Quote:
Originally Posted by bingun
We live in a car-centric society, sadly. I grew up primarily walking, taking the bus, or trains when needed, and I would happily do so again if it were a comparable option. I appreciate the size and small population of the Maritimes, which makes it a challenge, but I hold out hope.
Too many people look down on public transport like it's just an option for the poor, the young and old, or the disabled. If you talk to those who have moved here from overseas, they see taking a bus as normal, but you speak with many who are from here, and they look at you like you're crazy.
I've joked with folks before that, for many people, their ideal day consists of going to a drive-through for coffee before work, driving to work, driving to get lunch, driving to a retail store to shop, driving to a franchised restaurant for dinner, driving to a park to walk, and then driving home. They expect minimal traffic and parking, 30 feet from the door from everything, too.
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See, as someone coming here from Western Canada, I have a very hard time believing that the
size of the Maritimes is a reason why we have crappy bus and nearly non existent passenger rail service. The Maritimes are positively tiny, and the mostly densely populated provinces in Canada. Saskatchewan used to have an amazing province wide bus system that put maritime bus to shame in a province more than twice the size of the Maritimes with half the population. Saskatchewan is more like NB, and Manitoba is more like NS, but NB, PEI, and NS’s cities are very close to each other compared to the cities of the prairies.
I can understand why we have crappy passenger rail, but I can’t understand why we can’t have better interprovincial and intraprovincial bus systems here in the smallest provinces in Canada with the densest populations. I also can’t for the life of me understand how someone would rather drive to the Fredericton or Moncton airport from Saint John and pay for parking and 3+ hours of driving… instead of just taking a bus or airport shuttle where you can sit back and relax before and after your flight.
I think it’s ridiculous that Saint John Transit can’t implement some or airbus express bus that goes to and from the airport at least three times a day and could be scheduled around the limited flight schedule of the airport. $10 to get to the airport on an express route with limited stops, as is common in many other cities in Canada.
Nonetheless, Saint Johners need better bus and airport shuttle options to get to YFC, YQM, and YHZ even more than we need better bus options to YSJ. I don’t mind taking a cab or uber to the airport, since a bus isn’t an option, but Ubers and taxis aren’t really options to go to the Fredericton or Moncton airports. Busses, however, should be reliable options. The province and regional service commissions in the Fundy and Fredericton regions could surely fund a better bus system between the two cities and airports.
If we want growth to be more equitable and sustainable across the cities in our relatively tiny and densely populated provinces… we need to invest in the transportation capabilities of our people. Better connecting the people of the Maritimes to their airports and other cities and regions should be a priority of current and future governments to make this a better place to both live and visit without a car. We have no good excuses for the sorry state of bus travel in one of the smallest and most scenic regions in Canada. If SW Nova Scotia had invested in a better bus system instead of failed theme parks, they could be attracting a whole segment of carless tourists from the Northeast US and the rest of Canada. Not everyone wants to go visit a place where they have to rent a car.
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