Bus bike racks decision in new year
October 17, 2006

A recommendation that the HSR start installing bike racks on buses passed the public works committee on Monday, but could be delayed again in the new year by budget concerns, despite strong support from the city's transit steering committee.

The transit committee's September 14 motion directs HSR staff to start installing the racks next year “with the installation of the maximum number of bike racks that would not impede the storage of buses” and the rest as more space becomes available. But HSR director Don Hull raised concerns about the resolution and argued it should not proceed until at least 2008.

“While staff is very supportive of this initiative, we have higher short term capital priorities combined with the ongoing space constraints of the mountain transit centre that in our view need to be resolved before this initiative can move forward,” Hull told the public works committee.

He also contended that “a partial implementation is not a solution” because HSR can't “ensure the availability of a bus with a bike rack for a user in both trip directions.”

The objections didn't sit well with Tom Jackson who pointed to increasing numbers of requests for the installation of the racks that have been owned by the HSR for several years. Jackson said every time the issue is raised, staff oppose it with the same reasoning. “And if that same reasoning is continuously year after year, we're getting nowhere on this bike rack issue.”

Hull responded that staff feel they “cannot safely accommodate these bike racks on the buses at this point in time, and we cannot safely store the buses at the mountain transit centre until the accommodation issue is resolved. Following that, we're very, very supportive of this initiative, albeit it's not one of the higher priorities of the program.”

Terry Whitehead noted that solving the accommodation issue has been labelled a priority “since I was elected” in 2003 and asked why it was taking so long. The response from staff revealed that a consultants study has already been completed which offers two viable alternatives – expanding the mountain transit garage or moving the DARTS fleet to HSR's former headquarters on Wentworth Street North – but the public works department hasn't yet decided if it wants to move waste management staff out of the Wentworth facility.

“So we're essentially in a queue waiting for direction from council on the future location of the waste facilities at the Wentworth Street facility,” said Hull. “Council has already allocated and approved funding for construction at one of the facilities. So it's just a matter of resolving what the final location will be – whether it will be Wentworth Street or the mountain transit centre.”

Chad Collins opposed a suggestion to defer the issue to the 2008 budget. “I think it's probably good for the new council to have that discussion in 2007,so if they decide to bump it to 2008, then it's 2008 with the same rationale, but at least it's on the radar still,” he successfully argued. “I mean … 2008 is such a long way away.”

The HSR and DARTS are a division of the public works department whose manager, Scott Stewart, explained to Whitehead that a report will likely be presented to councillors in February. “We haven't brought anything forward on any of the public works yard rationalizations,” said Stewart. “So that has to happen. We've got the various reports in various stages.”