The Town of Gibsons is asking BC Transit to revise its draft 25-year plan for the Sunshine Coast to include - sooner rather than later -a more frequent service linking Upper Gibsons to the Landing.
"We'd like to see, ideally, a smaller bus that is circulating in this area on about a 30-minute basis, so at least twice an hour people can reasonably expect there's going to be a bus they can get," Mayor Wayne Rowe told reporters after council's committee of the whole meeting on Sept. 24.
Council met with transit officials earlier in the day, and Rowe said the message from the Town was clear: "I absolutely do think they understand what our priorities are."
Released earlier this month, the draft transit plan's main short-term priority is establishing an express service on Highway 101 to and from Langdale via North Road that would run every half hour during peak times.
While recognizing that BC Transit "has to balance the needs of the whole Coast," Rowe said he explained to transit officials that the area encompassing Gibsons, Elphinstone and West Howe Sound "represents virtually a third of the population on the Sunshine Coast. It's a substantial part of the service area and it's fairly dense in terms of population, so we're probably well placed to have that kind of service at this end."
Rowe praised BC Transit for its thorough consultation process and noted that the public will have an opportunity to comment on a revised draft plan in November, following a workshop for elected officials next month. The plan is expected to go to the regional board for adoption in December.
A report on the Town's summer's shuttle bus pilot project will be coming to the next council or committee meeting, and Rowe said the service proved valuable for residents.
"Particularly for the elderly people in our community and young mothers with strollers and that sort of thing - you've probably seen them trying to push up School Road. It's not fun," he said.
