In this newsletter:
• Visit or Volunteer with the Better Transit Alliance at Car Free Day
• Help get the Highway 1 Bus Lanes Completed – Write to your MLA
• Central Saanich Community Association forms Transit Committee
• Write a letter to the editor today!
Visit or Volunteer with the Better Transit Alliance at Car Free Day
On Sunday June 17th (Father’s Day) the Better Transit Alliance will be at Car Free Day on Douglas Street in Downtown Victoria. We would love to have you drop by and chat any time between 11am and 6pm. And we would love it even more if you could volunteer to help out for a few hours. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact us at bettertransityyj [at] gmail.com. It is fun, and no experience necessary! (The Better Transit Alliance is an all-volunteer organization, without volunteer energy we would not exist).
Help get the Highway 1 Bus Lanes Completed – Write to your MLA
As you may have noticed, construction is underway on the 24/7 bus lanes on Douglas Street and on parts of Highway 1. In addition the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure is reviewing design specifications for the southbound Highway 1 shoulder bus lane from the Burnside Bridge to Tolmie.
Given this progress, we expect that the provincial government will soon announce funding to fill in the gap, and complete the bus lanes all the way to the 6-Mile Pub (See Map Below). This project could be completed quickly and for a very reasonable cost, once the funding is approved. It is time to get the Highway 1 bus lanes built, and then start on the Pat Bay Highway bus lanes.
Please write to your MLA to:
• Thank them for getting the Douglas / Highway 1 bus lanes underway and approving a two cent per litre increase in the tax on gasoline in February to raise about $7 million per year for better transit in Greater Victoria.
• Urge them to move immediately to fill in the gap, and complete the Highway 1 shoulder bus lanes all the way to the 6-Mile Pub area.
• Tell them why better public transit is important to you, and urge them to make better public transit an even higher budget priority.
Find your MLA’s contact information here www.leg.bc.ca/learn-about-us/members
Central Saanich Community Association forms Transit Committee
The Central Saanich Community Association is working with the Better Transit Alliance to get better transit in their area, and across the region. The CSCA has recently formed a Transit Committee, and is looking for more committee members. If you are interested in helping to get better transit service on the Saanich Peninsula, please email Sue Stroud at sue_stroud [at] hotmail.com.
If your community association would like to find out more about the Better Transit Alliance, we would be happy to come and present at one of your meetings. Contact us at bettertransityyj [at] gmail.com
Write a letter to the editor today!
Better Transit Alliance members have been keeping transit in the news, largely by writing letters to the editor. Please consider the information in this newsletter and take a few minutes to write your own letter to the editor of the TC or your local paper. Recent articles you might want to respond to include ones in the Victoria News and Times Colonist regarding bus lanes.
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