Victoria clearing a spot for zero-emission tour bus
Move designed to ease impact of buses in area
Victoria will test drive a project to encourage greener practices in the tour bus business.
City councillors have decided to designate one Inner Harbour tour bus parking stall for vehicles with no tailpipe emissions.
The suggestion came from Coun. Ben Isitt.
“The worst-case scenario is we don’t have interest and we lose some revenue,” Isitt said.
“The best-case scenario is that we’ve created a price signal to the market that lands an electricpowered vehicle for hire in that location, with no emissions impacts on James Bay residents or visitors or people who work in the vicinity of that area.”
Isitt had originally recommended the stalls be rented only to operators using electricpowered vehicles but later amended it to allow for zeroemission vehicles.
The city has for years rented four parking stands near the Inner Harbour — two on Government Street and two on Belleville Street — to tour companies. More recently, it has been exploring ways to reduce noise and exhaust emissions from the tour buses.
The newly designated stall had been occupied by Hippo Tours.
Coun. Pam Madoff said the no-emission requirement points to changes down the road.
“We’re sending a very clear message to the industry that this is the direction we’re moving in, and you need to start think about this now,” Madoff said.
Fraser Work, the city’s director of engineering, said the move is about giving bus operators access to tourists while trying to offset their impact on the community.
Lease rates have been based on lost parking revenue between $1,170 and $1,755 a month per stall — generating a total of about $72,000 a year for all four stalls.
Staff say they need another year to consult with operators and develop a new management model for allocating the parking stalls — one that considers factors such as social responsibility, the environment and economics.
Work said there are a number of issues to be resolved, including the real value of the real estate, the relative contribution emissions from the tour buses, and the relative investment operators would have to make to improve emissions and noise.
“The compromise we’ve been wrestling with at the staff level is what is the most reasonable and the most effective way to support the value that they provide the community and the tourism industry and also to minimize the impact that they have on the air quality and the health of the community,” Work said.
Jacqueline Weston, assistant director of transportation, said the parking stands are believed to make a relatively small contribution to the overall bus emissions.
Work said staff don’t want to recommend a fee structure that is too high and has the effect of chasing the operators onto private property — where no emissions reduction could be negotiated.
Operators are taking steps to upgrade their fleets, staff say.
CVS Cruise Victoria already has one electric double-decker bus, three diesel double-deckers that are 2010 or newer and one 2006 double-decker.
Wilson’s Transportation, which leases two stalls, is converting one of its vintage 1960s double deckers to electric and plans to have it on the road this summer. Pending the outcome, the company has plans to upgrade or replace the rest of their double deckers, Weston said.
Meanwhile, James Bay Community Association president Marg Gardiner had hoped that with the departure of Hippo Tours, the vacant Belleville stall would be retired.
Gardiner would also like to see tour buses be restricted in their routing and prohibited from routing through James Bay.