Public Transit in Kelowna

[Jflem1983]

I was arguing with a guy . I hit him . Got smashed from behind with a lock on a chain and booted by a bunch of guys . Cops came everyone ran . I was out cold so I got arrested . Live and learn .

[Dizzy1]

IMO, just because it's not exclusive problem doesn't mean it's at all acceptable. If the goal is to make public transit more competitive with me driving my Mercedes around town, 2 buses (on simple urban routes like UBCO to glenmore), is not going cut it... Can't we do better?

The biggest problem in BC is the mentality of the public - the majority of people are simply against transit, not matter how wonderful or busy the system is. Sure you can get more direct routes, but thats going to require more buses and more employees and thats going to cost money. Then you have to ask yourself, how many people from UBCO, transfer onto the bus to Glenmore? Then people from Rutland will want a direct bus. Then people from The Mission will want a direct bus. Now instead of having 10 people transfer from 3 different buses onto another bus, you'll need more buses to carry fewer people.

But, when we bought them, they were only meant to run on the 97 RapidTran run. But the design flaw ruined those plans. http://www.castanet.net/news/Kelowna/51 ... w-bus-bays. My understanding is that, double decker buses are meant for the most frequent, fastest routes, only for the reason that they also always have the biggest volume of passengers

The Enviro 500s were bought by Victoria to replace the older Trident double deckers which were placed in both Kelowna and Victoria years before the 97 Express.

I agree. There are bigger atrocities in the world than riding the bus in Kelowna. But It's disappointing that we as a city can't see to get this right for her and everyone else who uses the bus. It's unfortunate city councillors treat their position like a part-time job and don't even have the decency/commitment/passion/etc to come out to the open houses and talk to the people or their staffers who work everyday to try and fix the situation the created.

Its a bit more complicated than that, Victoria has a lot of influence as well. The city itself doesn't decide what streets the bus goes down, thats up to BC Transit in Victoria. Granted, City Council has a lot of hesitation towards transit, as is the case in many other BC Communities. But just getting a route change or timing change is a bureaucratic nightmare.

[Jflem1983]

Another time I was in grade 9. Used to take the 1 bus downtown to school. A guy on the bus noticed my coat. Him and his friends followed me and jumped me for my jacket. Tuff guys

[Jflem1983]

Yet another lovely bus stop experience . After the throw down in k town . Me and a buddy went to the bus loop after leaving the arena. So when we walk up these 2 dudes are hassling a young lady . After some time I spoke up. Ended up the one guy went to shake my hand . Then things turned weird. He wouldn't let go. So I pulled him . He went face first into the corner of the bus stop bench . Then his buddy got tough and took a beating as well . I honestly can't think of much riskier behaviour than taking Kelowna transit . Each of these 3 incidents would have been avoided by not taking the bus .

[spooker]

One thing about criminal behaviour, it tends to happen in places where there isn't a lot of foot traffic ... just like bike thefts don't happen as often at bikes in a high traffic area ...

So, if we are able to increase transit use that means that more people will be around and frequent these bus stops ... safety in numbers ...

Believing that bus stops are dangerous and staying away makes them a self-fulfilling prophecy ... they're dangerous because they lack witnesses ...

[Jflem1983]

What about the poor guy from flight craft. There were people on the bus . He still got knifed in the throat by some scumbag. What about the greyhound victim who got chopped up.

[coolwaterwave]

No offense jflem but past those two random things at the end it sounds like you went looking for trouble. I could get into random fights as well if I went out of my way looking for it.

[Grandan]

Exactly. This is know in community planning as "urban sprawl" and its the #1 quickest way to screw up a city in so many ways including transit. Our current council is so good at it too. When i went to the open house, one of the city staffers says the biggest threat to transit is Land use and not anything to do with the transit system itself. The best systems in the world thrive on densely populated urban centres where people basically live atop of one another in compact blocks. This was supposed to be one of Colin Basram's number one priorities; smart use of land and zoning but the term "density" lost political favour somewhere in the last 4 years.

I would not be so quick to blame the current council for what is going on today. Many policies were laid down by previous councils. There is a lag between policy changes and implementation. We have a very finite land base in Kelowna and the ALR is a significant influence on development. It forces development into inefficient pockets and bands. It is big brother dictating the conditions without offering any monetary relief or solution. That is why we have pockets of fallow land abutting our city on many sides. There may come about a policy of farm it or be fined.

[Silverstarqueen]

In an effort to preserve patches of good farm land, this has resulted in outlying collections of concentrated builds far from the city centre. It's the most inefficient plan you can imagine (from the point of view of city planning). Sends out all the infrastructure, piping, sewar far afield. Transit is essential for those who can't afford a private vehicle to get to their job. The alternative would be huge parking lots taking up basically farm land just so people can take the vehicle they can't afford to work. Which of course makes no sense. So if they need video cameras on busses or at stops, to reduce the crime, it's a necessary part of living with a bunch of low life in any given city.

[khutchi]

We have a very finite land base in Kelowna and the ALR is a significant influence on development. It forces development into inefficient pockets and bands.

100% Agree. But not to worry. ALR was a significant influence on development. With the firing of Richard Bullock (Former ALC chair) by the BC liberals for a "new direction" in agricultural policy a couple years ago, I think you will find it's going be pretty easy to get land rezoned for "non-farm use" or excluded from the ALR completely. A1 Agricultural is going be one of those zoning codes in this city that no city planner remembers the exact code for.

http://www.straight.com/news/452256/ndp ... -alc-chair

So glad we fired a Kelowna agriculturalist and former president of the B.C. Fruit Growers' Association in exchange for a Kal Tire store manager/swing vote mayor. Norm Letnick (Minister of Agriculture) lost my vote in Kelowna-Lake Country that day.