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BC Transit carries millions of passengers between home and work and many other destinations in and around the Capital Region. We take more rides per capita than most cities our size and our costs are lower than most other similar bus based transit systems.
It’s still only one piece of a diverse and increasingly congested transportation system that serves Greater Victoria and as our population grows, we need to make that next step forward to a new rapid transit model that will help relieve the congestion and put us on track towards a sustainable future and a more resilient regional economy.
I’ve sat for the last year or so as a Transit Commissioner, along with Mayors from Victoria, Oak Bay, Saanich, the Peninsula and the West Shore. We’ve inherited a model of governance that predates the major capital investments we are now making so we’ve joined together with the CRD to advocate for a new governance model that will bring more accountability and broader representation to our transit system. It’s time.
We’re also advocating a more comprehensive regional transportation authority that can help manage our roads and regional cycling facilities that carry so much of our daily travel. We can’t be planning in isolation of all our transportation choices.
The new model also demands we look at funding. Property taxes are a burden for many and better ways of paying for transit and transportation improvements have to be found. Vancouver takes in 15 cents a litre in gas taxes to help fund their transportation needs – we only get 3 ½ cents. That’s not sustainable and we need a bigger cut of provincial fuel taxes to help pay for our own transportation needs. We know the money is being collected and leaving the region. It’s time for more of it to come back home.
Transit has also endorsed a new LRT system that will serve our major corridors and shift capacity from buses to light rail. It’s a sound choice, endorsed by every elected official on the Transit Commission, and supported by the communities served. What we need and where the discussion is focused on now is the partner funding we have to get from the provincial and federal governments in order to move forward.
Business as usual is not an option. Our transit system is already suffering from oversubscribed routes, with customers being left behind on the sidewalk. Average travel speeds are eroding as congestion ties up buses in traffic. We’ve looked at HOV options and Bus Rapid Transit, but both will give us no more than a few years of relief.
For the long term, a high quality, rail based system is essential to meet the travel demand Victoria will generate over the coming years.
At least as important will be the very positive benefits LRT will bring to our environmental imperatives and our economic objectives. Only electric LRT meets our need to reduce our carbon footprint to meet provincial mandates and our own responsibility to be positive contributors to the fight against climate change. Only LRT has the certainty to attract density, development and new industries that all rely on fixed transit routes and high quality, quick and reliable service we’ll need to connect residents to workplaces and the many shopping and entertainment destinations that makes Victoria everyone’s downtown.