Followup from BC Transit’s UVic future plans

BC Transit has posted the followup to their open house at UVic regarding future transit options for the university. Their findings were interesting:

• A bus loop close to the Student Union Building (SUB) and bookstore (and planned Village Centre) is preferred, “as students consider the SUB the centre of the campus”.
• There was support to keep major bus routes off Ring Road because of delays experienced at pedestrian crosswalks – instead, shuttle service should be operated around the campus
• Preferred bus routes to and from UVic and on campus: route options 1 and 7 received the most support; option 5 is the least desirable (check out page 5 and 6 of the presentation boards to see the route options.)
• Longer walking distances on campus would be acceptable if they are offset by faster transit service, more express buses and a campus shuttle
• Reliability of service and pass-ups off campus are more of an issue than the frequency of service or walking distances on campus
• There is a strong support for staggering class start times as a way to alleviate pass-ups and other service issues
• Personal security is a concern at the bus loop at night, and for people walking across campus at night to the bus loop or a bus stop

This list does include some fascinating contradictions and unanswered questions:

1. People don’t mind walk across campus but are also worried about personal security while doing so. Huh?
2. What exchange options did people prefer?
3. Do people realize what a walk across campus would actually mean in terms of time?
4. Where are people actually clustered during the day? UVic has class times and enrollment for the entire campus. I would love to see a map of that.
5. What is this “Village Centre” that they mention? Does it have to do with the discussions about putting in a traffic circle at the corner of Finnerty and Sinclair?
6. Is UVic even willing to discuss changing class times? This has some pretty serious knock-on effects on instructor and classroom scheduling.