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First, the context. In The Coast, a tiny article about a transformed transit network appeared. Some people read it more closely and started spreading the news: Halifax Transit had decided to make changes to its bus routes; among others, route 1.
Not long after, people in my neighbourhood started knocking at doors and sending emails to inform the individuals and businesses in the area, as well as the families who travel by that bus to this area, on Oxford Street, North of Chebucto Road.
Then, people found out that they could fill out a survey on the Halifax Transit website, which they did. Many also wrote their concerns to a Transit Planning technician who offered to transmit them to the committee in charge of the project planning. A petition, that everybody could sign, was even put in place at Local Jo Market Café on Oxford Street. And more recently, a webpage was created (savetheone.blogspot.ca) and its printed version is being distributed in the West End.
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Why all that turmoil? Because people think that the current bus route 1 is great.
My husband and I have lived in different countries and provinces for our work and we have used a fair share of transit systems. Since we moved to Halifax, just like many others, we decided to live in the west end because of route 1. And just like several of our friends, we decided to live without a car three years ago, because of bus route 1.
Indeed, in our opinion, the worst change in the HRM transit system in the proposed scheme is the re-routing of route 1 so that it now avoids a section of Oxford Street by branching off at Chebucto and replacing it with a very infrequent bus route 24 (every 30 minutes on week days, and every hour on weekends) which continues on Oxford and Bayers Road. Bus 24 will not even go downtown. So, the great number of people in that neighbourhood who already takes bus route 1 to go work downtown will now have to do a bus transfer, after waiting 30 minutes for the first bus to pick them up.
When you have an important and busy route like the 1, you want to keep it as frequent as possible. Frequency is the key to keep people using the transit system. Plus, that change would impact many businesses, services and families. Among other things, the new bus route 1 will stop covering one of the largest primary school on the peninsula: St. Catherine’s. The proposed take-off segment of bus route 1 running from Chebucto to Mumford Mall will have two major detrimental effects. First, it will significantly reduce the affluence of customers/users to many businesses and services both on Oxford Street and Bayers Road. Secondly, the new Chebucto-to-Mumford segment will NOT bring any new customers to Halifax Transit as it will be covered by two other bus routes: future bus 2 and bus 3. So the proposed new bus route 1 will: (a) detrimentally impact dense residential neighbourhoods and businesses in the Halifax West End community, (b) not bring any new customers to Halifax Transit, (c) push more people to use (or buy!) cars, thus increasing pollution and traffic jams and (d) face the Armdale Rotary traffic jams as opposed to the Bayers Road traffic jams.
So after everything that was done by users to keep bus route 1 as is, in this last attempt, we hope that the committee in charge will hear us and that as a result, bus route 1 will remain unchanged.
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Or, you know, you could walk the 5 minutes to Chebucto and grab the number 1 there. The reason the route is changing is because the number 1 regularly gets stuck in Bayers Road traffic. The goal of the Halifax Transit redesign is for a faster, more efficient system. Having the number 1 sit in Bayers Road traffic forever does not gel with that goal.
The intentions to move the #1 out of a gridlock area like Bayers Rd is good but I still don’t think it’s a good route. I think the peninsula needs another route like the #7 to provide more inter-peninsula coverage that does not get bogged down trying to leave the peninsula at rush hour. I’m on Windsor St and it also stands to lose some frequency with the new plan. A 5 minute walk isn’t bad when it’s nice weather but in the rain/snow it can be pretty terrible. I’m pretty sure most transit systems try to make 500m the maximum distance to a stop.
Respectfully, I think you both are missing the point. The route change implies much more than a “5-minute walk” as you have chose to call it.
First, it means for old people and family with young children to lose the only direct, frequent and reliable means of public transport to the hospitals, new library, medical buildings, public gardens, waterfront and key government departments, such as the passport office.
The only option left for the neighbourhood for going downtown would be the new #28 along Bayers Rd. Walking about 10 blocks on icy and poorly kept sidewalks is not an option for this segment of the population. Besides, the bus stop at along Bayers Rd at Oxford is highly unsafe, as there is NO sidewalk and NO snow clearing in the long winter months.
Second, the current #1 bus already embodies the goals of the ongoing transit redesign – it is direct, frequent and well used. The proposed change to this bus route will make public transit so inconvenient, that many of us feel we are being forced back into our cars.
Finally, the new route along Oxford would run only every 30 minutes (and every hour on the weekends) and has to go through the rotary, Mumford Terminal AND Bayers Road Centre, which in realistic terms it means the new bus will have a high likelihood of being late.
I could go on and on, but I hope that the main points highlighted above make it crystal clear why we, the West Enders, feel the proposed changes are simply a wholly inadequate substitute for what we have now.
I live in the area which will lose service from the number 1 and would like to see it remain as is. However, if the concern is getting stuck on Bayers Rd, has any thought been given to bringing it down Almon to Connaught?