Quote:
Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut
The province or feds only fund projects that municipal governments want... and as repeatedly explained, Abbotsford and Chilliwack want buses instead.
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Although I understand the thought process behind this, the reality out here in the Fraser Valley is a bit more nuanced. BC Transit pushes heavily for busses and talks a lot about the big changes on the horizon when it comes to a better and more usable transit network, but the last 30 years, and the plans they have so far released show that the effort past, present and future will not result in the expansion of use as outlined in their own 2013 25 year plan. It is nothing more than a doubling down with minor adjustments of the existing system which fails to attract ridership due to it’s dubiously planned failings.
The cities in the Fraser Valley are at the mercy of a transit system run by an out-of-touch Americanized transit authority that is nearly-unusable for anything aside from the most rudimentary trips that don't have time restraints. I say this from 32 years of personal experience living in Abbotsford. The comments of family, friends, and people via business connections all point to a terrible dissatisfaction with the transit system, a staunch willingness to invest in and use transit solutions that are planned comprehensively, and hoping for rail transit solutions that aren't entirely hampered by our permanently congested freeways like the "long term plans" BC Transit released in 2013. Plans which rely solely on rapid busses with no contingency for freeway expansion that is not being planned or being built at a snails pace (less than 1.8km/year presently of one HOV lane addition.)
Ridership in the Fraser Valley, and specifically Abbotsford-Mission is very, very low for a reason. The system has a long history of unreliability, looping routing, poor schedules, and no serious advantage to anyone in a region where cars are the law of the land as is. I live 4 kilometers from where I work, and the quickest I could get to work by transit would still require me to walk 2.1 of those 4 kilometers and be over 2 hours late for my shift. I wish this was a unique problem, but when I meet someone who actually uses the bus system or relies on it for work, I will tell you.
Census '21 put our population in the Fraser Valley at a hair under 330,000 people (an increase of nearly 30,000) with that increase in population accelerating year over year and people say that because our current transit ridership is low, there is no reason to invest? Ridership is low because the transit is subpar. I have not talked to a single person on any realm of the political spectrum out here that is unwilling to invest in a future of multi-modal transit, yet we are told it is pointless and hopeless. People in the Fraser Valley are despondent and trapped in their cars and get talked down by people who live in cities where transit is an option. I challenge any of those people to live in the valley and tell me with a straight face that everyone here wants to be stuck in traffic all day, every day, and have no other options than to bleed their personal finances on gas and insurance, and their time stuck on roads that have been overcapacity for decades.
We can’t rely on transit in our cities, we can’t rely on transit to get between our cities. The highways are at a standstill, and busses will be stuck on them if that’s the only solution. Population not big enough for rail transit? Well of course, that is always the go-to, but it seems to work in other countries. Go figure.
Funny enough, the population of the Fraser Valley now is nearly as many people as the entirety of the province of British Columbia when the Electric Railway was built through the valley.
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