As someone living on a main bus route, whose only real destination by bus is the downtown core, Public Transit in Halifax has served me fairly well. Like most bus users, though, I have had my fair share of irritations with the limitations of our public transit system like when my end-of-the-work-day bus just doesn’t arrive, or the 3 buses and two hours it sometimes takes to get to where I want to go in HRM.
In defense of Metro Transit, HRM has some unique transportation obstacles. To get from Halifax to Dartmouth, you have to deal with bottle necking at the two bridges, and our main arteries have not been well designed to favour transit users. We also don’t have the luxury of a ‘grid’ layout.
Dalhousie University’s Planning & Design Centre and Fusion Halifax are looking to shed some light on our public transportation woes. This summer, they will be co- hosting three public forums aiming to improve public transportation in HRM. The series, titled “It’s More Than Buses” will invite experts from across the country to discuss the issues surrounding public transportation.
The first forum will take place on June 28th at the World Trade and Convention Centre from 6 pm – 8 pm. Guest Speakers will include Jarrett Walker, international consultant in Public Transportation, Frank Palermo, Architecture and Planning professor from Dalhousie University, and Steven Dale, founding director of Creative Urban Projects.
To find out more about the project, or to keep tabs on the times and places of the three public forums, you can check them out on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/itsmorethanbuses?sk=wall#!/itsmorethanbuses?sk=info
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