While it may be an aggressive goal, developing a plan to guide the future of public transit in Prince George is a good conversation to have, according to the mayor.
The transit future plan looks ahead to 25 years from now where the city's transit usership could increase to 5.4 million trips per year, requiring an increase fleet size from today's 35 vehicles to 82 vehicles.
"I think it's an ambitious future vision and it really depends a lot on aggressive future growth in the community," Shari Green said about the transit future plan endorsed by council last week. "And until we start seeing that growth move like that, I don't anticipate we're going to see that plan look the same 25 years from now as what we saw today. But it's a goal and it's a vision and so you need to think about what will we do in the future."
Development of the plan began in 2012 and included two rounds of public consultation, including the record-setting attendance at the Transit Future bus at Fort George Park during Canada Day 2012 celebrations. More than 1,495 people visited the bus that day, leaving their feedback.
That level of participation is why such a comprehensive plan was able to be presented, said Todd Dupuis, senior regional transit manager for BC Transit.
"There are lots of people that ride the transit system and depend on it. And it's not an ideal service for everyone but it meets the needs for lots of people lots of the time," said Green. "We see buses that look large but don't have a lot of people on them. Why don't we have smaller buses? Those are all kinds of things that people see and are challenged by and wonder if we provide an optimal transit system."
Among the recommendations for short-term (within five years) improvements to the public transit system are to provide service on statutory holidays, improve weekend service, complete a feasibility study for paratransit in the Blackburn and Beaverley areas and plan for a downtown transit hub.
Longer-term improvements could include increasing the capacity of operational and maintenance facility, expanding the Pine Centre transit exchange, establishing a Westgate transit exchange, rapid transit system and a connection to the airport.
One of the challenges to overcome to get to these future goals include the Prince George climate.
"The winters in Prince George, with high levels of snowfall and cold temperatures, make it difficult to both operate transit and attract transit users," said the plan. "Reliable snow removal, weather protection at bus stops, clearly visible transit stops and clear routes to walk or cycle to transit stops are essential for reliable transit service."
Another challenge identified by the plan is that about 15 per cent of residents live in areas that don't have densities high enough to support regular transit service. "Providing these areas with sufficient service will be a challenge as they require considerable resources to serve and generate low levels of ridership."
Five of the city's routes currently provide 85 per cent of the system's total ridership and Prince George has the lowest use of transit for work trip among similarly sized communities.
Coun. Cameron Stolz has been asking about the viability of a GPS system available in the Lower Mainland known as Next Bus, which gives riders an accurate estimate of how long before the bus reaches their stop.
"I'm looking at how do we increase riders and convenience seems to be the biggest piece. And there's two ways to offer convenience - that is to offer more buses which costs significantly more capital than $100,000 to set up or we can offer better technology that makes it more convenient for people to use it," said Stolz.
BC Transit has looked at the technology for other communities, such as Prince Rupert, Terrance and Kitimat, said Dupuis, but the "cost-benefit right now is showing that unless there's a really robust demand for that kind of information it is a very costly system.
"And we're limited in terms because our fare-box technology is such that that is the main conduit of information through and into our bus when it comes to ridership and fare monitoring."
The company is also linking some communities into the Google Transit trip planning and Prince George has a database of all bus stop locations which will be used when the city is next in line for online trip planning, Dupuis added.
