Bus service to and from campus needs to improve. Especially with another rainy winter in Victoria fast approaching—that means cold, wet mornings and afternoons await those of us who have the absolute “pleasure” of using the bus to get to school.
I’m only a few weeks into my first semester here, but I’ve seen my fair share of overcrowded buses and bus shelters. It’s crucial for those of you who have the good fortune of being able to drive to and from school to understand that the bus does not pick us up at our convenience. If your final classes finish at 2:00 pm, as mine do, and the bus runs every hour, then that’s tough. You’re looking at an hour-long wait whether you like it or not—that’s assuming your bus is, by some miracle, on time.
With the rainy season quickly closing in on us, the consistently inconsistent bus service around Camosun means that some students will be left standing drenched on the side of the road questioning their life choices while waiting for their buses home.
“This is Victoria, rain happens. What are you suggesting we do about it?” you may ask. Well, for one, we can improve the size and quantity of the bus shelters on and around campus grounds. I’ll use my bus stop at Lansdowne and Richmond as an example; I take the hourly number 8 bus home after my classes finish. Unfortunately for me, when I arrive at the bus stop after my classes end I usually find it full of people waiting to catch the bus downtown; I have no option but to stand on the side of the road outside the bus shelter waiting for my bus or for the people waiting for the bus downtown to leave, whichever happens first.
However, building more bus shelters at the bus stops surrounding our campuses won’t solve the whole issue of the inadequacy of our bus services. There are more pressing issues the less-than-adequate bus service to our campuses fails to address: convenience, safety, and security.
Transportation barriers disproportionately affect low-income students, visible minorities, and people of colour. For example, according to a study done by the University of North Carolina, Hispanic students were 19 percent more likely to cite transportation issues as a barrier to graduating post-secondary than non-Hispanic students.
In terms of student safety and security, measures should be put in place to make sure that students are safe when they are travelling on campus, attending an off-campus event, or using public transportation to get home from a party. The more time a student has to wait for the bus to arrive, especially if they are by themselves, the larger the window is that the person is possibly at risk. Some schools have implemented safe-ride programs that allow students to request a ride to or from campus should they not feel safe using public transportation. These programs have also been implemented to help students with physical disabilities access safer transport options.
There are a lot of problems with the public-transit infrastructure around Camosun, but the solutions are straightforward. The question is whether or not the powers that be are willing to do the work to make these common-sense changes a reality for the safety and improved experience of students.