The City of Langford’s plan to offer its residents a subsidized bus service to and from Victoria is not a solution to traffic congestion, it’s a gesture. But it underscores the need for a regional transportation authority and a more unified approach to regional transportation’s issues.
Langford is launching what it calls the Langtoria Greenline bus service on Oct. 17. The service, to be operated by Wilson’s Transportation, will do little to reduce commuting times, but will offer comfort and amenities for the daily trip to work.
Instead of mingling with the hoi polloi on a B.C. Transit vehicle, commuters using the new service can relax in comfort on a high-end bus, with amenities that could include coffee, a bathroom and a morning newspaper.
We’re not against providing commuters with a morning newspaper (especially if it’s the right one) and we’re all for getting people out of their cars and into buses. But competing with public transit isn’t the right approach, especially when that approach is subsidized by municipal taxpayers who are already subsidizing the public system.
This wouldn’t be Langford’s first venture into public transportation. Langford’s free Community Trolley links the major shopping and recreational areas of the city. That’s a popular and helpful service, especially given how spread-out Langford is.
But it’s hard to justify the proposed subsidized commuter service simply on the grounds that it would make the Colwood Crawl more comfortable. Buses don’t move faster than cars for most of the commute. There would be a small gain if the new bus service took 51 cars off the road, but not if those passengers are stolen from B.C. Transit.
The current congestion is the tip of the iceberg; it’s only going to get worse.
Most of the region’s growth is happening in West Shore communities. New homes and apartment buildings are springing up like mushrooms after the fall rains. Just one development — Colwood’s Royal Bay — will bring 2,300 new homes on the market. Given that most families these days live in two-car homes, it doesn’t take complicated math to realize the effect that Royal Bay will have on traffic as it funnels onto the Trans-Canada Highway.
And that doesn’t even take into consideration traffic coming over the Malahat.
This isn’t news. It’s been known for a long time that the West Shore population would grow, but traffic and transit planning have not kept pace.
Live closer to where we work, we are advised by a multitude of environmentalists, and that’s not bad advice. But it’s advice more easy to give than to take in areas where housing prices in the downtown core are unaffordable, where homes in the suburbs or neighbouring communities are substantially less expensive.
So turn that advice around. Why not bring work closer to where people live? Could new government offices be built in the West Shore, more company headquarters, more light industry? Perhaps we should do less dragging people to the downtown core, and more dispersing workplaces around the region.
That’s one possible solution. Transportation in Greater Victoria is a complex issue, and many solutions will be required: dedicated bus lanes from the downtown core all the way to Langford, for example, or perhaps different timing on traffic signals. In the long term, light-rail transit looks increasingly attractive.
The Capital Regional District has a detailed transportation plan that includes this pertinent statement: “Embedded within the partnership model is a requirement for a transportation service authority.”
Solutions can’t be piecemeal — they must be co-ordinated and integrated. One municipality’s solution too easily becomes another municipality’s headache. A transportation authority is needed to transcend municipal boundaries.
