‘SPOTTY’ SYSTEM
Taking the bus an unrealistic option for many residents
Transit user is not impressed.
“We’re headin’ into town, need anything?”
That line is part of life on Cape Breton Island. If you have to go somewhere in a hurry, you or your buddy better have a car. Doesn’t matter where you’re going, it’ll be a journey.
So what happens when you don’t have a car? Curious, I decided to set out from my house in Northside East Bay for Sydney. I didn’t get far.
Despite living just a few minutes from Eskasoni (and its 4,000 people) there isn’t a single bus route that can bring me to Sydney. And it’s not just Eskasoni. East Bay, Ben Eoin, Sydney Forks, Sydney River and places with major tourist attractions like Louisbourg are so far outside of the regular transit routes as to make Transit Cape Breton an unrealistic option.
So I hopped on the internet and quickly found the closest route to my house. It was in Sydney River, a 25-minute drive away. So, after a very expensive cab ride, I got to my first stop and was immediately confused. When I asked “how much?” the response was “depends, where you heading?”
It turns out that Transit Cape Breton uses a system of “zones” to determine your fare. Sydney is a zone, Sydney River is a zone, Glace Bay, etc. The more zones you cross in a ride, the more fare you pay. Honestly, this is the worst. The driver has a schedule to keep and must get on the road immediately, so this system of zones leaves new transit riders trying not to fall over while distracting the driver and sorting out fares. It’s less than ideal.
Fare squared away, I settled down for the ride to Cape Breton University. Almost every person on the bus was over 60 years of age and the rest were largely foreign university students.
When I asked the students how they found getting around in Cape Breton, they each used the same word: “Awful.” The hours transit operates and the frequency with which it runs basically leaves them without a functional social life. For students, most of whom have both classes and jobs, they’re struggling with the sheer timing of everyday life. Like simply buying groceries. The elderly riders also had issues with the schedule. When you’re older, standing outside and waiting is hard on the body. When you’re sick, it’s even worse.
Once you’re back outside the transit system’s reach, things again get dicey. Without the benefit of services like Uber, you’re left with two options: a friend with a car or a cab. The further from your destination the main bus routes are, the bigger the challenge (and expense) in getting there.
This becomes a real problem when you consider Cape Breton’s economy. “The elderly and disabled are 50 per cent more likely to take public transit than the average population,” says Patrick deLamirande, associate professor of Economics at Cape Breton University. Transit usually helps lower-wage workers, the elderly and the disabled by giving them an inexpensive way to get around, allowing them to focus their income where it’s needed. It helps lower-wage businesses attract more workers from the area, too.
So with all those perks, why is the transit system in Cape Breton so spotty?
For one thing, transit is expensive. In addition to buying the buses and paying the drivers, you have maintenance costs,
“The more zones you cross in a ride, the more fare you pay. Honestly, this is the worst.”
insurance and marketing. Since 2012, transit’s budget has been increased from $2.7 million to $3.9 million annually. This despite a steady decline in population. Many smaller projects have been undertaken to improve local transit - from free rides to pilot routes to investments in new equipment. Yet despite all this effort, transit can only partially cover the largest parts of the city. Why?
To understand this a little better, you need a map. The Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM) is, in a word, huge. While cities like Moncton and Halifax benefit from very condensed population centers (allowing buses to serve more people along their routes)
much of the CBRM is filled with areas like my own - vast, empty stretches with a few houses and little else. More ground to cover means more driving which leads to more maintenance expenses for the transit system. The poor transit system leads to less riders, which leads to less money, which leads to a poorer transit system.
So what can we do about it? Well, for starters, give people a lift to work. The stress of not knowing how you’re going to get to where you need to be is hard to describe to someone who isn’t in that position. You may not think much of giving them that lift, but you might be making a world of difference.
The second is the most obvious. Ride the bus. Let me sell it a little here. It’s honestly not too bad. For starters, it’s cheap. The rides can be long, but it’s oddly relaxing to not worry about the commute. You’ll also get a lot more exercise.
My last point here is a little harder to hear: Cape Breton has a worrisome part of its culture that can be summed up as “that’s just the way it is.” We are all at fault here. Asking questions, listening to answers and sharing your ideas - that’s what we need more of. The harder it becomes to get to town, the less town you’ll have to get to.
Ryan Campbell works in Cape Breton’s budding software development industry, hoping to help reverse Cape Breton’s economic decline with new solutions to old problems. He lives in Islandview, just outside Eskasoni. He can be contact at ryanmc_13@hotmail.com