Recently there has been some new spots on TV about a new bus route for Bay Street. As I was watching the news I got the impression that although the transit company engaged the community, the feedback for this new route wasn't very favorable. The woman representing the community wasn't happy about it while the transit representative spoke as if it were a great idea. There was definitely a bit of a disconnect. It seems Bay street is quite narrow and adding buses to it will congest it more than it already is. Another concern is the addition of buses will squeeze out the cyclists. This concern was also brought up by 2 other interviewees. Some areas of the road do not even have sidewalks for the safely of pedestrians or cyclists.

So I went on the Victoria Regional Transit site and took a closer look. The proposed route will, according to Victoria transit help to alleviate a lot of congestion, to provide transit for the employees of the new expansion to Royal Jubilee Hospital, help take on some of the downtown user burden and to provide service to Victoria West. According to the website the Victoria transit has addressed and mitigated concerns that arose from public forums and feedback from a survey on the website. That doesn't seem to be good enough or satisfactory according to the Bay Street Community Action committee interviewed on TV.

So what should Victoria Transit do? Potential users of the bus route are in favor but the residents are not. Who has more weight in this matter? I'm interested to see how this will be resolved.