We need to talk about all the ‘incentives’ offered to us to change our combustion engine use.
What’s being done, especially taxation at the fuel pump, is a punishment, not an incentive.
Forcing us to pay a tax to change our behaviour without giving the needed means to change our behaviour is punishment, pure and simple.
The ‘alternatives’ we are supposed to access don’t exist, or they are so poorly planned/run/executed that they are unusable as an alternative to the combustion engines
These deficiencies affect everyone, including businesses. If staff & customers, including tourists, can’t get to where they want to go without a car, while use of cars is actively discouraged at the same time, businesses are negatively impacted. The current BC Transit strike in the Cowichan Valley is a good example of this.
Here is an outline of why the ‘alternatives’ don’t work:
- Bus system(s): The bus system in most major cities on Vancouver Island and bus travel across BC is extremely poor and is not usable.
This is because routes don’t connect when they should – including connecting with ferry and airport arrivals/departures. Routes don’t get you where you need to go as easily as a car
Buses don’t run when and where they are needed. Shelters are lacking and are vandalized, and cold. It isn’t safe to wait by yourself at a bus stop in the dark or in a remote area
Bikes aren’t allowed to be put on the small busses at night because they block the headlights
Pets aren’t allowed. How do you get your pet to the daycare or vet? What if you bring your pet to work? Luggage isn’t allowed, nor big bags (laundry) or a lot of grocery bags or gardening tools or just about anything (including lithium batteries?) Transfers can’t be made because the connections are scheduled off by 1 minute. Handydart services (included in transit) are woeful – hard to schedule, unreliable (late, no show) and more. There aren’t enough seats for wheelchair/walker/stroller users. The bus doesn’t run from Victoria airport, which is in Sidney, to the ferry or to the city. Even if it does, you aren’t allowed. Routes change on weekends and holidays, leaving people who work shift work or care for family at a loss.
As demonstrated by the current strike – strikes cause major disruptions. Only certain size mobility devices fit on them – if a seat is even available. Cross-BC travel by Bus is very difficult to schedule – especially from the Island, which is a multi-modal effort. Specifically: take the city bus (if it is running at the time you need it) then a ferry, then maybe take a coach bus (if it goes where you need to go when you need it to go, which it often doesn’t. The coach from Vancouver stops in Kelowna early and there is no way to get to Penticton or Summerland in the evening).
Next, take a train or bus – which may not run when you need it to so what do you do then.
Rinse. Cycle. Repeat. If you are a senior or have health challenges, the gruelling bus option simply isn’t an option.
- Taxis: Are too expensive for many of us, and too few in number (esp in rural areas)
There aren’t enough wheelchair taxis and where they exist they are too hard to schedule
Wheelchair taxi – means to me electric w/c which can’t be folded up – same with scooters
Many won’t allow pets. Taxi drivers try to rip you off in a lot of cases and are rude if you don’t tip
Are hard to book or catch on the fly. You can’t put your recreational item in/on them (bike, kayak, canoe) unless you are able to book a specialty taxi (rare, costly, not reliable)
- Rideshares like Uber require a smartphone. That’s discriminatory – financially, physically and socially.
- Car Co-ops: Most don’t have wheelchair vehicles – think power wheelchairs and scooters that don’t fold up.
The cost of ‘renting’ a car for odd jobs on certain days is as expensive as renting a car from a regular dealership, without the monthly fee required by coops. Many won’t allow pets.
- Bicycles: Although I used to cycle commute, I am now physically unable to.
Families can’t really go ‘out’ together on a bike. Try bringing groceries home on a bike in the pouring (West Coast), freezing rain, or a blinding blizzard. Try carrying tools/plants/supplies to/from the community garden or a friend’s house or work or your farm on a bike
As aforementioned, you can’t put your bike on the smaller buses – e.g. you live in a rural area and bike to a bus stop 4 km away. Thus, you can’t get home or get to work if it is dark out.
Cycle commuting requires extreme physical strength in BC – lots of hills, long distances, so without a pricey pedal-assist bike, it isn’t realistic for many people in BC. Did I mention the rain and snow? Oh – and the boiling hot sun – you can’t arrive a work or school soaking wet from sweat – and most employers can’t/don’t have showers.
Most renters do not have any place to store bikes at home and landlords often refuse to allow them to be stored on balconies. Locking up your bike outside is not an option – criminals steal them or strip them in seconds. The blue bike program in Victoria was cool, but it died. It is hard to bring your pet to the vet or work or day care or a friend or the park or anywhere on a bike.
Not an option for elderly, disabled, frail, chronically diseased. Creates barriers to employment, barriers to accessing services (courts, government, school, medical)
- Electric bikes and scooters: An e-bike is prohibitively expensive and highly vulnerable to theft if used for commuting.
In the case of lithium battery bikes, they can’t be stored inside the batteries and are prone to starting on fire. Most landlords and employers do not provide spaces to charge them and also do not want to pay the hydro bill to charge. There are challenges with trail networks being sufficiently planned and managed.
Many people now live outside of cities due to the cost of rent, cost of housing, so we have to commute – and a long, multi-modal commute is too exhausting and hard physically.
In the case of families (which we want), this mode is a no go, esp. with young children, babies, sick children…. more. See bicycles
- Electric cars: Most landlords do not have e-charging stations and are not interested in installing them.
When politicians talk about housing, they most always focus on the cost of building/buying. This leaves a lot of us out of the conversation. If you mention a charging station for an e-bike, e-scooter or e-car to a landlord, you can expect them to get very mad and possibly start looking for ways to evict you. Lithium batteries are dangerous. They are banned on ferries in some places in the world because they are a fire hazard (water + lithium battery = immediate ire) It’s not really fun to pick up your dead e-car at the airport after a long time away.
Parking – most new developments are either under-building parking and charging stations, or charging outrageous parking costs. Side note: landlords can hike parking to whatever amount they want – so they separate rent for your unit and rent for your parking spot. That way, they can hike the parking by 25% or more, because it isn’t under rent control. Condo builders can charge tens of thousands for a parking spot. (eg. $40k in Victoria)…and more, such as lack of infrastructure, failure to actually reduce carbon (full life cycle), Total cost of Ownership (replacing batteries) is exorbitant.
- High speed rail, commuter trains: Only exist in very large cities (Vancouver), not where we live, work and play here in the Valley.
Imagine a properly scheduled, well-run, fast train from the airports and ferry onwards. Wouldn’t that be amazing? Maybe an El train down the Pat Bay Highway and up to Nanaimo, Port Alberni, maybe even Campbell River? Yes – provided they allow pets, recreational items (bikes), luggage and such and provided they give disabled and senior people proper access and functionality.
Leslie Huron
