FRIDAY JUNE 19, 2015 VOL. 42, NO. 21
$1
including GST
Watch for more online at: WWW.BOWENISLANDUNDERCURRENT.COM
Grandma power
Kami Kanetsuka reports from the Toast the Coast event at Jericho Beach
The Annex/Gallery
Progress report on the library expansion
Sponges and spot prawns
The Nature club goes on a Howe Sound adventure with a drop-cam
Collingwood Channel became a blaze of colour as 10-knot winds led to a stunningly beautiful penultimate leg of the Round Bowen race on Saturday. Here, the Marhenurh4 races towards its seventh-place finish.
Sea Snaps, photo
Spirits soar among Fire ban in effect commuters as innovations for Bowen Island reduce lag-times MERIBETH DEEN
Digital tracking and passenger ferry from Horseshoe Bay help set new records for trips from downtown Vancouver to Snug Cove MERIBETH DEEN EDITOR
“Sunshine, lollipops and rainbows, everything is wonderful on Bowen Island... thanks for the great ride home...” Ann McDow posted these words on the Bowen Island Bus Facebook page on June 12th, and they seem to reflect the mood of the regulars om the express bus, or “super bus” run by Peter King to and from downtown Vancouver every weekday, especially those making use of the new water taxi service that takes people from Horseshoe Bay to Snug Cove at roughly 4:30 and 5:40 each evening. The water taxi service started operating a few weeks ago, when a commuter called Cormorant Marine Water Taxi Service from the bus pick-up location at Burrard and Georgia at 4:59 p.m. and asked for a water taxi to meet a group of passengers at Horseshoe Bay 20 minutes later. Rider Daniel Cowper says that on that day, the group arrived at the dock in Snug Cove at 5:30 p.m. “We broke the 40 minute barrier that day,” says Cowper. “Lately though, it takes closer to 45 minutes because there are so many people taking advantage of the service.” Cowper says the other innovation that is making a huge difference to his commute is a tracking service called Glympse, which allows bus drivers to know exactly where the bus is on its route. “This is especially effective in the summer when traffic can be really heavy and erratic,” says Cowper. “With Glympse you can see where Peter’s bus is with less than a two minute delay, so you don’t have to waste time standing on the sidewalk.”
He says TransLink has no comparable service, and that the experience is a world away from depending on the 257 express bus from downtown. “The 257 is supposed to depart downtown at 25 minutes after the hour and 35 minutes after the hour, and when that was my way home, I took to waiting for the 25-after bus in the hopes that I might catch the 35-after bus,” says Cowper. “Even then, there were times when the bus would just blow right by because it was completely full.” Cowper adds that since BC Ferries started following the summer schedule roughly five years ago, commuting between May to September became “almost un-endurably bad.” “I’ve taken to giving Peter [King] an extra dollar for every trip I make on his bus because he’s saving me an hour and a half every single day,” says Cowper. “I feel like I should be paying a premium, but I am not.” Richard Smith, who is working with the municipal transportation committee’s bus-focused sub-group, TAG (Transportation Action Group), says his experience of moving back to Bowen after time away, and suffering through the summer schedule is one of his main motivators for working to keep the bus going. “I feel like I spent all of last summer wasting time in Horseshoe Bay,” says Smith. “There are only so many french fries you can eat, so many times you can walk back and forth across the little waterfront park. The fact that Peter’s bus and the water taxi can meet each other takes the commute from being insane to just a long shift.” Smith says he learned about the Glympse App while at a conference in Ottawa.
continued on PAGE 7
EDITOR
The province’s Wildfire Management Branch is still allowing campfires in Coastal British Columbia, but Bowen Island’s Fire Chief Ian Thompson has banned all open fires on Bowen Island. Thompson says that this ban is likely to remain in effect throughout the summer months. “Once these bans are in effect, we don’t typically reverse them,” he says, adding that according to weather forecasts, the dry spell looks likely to continue. On Monday morning of this week, the Bowen Island Fire Department responded to concerns of Bowen Islanders who smelled smoke, but after some investigation discovered that the smoke was coming from wildfires burning near Lytton, BC, east of Whistler. The fire department has had to put out one fire so far this season. “That was two weeks ago, near Taylor Road,” says Thompson. “A neighbour smelled smoke and went on a walk to investigate and found a small glow from a fire in the woods. By the time we got there, it had probably tripled in size, to an area of about 10 by 10. Because we had a hard time getting to the fire – we had to hike up to it, and then realized we needed to drive up above it and bring the hoses down to it – it took us about three hours to put it out.” Thompson says the likely cause of this fire was a cigarette. “Unless lightning strikes, or there is a piece of glass that is left to catch the light in a very precise way, this is usually the case. Ninety-nine percent of the time, fires are caused by people.”
Nicholas and Lois Belluk at last weekend’s Strawberry Tea.
Lorraine Ashdown, photo