Re: “Public transit should be free, Victoria council says,” April 26.
If Victoria city council truly wants to create barrier-free, accessible, easy public transit, a good place to start would be putting the actual bus route number on all the bus stops and restoring the individual route maps in the paper schedule.
Currently, those without cellphones or who can’t afford data plans (or whose batteries have died) often have no way of knowing what bus stops at a particular stop when it’s just a B.C. Transit stick in the ground. And the single map in the printed guide is impenetrable in terms of the changes in route depending on time of day; the individual route maps were so much clearer for people trying to plan their way.
If council truly wants to make public transit “more convenient than taking a car,” the first step is to help everyone, including those unable to afford cellular connection, with the basics of where the buses go and where they stop.
Amy Reiswig
Mayne Island
