me, you think this is a scheme worth promoting, let me know by email at john@islandtransportsolutions.com . We could have this up and running in no time!

Just another school trip hazard

The following news release was published yesterday by Port Alberni RCMP
MISSING BUS & STUDENTS LOCATED - SAFE AND SOUND

2010-09-13 17:29 PDT
Shortly after 11:30 am today, RCMP in Port Alberni were advised of an overdue bus, with ten Edmonton students (grade 11 & 12), two teachers, and one driver, that failed to arrive at their destination. The group had departed Victoria, BC, destined for the Coast Guard Research Station in Bamfield, BC. They were expected by 10:00 pm last evening.
Upon receiving the report, Port Alberni RCMP, with the support the RCMP Air Services Helicopter based on Vancouver Island, and Search and Rescue crews from Port Alberni, Sooke, Lake Cowichan, and Nitinat, commenced a large scale ground and air search operation. This search, which began at approximately 12:30 pm, intensified throughout the day, until 4:30 pm. At 4:30 pm, a forestry worker located the bus and passengers, who had become stuck on a section of the Caycuse Mainline logging road. A piece of heavy equipment was used to assist the bus back on to the roadway. The bus and passengers are now driving on to the Research Station, as originally planned.

This area of Vancouver Island has limited cellular telephone coverage, making contact to and from the group difficult. The worker who located the group returned to an area with cellular coverage, and called the school and police to advise of the groups discovery.
The Port Alberni RCMP extend their appreciation to the search and rescue crews, local forestry workers, and others who assisted in this search.

For those of us more accustomed to arranging school trips in the UK, the prospect of a school bus going missing for up to 18 hours - even for 12 hours before the police are alerted - is beyond belief. Press reports suggest that the driver took a wrong turn and got lost in the rugged wilderness.
 
Much of inland Vancouver Island has little or no cellphone coverage - and if schools are arranging visits that will take them into remote areas, maybe they should ensure that the bus carries a GPS tracker? 

Four die in Megabus en route to Toronto

Four people are now known to have lost their lives in an horrific accident in which an off-route Stagecoach Megabus en route from Philadelphia to Toronto struck an overhead bridge clearly signed as having just 10'9" headroom. The Van Hool Astromega is over 13' high.

Police and Stagecoach officials are investigating why the driver took this unauthorised route instead of making his scheduled stop in Syracuse, NY. Reports suggest that the driver had missed the exit into Syracuse centre and was looking for an alternative route.

A video report of the accident can be seen at http://videos.syracuse.com/post-standard/2010/09/onondaga_lake_parkway_bus_cras.html

What's Chiltern Railways' boss Adrian Shooter up to today?

Chiltern Railways' chairman Adran Shooter and his wife Barbara have set off today to drive to Paris. Nothing special about that, you might say - except that they're in Adrian's 1930 Ford Model A and they've just set off from Beijing at the start of the gruelling 36-day Peking to Paris car rally!

With Adrian as driver and chief mechanic - and Barbara as navigator - they are raising funds for the Ponheary Ly Foundation, which helps provide education for some of the poorest, disenfrachised children in Cambodia. One of the schools supported by the Foundation is the Koh Ker School (below), set in the middle of landmine fields left behind by the Khmer Rouge. Adrian and Barbara have already secured donations of more than $3000 towards this valuable cause, and you can donate by going to http://www.firstgiving.com/shooterspekingtoparis.

You can follow their progress in the rally on Barbara's blog at http://barbarashooter.blogspot.com/ (as far as internet access along the way permits) - and track them live by satellite at  http://livetrack.skytag-gps.co.uk/login_action.html?user=pekingparis&passw=skytag&action=login&skip_auto=1&lang=en  . Click 'refresh screen' if the map doesn't appear. Select Car No. 029 from the list and see where they are right now!

U-Pass and VIU : stalemate or opportunity?

So, Vancouver Island University (VIU) is one of the few higher eduction establishments in BC that will not be subscribing to the U-PASS scheme this year. Let's examine the facts.

The majority of universities in BC are located in Vancouver or Victoria, where the density of population - and therefore the quality of public transit service - is way higher than in Nanaimo. The result? Students see a real benefit from joining the scheme. VIU's student population is distributed throughout the city and beyond - including some from out of town, and from the gulf islands (especially Gabriola).

Nanaimo's low population density results in many parts of the city being poorly served by public transit - even to downtown, let alone to VIU way out there on the edge of town. The result? No chance of achieving a sustainable transit network that will meet the needs of a majority of students.

Stalemate? Not necessarily.
The Regional District of Nanaimo (RDN), as the supplier of BC Transit services in the city, is set targets for passenger growth which they will only meet if they can encourage many more students out of their cars and onto their buses. RDN's Transit Business Plan identifies the growth in demand for transit to VIU, but continues to plan on the basis of students' willingness to accept a bus journey that involves an unreliable transfer in the city centre - or at the Country Club Exchange.

BC Transit acknowledges that almost half (46%) of the respondents to their 2008 passenger survey in Nanaimo reported that their journey involved a mid-route transfer - and that 44% of those transfers took place at Country Club Exchange - and, by implication, the majority of those will be students at VIU. It's time that RDN acknowledged that mid-route transfers are a major discouragement to existing passengers -and a complete non-starter when it comes to attracting new transit users.

RDN must reappraise its priorities and develop a route network that minimises the need for transfers, and focuses on providing reliable, frequent services where the demand can be demonstrated, even if that means that some lesser used routes are dropped.

It is wholly unrealistic to expect RDN and BC Transit to provide high frequency services from all over the city directly to VIU. They simply would not be sustainable. However, it is equally unrealistic for the RDN to expect every student to contribute to a network that will, at best, only serve two-thirds of the student population.

Maybe the concept of U-PASS is simply wrong for Nanaimo - and what is needed is for RDN to focus on delivering a quality service to VIU on the busiest routes, with tickets priced at a level that students will be willing and able to pay. This concept works widely in the UK, where it is the bus operators that take the financial risk - and, by providing the quality and frequency of service that the market demands, the customer (read: Student) will use transit by choice. Maybe choice is something that the RDN and VIU Student Union should think about more seriously.

A recent article in the Nanaimo Daily News has generated a wide range of views on this topic. These can be followed at http://www2.canada.com/nanaimodailynews/story.html?id=cc1f6d46-3123-4a9d-947d-acb42640ea4e