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Column: Waiting for the bus: time to address transportation in the Boundary

We need to replace up-turned thumbs with transit tickets
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I bought my sister’s 2008 Hyundai Accent in a panic last May when I had to get from my internship in Charlottetown, P.E.I., to the Boundary in four days, via the Lower Mainland. I knew I didn’t have time to scout out cars during my Lower Mainland stopover and I knew that she’d looked after it. I was desperate and bought the little putt-putt mobile that had never before driven east of the Fraser Valley. But like many things in the Boundary, this job requires a car.

It’s the first time I’ve ever needed one on a daily basis in my 25 years.

In high school, I would mooch rides from friends and offer to pay for gas. At university, my bus pass was among my best friends, second to maybe only my bike. A car was a waste of time, money and worry. I can fix pretty much anything on my bike — the same does not ring true for my car.

But in rural B.C. I live the need for a vehicle – we all do.

We need it to go pick something up at Canadian Tire in Castlegar, to go to the Fall Fair in Rock Creek and to get to the airport in Kelowna. Nevermind specialist medical appointments or anything like that. Quickly, I’ve realized, driving is an unfortunate necessity here and, consequently, those who can’t drive can be stuck, quite literally, where they are.

I write this column on the day when the feds and the province have announced $79 million for public transit across B.C. While that’s great for cities like Victoria, where a seat on a Friday afternoon bus to the ferry is as appreciated as a dip in the Kettle on a 35 C day, I don’t see the governments’ announcement helping the transportation issues in the Kootenay Boundary.

When Greyhound pulled out, we lost the main reliable transport option to get to Kelowna for medical appointments — something that a community with a growing aging population requires desperately. Just this spring, Queen City Charters, the bus company out of Nelson, also shuttered, cutting out options.

People in Nelson and Castlegar moved to rely on volunteer driver programs, then, to make it to the doctor on time. But a round-trip to the Okanagan is a heck of a commitment for a volunteer, many of whom are pushing up the decades as well.

I get that the governments’ move to add more buses and cut the number of commuter cars on the road is an important step for cities. I lived it for several years in the Lower Mainland. I remember the sense of panic when I worked my first real job and I would see the morning bus roll by before I got to the stop, recognizing that the next one wouldn’t come for another half an hour. I felt abandoned and helpless to get where I needed to go. But for people here, that feeling can be extended if they don’t have the means, permission or ability to drive.

Out here, it feels as though the last real reliable bus to roll through left with the Greyhound. While the province brought in a pilot replacement program up north through the Northern Health Authority, that same service didn’t make its way onto Highway 3 and 33.

In a recent survey of Midway seniors, researchers found that transportation was “the least age-friendly aspect of living in Midway,” with 76 per cent of respondents indicating their concern. It therefore seems about time that higher powers see us waiting at the Boundary bus stop and help us replace up-turned thumbs with transit passes.