The province’s plans for a $30-million modern Phibbs transit hub are awash in many upgrades.
But a public washroom where commuters might answer the call of nature isn’t among them.
This is a significant oversight.
While authorities insist the new transit hub will be more “friendly and welcoming” and could even contain a coffee shop one day, bus riders have told stories about desperate travellers discovering a dearth of facilities dashing into the bushes to relieve themselves.
The upgrade oversight seems even more ludicrous given that bus drivers will be getting a new “comfort station” including toilets, at Phibbs. Surely planners who see the need to provide commodes for drivers might also be able to grasp the need for the same among the 16,000 passengers who use the exchange every day? Particularly as Phibbs serves those who are typically on longer trips requiring multiple transfers. For a transit system looking to make riding the bus a convenient and comfortable option, omitting washrooms from the plans is decidedly not a smart idea.
The potential for vandalism and for the use of washrooms as a place to conduct criminal business or do drugs appear to be the biggest concerns identified.
Yet in recent years we’ve also realized that the provision of public washrooms is a basic service, a nod to common decency. Airports have washrooms. So do ferries. And SeaBus terminals. And streets in downtown Vancouver.
It seems silly to have to point out that toilets aren’t a luxury that only some kinds of travellers get to access.
It's time for TransLink and the province to flush this loo-lacking plan in favour of a more laudatory, lavatory-enabled option.
