The issue of where buses will stop in front of the new hospital was back on the menu at the Comox Valley Regional District’s board meeting on Aug. 29.
And after 10 minutes of debate among board members, a referral motion was approved to send the issue back to committee of the whole for further discussion. The board also approved to conduct a site visit of the area, and will invite representatives from BC Transit, the hospital and North Island College to attend.
“Insofar as this is a transit matter and should be voted on by this board, and seeing as we haven’t had any contact with [chief project officer] Tom Sparrow from the hospital, I think it would be incumbent upon us — before we make a decision — to actually organize a site visit with this board to have a first-hand look,” said electoral area C director Edwin Grieve.
“Right now there seems to be a lot of emotion and confusion around this issue. I think it would certainly clear things up if we actually had boots on the ground.”
The CVRD board had previously agreed on a one-year trial to have route No. 6 buses stop across the street from the new Comox Valley Hospital on Lerwick Road, instead of turning into the building’s parking lot and stopping right in front of the hospital’s main entrance.
The board’s reasoning was that buses crossing through the parking lot would create a safety hazard for cars and pedestrians.
But residents complained that having buses stop on Lerwick would put visitors to the hospital at risk when they crossed the street. Critics of the decision also said the distance from the bus stop to the hospital’s doors was too far to walk, particularly for those with mobility issues and the elderly.
At the Aug. 29 meeting, Comox director Ken Grant pointed out that having transit drivers stop on Lerwick could create a safety hazard.
“I’d say it’s dangerous for people who are going north for that bus to stop in front of that light,” said Grant. “Apparently there’s no room to put a little kick-out there because we’re already at the maximum width of the road. You’re going to have a bus sitting there, blocking the lane and the crosswalk and then people are going to be walking in front of it.”
“To me that’s just a recipe for disaster.”
The idea to have transit stop on Lerwick also doesn’t sit well with Courtenay director and mayor Larry Jangula. He believes having buses stop in front of the hospital doors makes more sense, even though bus drivers would have to go out of their way to do so.
“We’re going to have issues with people who are very frail, with walkers, with wheelchairs, trying to cross a busy and dangerous road. Sooner or later we’re going to have some sort of disaster,” he said.
“The proposal that was first brought forward… still makes a lot of sense, with the bus coming off Lerwick, turning on Waters Ave., coming into the stop right in front of the door at the hospital.”
But Courtenay councillor and director Erik Eriksson disagrees.
“It’s virtually impossible to expect the bus to change lanes from the right to the left lane, make a left hand turn into the hospital parking lot, go through the parking lot, make a right hand turn to North Island College, turn around and come back. And then, there’s no way to get back onto the [main thoroughfare],” he said at the Aug. 29 meeting.
“It’s an incredibly circuitous route and I don’t think it’s realistically in the cards.”
Eriksson suggested, since only one bus would stop at the hospital per hour, that those who wish to go to the hospital let the driver know. That way he or she could make the loop through the parking lot if necessary.
“Otherwise [the driver] can just carry on with the normal route,” he said.
When contacted by the Record about the issue, BC Transit communications director Maureen Sheehan replied that having buses pass through the parking lot would not be ideal.
“Routing transit services through busy internal hospital or mall roads impacts on-time performance of the transit service and operational costs, and therefore is not recommended,” she said in a statement,
Sheehan added that the distance between the bus stop on Lerwick and the hospital is 100 metres, which is within the appropriate walking distance from transit to major institutional facilities (150 metres, according to the Comox Valley Future Transit Plan).
She said that for Routes No. 6 and 12 to directly service the bus stop within the Hospital internal road, approximately 650 more annual service hours would be required.
The CVRD’s next committee of the whole meeting will be on Sept. 12.
The new hospital is scheduled to open in October.