Re: John Harding’s editorial about transit (‘Catch the 22 bus’ The NEWS, Sept. 16).
A public bus service to Errington, Coombs, Hilliers and Whiskey Creek is long overdue.
I would not say that our little farm is way out in the bush, but going to town for the odd thing does become a problem. Either we possess a car so we can go to town, or we walk half the day, take a bicycle or hitchhike to town.
There are hundreds of properties with thousands of residents within walking distance of a few centers in this rural area and we all have the same transportation issues.
We just plain got tired of asking for public transportation a long time ago and made do. Mostly we made do without that odd little thing. But younger people are often the ones left standing out with their thumbs pointing towards town or, if older folks, we get the groceries delivered and don’t get out much. Students or commuters are forced to use cars.
The RDN says bus ridership is not on the rise. Smaller buses that travel around regularly on all the major thoroughfares in the district would get that ridership up where it belongs so as to be both affordable to the riders and the RDN.
At present, the big buses driving around Parksville and Qualicum Beach with a few people in them at infrequent intervals can’t be economically viable, nor can the majority of us take public transportation seriously.
We still might take our bikes out, but we won’t have to load up the kids, groceries and hardware onto the handlebars. And our kids won’t have to put their thumbs out to get from here to there and back. Imagine if we even had bus stop signs to tell us where to stand for those buses to town.
Sunshine Goldsberry
Coombs