Editorial

The bus will come any minute now

Cam Charron - Sports Editor

If you’re like me, you may have noticed that there isn’t any snow in Kamloops. We’re in the first week of February. You may have also noticed that Arizona was in the middle of a snowstorm last week. This is evidence enough that the weather patterns on this planet are messed up, and we need to change our environmental habits.

So lets spend millions of dollars fueling our jets, going to big United Nations summits to discuss ways to cap our greenhouse waste. Only, going to Copenhagen is a total waste, and that money could be better spent at home.

Fixing bus systems.

How many times have you been sitting at a bus stop in Kamloops, swearing to yourself that you saw a bus scheduled for 12:15 on the schedule, and watching the minutes tick down to the next bus coming in at 12:28?

Or even worse, and one that happened to me last week, how many times have you been waiting forever for the bus, only for it to come, and find out that it’s had it’s route changed on you?

Yes, that happens from time to time in Kamloops. For whatever reason, some of the buses, and all the ones running on Sunday, change up their routes without any ample warning to the riders. I want to be going to campus, and next thing I know, we’re turning up Hillside heading up to the mall.

Even on the website, there’s not a specification that the route has changed. There may be a little note, warning riders to get on at ‘Bestwick and Sahali,’ a warning that applies to maybe 20 people who ride the bus.

Perhaps, BC Transit doesn’t realize that if they improve the bus system, people might actually start riding a bus. If I had a car, I wouldn’t even think of taking a bus. It’s why you can’t find a parking spot. Walking is sometimes more reliable than Kamloops buses, even at late night or early morning hours when nobody else is on the road, those things manage to come 5 or 10 minutes late.

Taking a cab is more comfortable, and ramming one’s head through a brick wall is less frustrating than having to wait, and wait, and wait, and realize that they didn’t send that bus out. Or maybe it’s taking a different route today?

For the sake of humanity, if our leaders really wanted to commit to saving a few trees, the first option is to do it right at home. Take those millions going to Copenhagen, and invest it right here in the Kamloops bus system because I am occasionally inconvenienced.