Consider the B swatted. West Vancouver council has confirmed they will not allow the B-Line express bus service to travel west of Park Royal.
Despite years of demanding better transit service, council has unanimously said thanks but no thanks to the most significant improvement ever offered.
In Canada, about a quarter of our carbon emissions come from transportation, and West Vancouver is uniquely car-dependent even by Canadian standards. Bringing in rapid bus service would probably have been one of the biggest steps the district could have taken to do its part in the battle to ward off disastrous climate change. You’d think a community that so prides itself on being a “seaside village” would take a greater interest in rising sea levels.
But, from the beginning, this debate was framed as taking something away from one group, drivers, and giving it away to another, bus passengers. The unspoken message from council’s vote is that people who ride the bus – that is the people who serve their coffee, cut their hair and teach their kids – are a little less welcome.
Council may tell themselves they’ve found a compromise but this was capitulation, pure and simple. It’s true that in 2020 the district will ask TransLink about expanding the service westward, but the request comes with so many poison- pill conditions the expansion would be completely untenable and undermine the success of the rest of the line.
This is what happens when you make improvements to public transit subject to pleasing people who do not ride public transit. You get nowhere, fast. Much like people riding the bus today.
What are your thoughts? Send us a letter via email by clicking here or post a comment below.
