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Group petitions for Sunday bus service

Nelson Star - 4/20/2018

Sommer Clement has to stay home every Sunday. That's because Nelson's buses, including the one she otherwise uses to get into town from her home in upper Fairview, don't run on Sundays.

"It means I can't go anywhere, can't go grocery shopping, can't mingle with friends on Sundays, can't go into town for coffee or go for lunch."

Clement is part of a self-advocacy group for people with disabilities, based at Nelson Cares and facilitated by Matthew Wilson-Birks.

The members get together to discuss issues relevant to their lives, and then strategize how to respond.

"Walking could be an option for some people, but come people can't," Wilson-Birks says. "There are accessibility issues. People work on Sundays, people worship on Sundays, there are lots of reasons people want to go out, it is not strictly social."

John O'Neill, another member of the group, says he is also restricted by lack of bus service.

"The bus is my car," he says. "I live in Anderson Gardens by Safeway and if it's a good day I walk, but I depend on the bus. I can't walk in the winter."

He thinks city council doesn't understand his needs.

"The city feels that nobody takes the bus," he says. "They don't care, they've all got vehicles. I have never seen a city councillor on a bus yet. But this is the 21st century, the bus is essential."

The self advocacy group, many of whose members don't have a license or don't have a car, has identified transit as their main issue, and they see their petition for Sunday service as an attainable change.

They are asking B.C. Transit and the transit committee of the Regional District of Central Kootenay to start running buses on Sundays across the West Kootenay.

BC Transit is a provincial crown corporation that coordinates transit across the province and shares transit spending approximately 50-50 with local governments.

"We have just over 1,700 signatures," says Clement, "some from change.org, and the others on paper from coffee shops and other groups in town."

She said most of the signatures are from people living in the West Kootenay.

Their petition was presented to the transit committee in Castlegar on March 12, at which a representative of BC Transit was present. A Sunday bus service petition was also presented at the same meeting by the Nelson Interfaith Climate Committee.

Now they are waiting for a response.

Contacted by the Star , a BC Transit spokesperson said in an email that "it is up to the local government to provide direction on service hours and the days of the week service will operate. It is up to the local government partner to request an estimate for changes to service."

It appears that that is what has happened.

"We have asked BC Transit to do the numbers for Sunday service," Matheson says.

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