Victoria bus service sucks
Have you watched a full bus pass you at the stop in the morning? Have you watched two in a row go by? Have you left the library at closing, only to find that your bus has stopped running? Have you had to shell out for a cab ride home from a late shift at work for the same reason?
The thousands of UVic students who take the bus on a daily basis are all too aware that public transit service hours are just not meeting our needs. The UVic Students’ Society knows it too.
The UVSS exists to protect students’ interests, and your UVSS representatives have made better transit a priority. After sustained lobbying over the past two years, we are now in a position to see real action from the government and improvements to transit service as soon as this fall.
Last year, we collected thousands of signatures from students and community members calling for more public transit funding, and also received an endorsement of the campaign from the Victoria City Council.
We secured endorsements and support from the Victoria City Council, numerous community and business organizations, UVic staff and faculty and the bus drivers’ union.
The public pressure the UVSS built contributed to a $4 million increase to the annual operating budget of the Greater Victoria Region in the 2008 B.C. budget.
The focus this past year was to gain commitments to improve transit service from candidates in the fall 2008 municipal elections. Upon securing those commitments and the election of new city councils, UVSS representatives have met numerous times with the Victoria Regional Transit Commission, Saanich Transportation Council, Victoria City Council, Oak Bay City Council and Esquimalt Council to lobby for increased service for students and the community.
In recent meetings with the mayors of both Victoria and Oak Bay, they have attributed the additional funding to the work of the UVSS and have committed to a task force on late-night issues as part of an investigation of the feasibility of extended service hours.
The UVSS will be presenting our Late Night Proposal to the next Victoria Regional Transit Commission meeting on March 10, pushing for a trial to begin in September 2009.
We’re certainly not done yet, but building sustained public pressure and holding regular meetings with government officials has put us miles ahead of where we were just two years ago. Let’s keep moving forward.
2 Comments
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LR Jones, President CAW 333 March 17, 2009, 10:12 p.m.
Hi: my name is Bob Jones I am the president of Canadian Auto Workers Local 333. I represent the transit drivers and mechanics who do their best to provide decent service to UVic.
A number of drivers have contacted me with their concerns about a cartoon on page 12 of your Martlett March 12 edition. The cartoon depicts an empty bus
Out of Servicebeing driven by a bus driver with a big grin on his face flipping his finger at a clearly exasperated university student waiting at a bus stop.I feel that the cartoonist and, by extension the editor, missed the boat (or bus if you please)with their skewering of the transit operator. It is not the driver who is responsible for the lack of transit. Nor do we derive any pleasure from passing up would-be passengers.
Please understand that our drivers and mechanics are as exasperated with the overcrowding and pass-ups as your student members. For years we have been short of drivers, mechanics and buses necessary to provide the level of service your members expected when they voted to assess the entire university enrollment to pay for annual transit passes.
BC Transit has refused to offer wages that would entice operators and mechanics to join BC Transit and only since the downturn of the economy have drivers started to apply. Sadly outside mechanics still are reluctant to apply.
I guess what I'm asking for is that the the cartoonist aim their humourous barbs at a more deserving target.
in solidarity,
Bob Jones
LR Jones, President CAW 333 March 17, 2009, 10:12 p.m.
Hi: my name is Bob Jones I am the president of Canadian Auto Workers Local 333. I represent the transit drivers and mechanics who do their best to provide decent service to UVic.
A number of drivers have contacted me with their concerns about a cartoon on page 12 of your Martlett March 12 edition. The cartoon depicts an empty bus
Out of Servicebeing driven by a bus driver with a big grin on his face flipping his finger at a clearly exasperated university student waiting at a bus stop.I feel that the cartoonist and, by extension the editor, missed the boat (or bus if you please)with their skewering of the transit operator. It is not the driver who is responsible for the lack of transit. Nor do we derive any pleasure from passing up would-be passengers.
Please understand that our drivers and mechanics are as exasperated with the overcrowding and pass-ups as your student members. For years we have been short of drivers, mechanics and buses necessary to provide the level of service your members expected when they voted to assess the entire university enrollment to pay for annual transit passes.
BC Transit has refused to offer wages that would entice operators and mechanics to join BC Transit and only since the downturn of the economy have drivers started to apply. Sadly outside mechanics still are reluctant to apply.
I guess what I'm asking for is that the the cartoonist aim their humourous barbs at a more deserving target.
in solidarity,
Bob Jones