By Carolynne Burkholder and Josh Hammerstedt

I. Prince George Transit System is one of the most
complained about services at UNBC at this point in time.
One of the main concerns that has been discussed is the
lack of routes covering all areas of Prince George, particu-
larly lack of routes that correspond to the needs of UNBC
students. As the student body of UNBC is the biggest sin-
gle coherent group that utilizes the Prince George Bus
System, the students have been surprisingly under-con-
sulted when it comes to their particular needs. This prob-
lem, however, is about to change. After years of service
complaints from students, Prince George Transit has
decided to improve bus service to UNBC. They have
added a frequent bus route, scheduled to run up and
down Fifteenth Avenue, which as many students know is
basically a straight line from the university to the
Parkwood Mall. Since this is such a requested route, stu-
dents should be happy with this new development, right?

“It really works for me,” says one UNBC student, “It’s
teally convenient, and way less time consuming than run-
ning back and forth when all I want to do is go up the hill.”
Another student agrees. “It’s pretty nice for me, because I
live right on fifteenth avenue. Now I’m guaranteed to
catch the bus closer to my house, so I won’t always have to
walk about a hundred blocks to catch a timely bus.” A bus
route that runs along Fifteenth Avenue has been requested
for many years, and therefore seems to be a positive new
development in the lives of UNBC Students.

S. with all this positive opinion, where is the problem?
Why are students complaining so vehemently about the
service changes? It turns out that in order to set up the
improved Fifteenth Avenue route, Prince George Transit
has cut the 18 and 19 bus routes. These bus routes service
Ospika, Massey Pine Centre Mall,. Tabor, Fifth Avenue, and
Spruceland. According to one UNBC student “It is ridicu-
lous that the City of Prince George feels that in order to give
us services, they have to take services away.” This senti-
ment is a common one flowing around the UNBC Campus
after the changes to the Transit System were made public.
Overall, it appears that the elimination of two of the most

S
J
®

.]

oo oS ie a
Weg C4

ro? ©. this handy bus —
.*, to Pine Centre Mall ..

oe

“2°. «Will be‘no more after -;
6. up, Sanidary 6th 2004...
ie ere ep ee home ee Sie
I 5 eae ee A ann :
a posit ‘s dn tww nalts se < a

widely used bus routes, in exchange for the addition of a
different route, affects the UNBC students in two main
ways.

E.. many students have purposely rented apartments,
basement suites, and houses that are directly located on
either the 18 or 19 Bus Routes. As the newly created route
only runs along Fifteenth Avenue, it leaves out the students
that live along Tabor,,Ospika, Massey, and Fifth Avenue.
All these students will have quite the commute to attend
UNBC, which they did not expect to have at the beginning
of the year. “I wanted an improved service” states one
UNBEC student, “but I didn’t want the improved service to
only be in certain areas, and:only help students that live and
use services in certain parts of the city”. One of the main
tenets of UNBC policy is to improve access to post-sec-
ondary education for residents of northern BC; it seems
rather ironic that some students are now going to have a
harder time actually travelling to their classes at the
University.

“1 wanted an improved service” states
one UNBC student, “but { didn’t want
the improved service to only be in cer-
tain areas, and only help students that
live and use services in certain parts of
the city”.

Second, many students use the facilities located at Pine
Centre and at the Spuceland Mall, which now are much
more difficult to access. Although it is now much easier for
students to travel to the Parkwood Mall, many services that
are utilized by UNBC students are not available at this loca-
tion. The elimination of this service: makes it very difficult
for students living in residence, as well as other students, to
shop for groceries and other items. As one student
living in residence states “If 1am going to make
my way off the hill, I either want to go to
Spruceland to grocery shop, or to
Pine Centre to look around
the mall for clothes and,

0 RRO TYLA MEG OM
Poe re, MF ZB oe.

other stuff...although Parkwood has a Grocery Store, it just
isn’t as convenient as going to Spruceland.” As conve-
nience is one of the aspects that Prince George Transit sets
up as its goals, the elimination of two of the most utilized
bus routes seems kind of an interesting proposition.

B.... the main goal behind the changes in the Prince
George Transit Bus Routes were to better accommodate the
students attending UNBC, we can definitely expect some
controversy to come about due to these changes and how
they adversely affect the UNBC student body. UNBC stu-
dents are not type of citizens that will just accept changes
adversely affecting them and their colleagues without a
fight. This quality was demonstrated by all the protests and
general uproar that occurred on the UNBC campus due to
increases in tuition. I definitely think we can expect the
same sort of vocalized displeasure to occur due to the
changes to the Prince George Transit Schedule. These
changes are slated to come into affect on the 6th of January,
right at the beginning of the Winter Semester at UNBC.

©... the changes to the Prince George Transit sys-
tem are extremely controversial. Students that live in areas
that are close to Fifteen Avenue are thrilled that the City of
Prince George is finally listening to UNBC students and
their need for a route that is simple and convenient.
Students that regularly take the 18 and 19 Bus routes are
outraged that these routes are being cancelled in favour of
a route that only provides access for students living in cer-
tain areas of town. The question seems to be whether a
streamlined, regular bus route would be preferable to two
less efficient, but more accessible bus routes. The answer
seems to depend on where your residence is located, arid
what services you prefer to access. It is apparent that this is
an issue that will dominate discussion at UNBC for semes-

ters to come.

Mahl Ce a