August 17, 2014

On a day-to-day basis, change can be hard to see. It’s only when we compare how things are today with how they were years ago that change becomes visible. Perhaps because I’m a local elected official, a four year council term is just about long enough to start to see change and how it impacts life in our city. A good example over the last four years is public transit.

Transit is the primary way my wife and I get around. From grocery shopping to commuting, we take a bus to get where we need to go almost all of the time.

During my first council campaign in 2010, just like with any local campaign, we knocked on a lot of doors. Over 5,000 as I recall. It was both exhilerating and exhausting. But the most challenging part was often just getting to different parts of the ward by public transit.

Fast forward four years.

In the current campaign, getting around Ward 6 by transit is relatively easy. Since 2010, the Region of Waterloo has redesigned and expanded transit service significantly, including two new express bus services. You can travel up Fischer-Hallman, across Columbia, and up King to Conestoga Mall on the 201. The 202 leaves from Conestoga Mall via RIM Park along Northfield, then University, until it jogs across Erb and down Erbsville to the Boardwalk. There’s also been a realignment of the 5, 12, 13, 29, and 31 to provide more frequent and direct service along major roads, including Keats Way. Across the city, these changes and a few others will ultimately help connect people to the LRT along with key locations on the east and west sides.

I’ve been privileged to be a part of those changes as the city’s representative on the Region’s transit service improvement committee. As a result, most of Ward 6 is within a 5 minute walk of a transit stop today and almost all of it is within a 10 minute walk. While all of that is good news that provide real choices to people, there are still a few exceptions.

Due to the meandering design of the Beechwood neighbourhood, the heart of Craigleith and Beechwood Park north of Clair Lake will always be more than 10 minutes away from transit on foot. However, the lack of transit service and pedestrian facilities along Westmount unnecessarily limits options for people on The Lion’s Gate and in Beechwood II. Several residents of the area have told me they would use transit if it was there, and that is a message I am eager to pass along to the Region through the next phases of the ongoing redesign and expansion. With the city completing new sports fields along Westmount Rd between Columbia and Bearinger, we need transit connections that provide real options for people all over Ward 6 and the City of Waterloo.