Bus firms not on board with parking restrictions
Granville Island’s new fees, regulations are unfair and ill-conceived, operators say
A new policy that bans parking for tour buses on Granville Island and charges companies up to $500 per bus to drop off and pick up passengers has got the companies hotter than a non-air conditioned coach on a steamy summer’s day.
The popular tourist destination says it’s got to do something to ease the glut of the oversized diesel vehicles on the tiny island.
But bus companies complain the new rule has been rushed into without their input, is illconceived and costly, and will end up increasing traffic in and out of one of Vancouver’s most popular tourist sites.
The island’s landlord, Canada Mortgage Housing Corp., sent out a letter on March 21, advising bus companies and operators of the new policy: Five minutes to drop off passengers, and 10 minutes to pick them up only in the designated areas, and buses have to leave the island while the passengers shop.
Any bus without the proper permit as of May 15 — a yearly per-bus non-transferable fee is $300, $400 or $500 depending on number of seats; a transferable sticker to be shared by a fleet is $900, $1,200 or $1,500 — will result in that tour company being banned from the island. The fees collected will be used to pay new parking staff.
“We can’t do nothing anymore, the status quo just isn’t working anymore,” said Granville Island spokesman Scott Fraser. “Being geographically limited, we don’t have any space to expand.”
He said the parking lot for the tour buses has become increasingly crowded each year and “last year I personally saw 15 buses trying to get into six spaces.”
Under “rationale,” on its twopage draft tour bus policy, CMHC says the large number of buses has affected the “Granville Island ‘people place’ ambience.”
“To give us one month and eight days’ notice when these trips are booked one to two years in advance is unfair,” said Andrew Karwowski of Charter Bus Lines in Richmond.
Its fleet has 60 highway coaches, which would cost $30,000 a year for individual permits, he said.
“Who’s going to absorb that cost?” he said. “We have to pass it on to the tour operators who charter our buses, and they have already set the prices for this year.”
He said the industry isn’t against a new system but this solution will mean that a bus driver will double his trips in and out of the island on its one road. Drivers will have nowhere to park in the surrounding residential area and will have to drive around or drive a far distance, awaiting the call to return to pick up passengers.
There could be up to 200 passengers waiting for four buses at one time, and the pickup area wouldn’t be able to accommodate them, Brad Sidjak of International State Lines of Richmond said in an email. He also called the fees “exorbitant” and unfair because they don’t apply to taxis, limos or tour vans.
Sidjak warned the loss of money spent by the thousands of passengers will hurt island businesses.
The Granville Island Business and Community Association didn’t respond to a request for comment Friday.
Fraser said he hasn’t heard any negative feedback from merchants on the change.
Sidjak said he has been unsuccessfully contacting CMHC since January to provide input on the parking policy.
He called on CMHC to delay any changes or fees for at least one year to better study their impact and allow tour operators to adjust prices.
Fraser said bus companies will be asked for suggestions at an April meeting before the policy is finalized.
Tourism Vancouver supports the new tour bus policy to “maintain the walkable ambience that the island is known and loved for,” said spokeswoman Amber Sessions in an email.
She predicted no change in the number of tourists to Granville Island, which is second in popularity to Stanley Park.
On Granville Island on Friday, weeks before tourist and cruise ship season officially opens, there was a steady stream of highway coaches, school buses and mini buses, including one from a North Vancouver non-profit association, and about five were parked in the area still reserved for at any one time.
Granville Island last week released its Transportation Strategy, and tour buses were targeted as an issue needing action to make the island more pedestrian-friendly.