By: Kelly Chia, Editor-in-Chief
Having lived in Maple Ridge for three years, I know firsthand how inconsistent buses outside the Metro Vancouver area are. To this day, transiting to where I lived is still an awful affair of waiting for only one out of the three buses headed to Maple Ridge, because the 701 Maple Ridge East was the only bus that went to my street. This meant I’d sometimes wait an upwards of an hour for that specific bus to come so I could go home.
Although the R3 now goes to Haney Place at a much faster rate compared to the 40 minutes it used to take via the 701, this route doesn’t change the commute time of people living past Haney Place. For some commuters, those bus stops are still too far from them. In my case, it’d take at least an hour to get to Coquitlam from Maple Ridge — not accounting for how late the bus could be before I could take the SkyTrain. Maple Ridge is not the only city to have poor commuting options, and it’s frustrating that TransLink hasn’t provided more routes. Reliable public transit across the Metro Vancouver region is vital for commuters.
Imagine heading to a job interview or doctor’s appointment, dreading that buses might come late, or, as I’ve been unfortunate enough to experience multiple times, not at all. As a bus driver in Abbotsford reported, bus inconsistency is an issue if it means that the next bus comes over 45 minutes later than when you planned to leave: “When you run for a bus in Mission or Abbotsford, and see its red taillights pulling away, it’s not like Vancouver, where you’ll know the next bus will be there in the next five to ten minutes.” Speaking with bus drivers on my way home, they told me that sometimes, there weren’t enough buses on the route because there just weren’t enough drivers.
On Reddit, a user commented that though a bus route comes to 88th avenue in Surrey, it only runs from 2:45 p.m. to 7:20 p.m., which is an abysmally small time frame. Their comment is in response to fellow commuters dissatisfied with the public transit service covering Surrey. Concerningly, BC Transit manages public transportation services outside of the Metro Vancouver area. Many commuters currently face significant transportation fees because transit drivers are on strike, and they’re unable to take the bus. Transit drivers should not be blamed for striking poor working conditions, nor can they be blamed for not having enough support from TransLink and BC Transit. After all, drivers are being paid 32% less than other drivers in the Metro Vancouver area.
It’s not for lack of commuters taking these routes, either. In a report on Metro Vancouver’s 10 most problematic bus routes written in 2019, commuters complain that routes like the 410 don’t have enough buses running, with one commuter reporting to wait two hours in one instance. This is despite the 410 having “the 12th most boardings last year — nearly six million.” That’s far too many people who can’t rely on public transit to leave their cities. We should be able to expect public transit to be reliable, especially because so many people need to use it for work, for school, and much more, without worrying we’ll be an hour late to our destinations because of the bus’ unreliability. The BC government should be cooperating with transit companies to provide more service to these areas.
Compared to when I lived in Maple Ridge, Port Coquitlam has multiple bus routes headed to Coquitlam Central Station — a major transportation station connected to the SkyTrain. This should be standard. Public transportation is the only commuting option that some have, and transit companies should make more of an effort to prioritize the thousands of riders that use the bus every day. This includes making sure their drivers have serviceable wages and support, so that these important routes have the service they deserve.
