Bowen Island’s Municipal Transportation Committee (BIMTAC) announced the successful applicants to fill two seats to advocate and organize for the improvement of local transportation, as well as transportation to and from the Island. The new committee members are Ken Simpson, a part time commuter, and Melanie Mason, a student and mother whose husband commutes daily.
Simpson is a part-time commuter, and describes himself as being “multi-modal” when it comes to the ways he gets himself around.
“I ride my bike two or three times a week, in combination with taking the water taxi to downtown Vancouver,” says Simpson. “I also drive onto the Queen of Capilano sometimes, or walk on and use Car-to-Go out of Horseshoe Bay.”
Simpson’s preliminary file on the Transportation Committee is to push forward issues related to a passenger ferry and car-sharing.
“I think a lot of people who have to commute for work really don’t have time to join a committee,” says Simpson. “As a water taxi commuter I saw some inequities that I believe need to be addressed and I am a person who really doesn’t let things go. We’ve got a viable passenger service to downtown that is currently receiving no support.”
Prior to joining BIMTAC, Simpson started to organize commuters who use the English Bay Launch service to try to keep the service running.
“You could say that the water taxi users are a privileged group, but I look at it from another perspective,” says Simpson. “If there was no bus service on Bowen, but a group of people needed that service and purchased their own, they too would be a privileged group, but once the Muni coughs up $600 in taxpayer dollars to Translink so we can have a bus, that changes.”
In the realm of car-sharing, Simpson says he wants to work with Cars2Go and other car-sharing companies, like MoDo Co-op, to facilitate better options and connections both for Bowen Islanders and people who want to visit Bowen.
Earlier this year, Melanie Mason helped to organize two community protests through Bowen Islanders for Ferry Fairness (BIFF). As an administrator with BIFF, she has also worked to try and keep Bowen Islanders up to date with how other communities are approaching the ferries issue.
“I want to represent working families on all aspects of transportation on Bowen,” says Mason, regarding why she wanted to join BIMTAC. “There are so many families who are both time-starved and increasingly struggling to make ends meet. While transportation costs are going up, there are also so many factors that contribute to time wasted for commuters: the connections with the “express” bus between Horseshoe Bay are poorly timed, and if it is running just a little late, you’ll miss the ten-minute cut-off for loading the ferry and lose out on another hour of your day. That’s just one example.”
Mason says she also wants to improve communication between the Committee and the Bowen public.
“I believe that if we are going to mitigate the pain of commuting, we need to know more about where people are going and how they’re getting there. For example, you would think commuting to North Van for work, or getting to Lion’s Gate Hospital from Bowen would be fairly straightforward but it is actually quite clumsy if you are not driving. I think a survey would be helpful to gather this kind of information, and I also like the idea of a BIMTAC open house or forum.”
Adam Holbrook, the chair of BIMTAC says that the committee looks forward to new points of view and that in the coming weeks they will be coming up with a list of transportation-related files that need work, and finding ways to get that work done. BC Ferries will be hosting a meeting with BIMTAC on July 9, in Horseshoe Bay.
