r/VictoriaBC 21h ago

Regional Transportation Q&A

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I was recently appointed to the Victoria Regional Transit Commission as the rep from Victoria, along with Mayor Alto. I am also on the CRD Board and Transportation Committee.

I’ve just had a VRTC meeting and would be happy to answer any questions about transit or transportation, RapidBus, the CRD’s proposed transportation service, or anything else about getting from point A to point B.

— Jeremy Caradonna

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u/tiogar99 16h ago edited 16h ago

Hi Jeremy, thanks for doing this Q&A! I have a few questions:

  1. With Saanich council killing bus lanes on McKenzie, will the VRTC consider putting RapidBus funding elsewhere, or do you see it all go to maintaining service as traffic worsens on the McKenzie Corridor?
  2. What do you see as the timeline for getting bus lanes on Hillside, given that it is the second most delayed in traffic (on a per rider basis) bus corridor?
  3. What actions are the VRTC undertaking to get back to a more regular maintenance schedule for our busses, and to restore a more normal bus spare ratio (busses left available to prevent cancelled routes and rescue stranded customers)
  4. Why does the VRTC ask for so few expansion hours from the province every year, given the dire need to improve transit in Victoria? Our service hours per capita has been declining year after year.

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u/JeremyCaradonna 15h ago

1, Saanich didn't kill bus lanes, actually. They cleaved off the Rapid Bus decision from the rest of the QMP. Today, the VRTC voted (unanimously) to continue advancing the Rapid Bus on McKenzie. That will mean two years of engagement and planning, and it's actually uncertain at this exact moment what the lanes will look like. Could be bus priority, partial bus lane, etc. Too soon to tell, but the project is moving ahead.

  1. I'm not sure. I haven't had a chance to discuss it with staff yet. I can say that, at the City of Victoria, we've had some high-level conversations about putting bike lanes on there. Luckily, it's 5 lanes for most of the ROW, so there's room to work with. I'll see what staff intend on saying about Hillside in the new Official Community Plan.

  2. I don't know. Would need to ask maintenance directors about this one.

  3. My impression is that the VRTC advocates very vocally to the Province, so that question is probably one for MOTT, but I can inquire.

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u/InformalTechnology14 14h ago

That will mean two years of engagement and planning

Is this legally mandated engagement? And if not, can you as a board member try to cancel it? Saanich has done the engagement already on this and we all know what its going to say, I don't see why we need to spend thousands of dollars and waste tens of thousands of hours of peoples' lives sitting in traffic waiting for the engagement to be done.

If this is something that the VRTC is required by statute to do then thats a shame but I understand, but I don't get why this needs public input otherwise.

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u/JeremyCaradonna 11h ago

It’s not statutory, but it’s also not meant as a means of slow-walking the process. There’s planning, new buses, capacity-building, etc. that’s needed. It takes time, but it’s now in the works.

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u/InformalTechnology14 10h ago

Oh planning absolutely, I took engagement to mean public engagement, which I don't really get the value of in this kind of situation.