Let’s be clear: Halifax city council is making significant headway in improving our feeble bus system. Some 15 new articulated buses will hit the streets in coming weeks, with 30 more coming over the next two years, and councillors appear committed to even more exciting expansion as laid out in the Five Year Transit Plan.
But as the first new buses were rolled out Tuesday (two hybrids costing a total of $2.6 million, with a $600,000 contribution from the province), and as councillors used the opportunity for a photo op, I realized I’ve *never* before seen a politician, or a city administrator, on a city bus. While buying more buses is good, if they don’t experience it themselves, in a directly personal way, how can councillors and staff address the day-in, day-out ridership issues that so vex regular bus users?
So I asked all 23 councillors, mayor Peter Kelly, senior City Hall administrators and Metro Transit staff about their bus habits. Their responses, which are about what I thought they’d be, are collected at thecoast.ca/bites.
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This article appears in Mar 4-10, 2010.
What am I missing? Where are their responses? It has a link but it brings me back to the blog and I don’t see anything on the blog. A little help?
I saw one of these new busses on Barrington Street just yesterday and was so excited I almost wet myself! I cannot fucking WAIT to get on one!
SO AWESOME!
Iguannasan– go down a few posts:
http://www.thecoast.ca/RealityBites/archiv…
They look nice, but the only one I saw was the #10, and I do not want to go to Dal or Darkness. So I gotta wait.
It was pretty awesome- although i couldn’t hear it idling outside my apartment (my cue to run like hell)….not a real complaint. It was a lot quieter and the seats were a bit more cushy. In short- as a regular commuter- <3
I see the Premier’s advisor Matt Hebb on the #35 at least a few times a week (usually toting around his Just Us travel mug).
I’d be happier if they had not “wrapped” the new hybrids in all-over vinyl graphics. These are theoretically “see-through” but in the daytime, riding in a wrapped bus is like being inside a grey curtain and at night it is impossible for a passenger to read street signs or to get one’s bearings. Do the people responsible for wrapping the buses in ads ever ride the buses themselves, to experience what a dismal experience it is to ride in a wrapped bus? It does not help to encourage mass-transit use.
@robin – agreed. I’ve gotten off at the wrong stop because of those advertisements all over the windows.. There are ads all over the outside and inside they definitely do not need to be on the windows.. At night and when you’re in an unfamiliar part of hrm it’s definitely a safety hazard.
I agree. I have no problem with ads, but those ads make it really hard to see out of the bus.