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Test driving Red Deer Transit BY BRENDA KOSSOWAN ADVOCATE STAFF The morning sun beams through a light haze of smoke from forest fires on Saturday morning as a few early risers gather at bus stops around the city to catch a ride on one of Red Deer’s fleet of transit buses. Theirs are the anonymous faces of people barely seen by drivers of trucks and cars, whose chief interest in transit buses is to avoid being caught behind one when it makes its stop. Forty years ago, when I first moved to Red Deer, there were only four buses during the week, and none on Sundays or holidays. As the saying goes, Red Deer Transit has come a long way, baby. So this reporter, who has not relied on public transportation in more than 30 years, decided to take Red Deer Transit for a test drive. Saturday, 8:04 a.m. — Buses from downtown are due to arrive at the Parkland Mall in 11 minutes. There is only one other rider at the stop, a young man who plans to take Route 11 as far west as possible, and then hitchhike to Rocky Mountain House for work. Route 11 pulls up, he misses his cue and will have to wait another 30 minutes for the next bus. Next in line is the BOLT regional service, which runs to Blackfalds and Lacombe. There are five passengers on the bus: Two middle-age women in the front seats, a teenage girl sitting sideways on the first seat of the upper deck and a teenage couple in the next seats. Barb Y, who is a bit shy about seeing her full name in print, is on her way to work in Lacombe. She doesn’t normally talk to people on the bus, because she is a little worried about getting involved with strangers. But she knows all the drivers and all the regular riders; she knows who can be trusted and who to avoid. She says sometimes there may be someone who kicks up a fuss on the bus, but she has confidence in the drivers and their ability to manage unruly riders. For Barb, the regional bus is a lifeline. It allowed her to move to Red Deer without having to give up her job in Lacombe, where she has worked for the past three years. Barb says the $90 she forks out for a BOLT pass provides her with reliable, safe and economical transportation. She gives the service a 10 out of 10, saying the only way it could be better is if the hours were extended. “It’s about a half an hour commute in the morning. There’s the express bus and then on Saturdays there’s a local bus. This one, you get on it, you go through Blackfalds on both sides.” The express makes just one stop in Blackfalds and two in Red Deer. Although the time seems to fly by, the local loop is a two-hour trip. 9:42 Bus driver Theo Klooster arrives back at the hospital, heading south after piloting his unit through the streets of Lacombe, dropping off the handful of passengers who had come from Red Deer. The bus is empty now, so Klooster takes some time to talk about his job. He is new to the BOLT route, which he finds quite long and not very busy. Back in Blackfalds, retiree Susan Massincaud is on her way into Red Deer to do some shopping. She gives
Photo by BRENDA KOSSOWAN/Advocate staff
Like clockwork, the Gasoline Alley and Springbrook buses meet Route 1 at Bennett Street every 30 minutes. All city buses are capable of kneeling to the curb and have an extendible ramp for wheelchairs and baby strollers. Buses also have racks on the front where cyclists can stow their bikes. the service an 8.5 out of 10, saying she wishes the service hours could be extended into the evenings. The last bus leaves Red Deer at 4:50 p.m. on weekdays and there’s nothing on Sunday, says Massincaud. “So, it’s very, very tight to get around and do things in Red Deer. You really don’t have a lot of time.” However, the savings are enormous. Massincaud said a fellow rider had commented to her about the difference in costs between owning a car and riding the bus. She had worked it out to $5,000 a year. Those savings can be eaten up pretty quickly if a person has to get a taxi home, says Massincaud. “The drivers are very nice, and when they don’t know their way, they generally ask us where they’re supposed to go and we’re happy to tell them where to go, because quite often, the first time they do the route, they get lost.” It’s easy enough to understand the confusion in the new subdivisions in Blackfalds, which has expanded immensely from the tiny village that it used to be. Besides the money they save, bus riders see other benefits that people in cars miss, says Massincaud, who is trained in photography. She loves to watch out her window and take in the scenery. People in cars and pickup trucks drive by, unaware of the watching eyes in the bus, like the boy playing video-games in the back seat of his SUV or the pickup truck with the big dog in the back that passes the bus as it enters the north side of the Red Deer — an infraction of city bylaws and a moral offence to people who love dogs. See BUS on Page A2
Transit system improving with the times BY BRENDA KOSSOWAN ADVOCATE STAFF A critical mass that will allow Red Deer Transit to run more buses more often is coming, but has not arrived yet, says its manager. Like those who work with him, George Penny waxes proud about the city’s transit system, which has grown in immense leaps from the four basic routes that ran six days a week in the late 1970s. Now serving a city of roughly 100,000 people with arms reaching into Springbrook, Gasoline Alley, Blackfalds and Lacombe, Red Deer Transit runs 64 buses on more than a dozen routes, including special services to Olymel and a regional system funded by neighbouring municipalities. The system continues to expand and upgrade, and it’s set to upgrade again, says Penny. Recent changes have included the introduction of electronic fare boxes and, on some buses, on-board libraries. There are only four of those right now, but more are coming, says Penny. Also coming in the next couple of years is a real-time bus tracking system, now in the early stages of development. Steven Parkin, transit operations superintendent, said on Friday that the system is still in its infancy and he doesn’t know yet what it will look
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like. He does know that it will be Internet-based and that it will offer two distinct advantages: One to riders and one to the system itself. Once the system is operational, riders will be able to open a web site from their smart phones or computers and see exactly where their bus is and when it will arrive at their stop. The system will include information about bus delays, such as traffic collisions or breakdowns, meaning riders can stay indoors, warm and dry, on those days when the weather turns nasty. For the transit system, real-time tracking offers a more complete picture of the number of people using the buses, where they get on and where they get off. That will allow the city to fine tune its service, beefing it up where necessary and making other adjustments as well, says Parkin. Fares in Red Deer compare favourably with those in Alberta’s two largest cities. In Edmonton, monthly passes run at $91.50 for adults, $83.50 for seniors and $69 for students. Calgary passes run at $99 for adults and $65 for students. Red Deer fares are $70 for adults (increasing by $3 in June) and $59 for youths and students. The BOLT regional fare to Lacombe is currently set at $90 for adults and $25 for seniors and students. Details on fares, including single-ride tickets, day passes and other packages, are available online at www.reddeer.ca/city-services/transit or by calling 403-342-8225.
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