In a joint release, NWEP and the Quayside Community Board have penned an open letter to Translink Board Chair Dale Parker and CEO Thomas Prendergast regarding accessibility and sustainability issues surrounding New Westminster Community Shuttle bus routes.
September 1st, 2008
Dear Mr. Parker and Mr. Prendergast,
First of all, congratulations on your new positions, we hope your tenure will result in the Metro Vancouver region becoming the most sustainable and people friendly region in North America.
We would also like to thank you for the new Community Shuttle buses allocated to the routes in our neighbourhood (C3/C4), the old vehicles were becoming tattered and unbearably noisy with the rattling of loose equipment. Sadly these vehicles were only about five years old and just weren’t built to sustain the wear and tear they endured.
However we have some concerns about the new vehicles. While they’re pleasant, and certainly a lot tougher looking, reminding some of a small armored vehicle, they lack one very important amenity of all the other buses purchased by Translink over the past decade. They’re not low floor. In fact, these new vehicles have one more step than the buses they replace.
As I’m sure you’re fully aware, Canada has an aging population, with mobility issues becoming more of an issue every year. In addition, the areas serviced by these two routes have a disproportionately higher number of elderly riders compared to most regional transit services.
It doesn’t take many rides on these new Community Shuttle vehicles to witness one of our valued octogenarians struggling on these stairs, sometimes with grocery bags or a walker. I’m sure there are many more who are aware of the stairs on these vehicles and simply don’t bother trying to ride, typically having no other means to reach shops or social activities.
In fact, the single set of steep, narrow stairs causes delays boarding and disembarking even able bodied passengers; causing delays, adding to the running time per trip, and therefore increasing operating costs for these vehicles.
While these buses do have lifts which could offer an alternative for those who can’t manage the stairs, most would never dare ask to use it, fearful of potential public embarrassment in requesting this large lift be lowered at the rear of the vehicle; delaying the bus while other passengers look on.
HandyDart is also not a viable alternative, the HandyDart system is already overtaxed and requires advanced booking. It simply doesn’t offer the mobility for our seniors the local bus could, particularly when a stop could be as close as just outside their door. Compared to the local bus HandyDart simply isn’t scalable or economically feasible as a large scale solution.
This is why we’d like to encourage you, as one of your first acts in your new roles, to examine the possibility of low floor mini-buses for Community Shuttle routes such as ours. Low floor buses in sizes equivalent to the Community Shuttles, 15-25 feet, can be found in cities around the world. They offer the best compromise between small community buses and the accessibility of low floor buses.
Besides the obvious benefits for our valued seniors, there are many other economic and sustainability reasons to move away from the current fleet of Community Shuttles.
Current Community Shuttle vehicles use a lift to offer accessible service, however lifts have a number of disadvantages. The most significant is time, to load then unload a wheelchair can cost up to ten minutes of running time. This additional time must be accounted for when planning schedules, meaning additional operating costs for taxpayers. While ramps on low floors take less than two minutes to load and can unload in under a minute with no assistance from the driver.
Lifts also add a significant amount of weight and take away from passenger carrying capacity. This added weight was a large problem with the Flyer D40 series of buses; the frame must be stronger and it costs more fuel to carry the additional load – bad for taxpayers and the environment.
The lifts on Community Shuttle vehicles require operators to exit the vehicle, adding risk of injury through slipping or other environmental challenges. This again is bad for taxpayers since WCB claims add significant costs to operating expenses.
The most serious problem with lifts, is if they malfunction while deployed, the entire vehicle is stranded. Ramps can easily be folded back in, and the bus may carry on. If a lift malfunctions traffic can be blocked, passengers are inconveniences, and in the worst case a passenger could be stranded on the bus.
From a sustainability angle, these community shuttle vehicles will produce far more of an environmental impact over their lifetime than sturdier transit vehicles. Translink calculates these community shuttle vehicles will have a life span of 7-8 years, compared to a standard transit bus with lifetimes of 20-30 years. This means for every standard transit vehicle lifetime, three community shuttles will have come and gone. That’s two additional buses to be manufactured along with all associated greenhouse gases and materials. It’s also a significant increase in the amount of buses heading to scrap.
At a time when the provincial government is focused on lower environmental impacts and moving towards carbon neutrality, to have such disposable buses in the fleet doesn’t fit.
As you can see, the case for low floor community shuttles, from an economic, environmental, and social perspective is obvious. I hope armed with these facts you will examine the feasibility of moving towards low floor vehicles on our and other community shuttle routes. It’s the logical choice to give our seniors the freedom and mobility they deserve and to help lower Translink’s environmental and economic impacts.
To help better visualize some of the lowfloor bus options available, and the challenge the additional step in new Translink Community Shuttles poses for seniors, we invite you to visit the photo gallery we’ve assembled at:
http://nwep.ca/lowfloor
Sincerely,
Matthew Laird
Vice-President Quayside Community Board, New Westminster,
Spokesperson, New Westminster Environmental Partners
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The Quayside Community Board represents just under 2,000 strata and coop units and an estimated 4,000 residents in the Quayside area of New Westminster. The QCB may be found on the web at www.quaysideboard.com
New Westminster Environmental Partners are a group of New Westminster residents from all walks of life who believe in thinking globally and acting locally. NWEP is non-partisan and we support sustainability being embraced by all political parties, organizations and individuals as “the right thing to do.” NWEP may be found on the web at www.nwep.ca
(click photo to enlarge)
