Halifax City Council has been massaging and kneading the budget for next year. My heart leapt when I saw reports that councilor Patty Cuttell had raised concerns that the redevelopment of the Mumford Bus Terminal would not be completed before 2030. “I get complaints about it all the time,” she said. “When we have facilities like that it doesn’t attract and encourage people to use it, especially when you have to, like, trollop through the mud to catch your bus.” (The Signal)

Five years in the future? Really? I’ve been complaining about Mumford since at least 2014 and the redevelopment is always going to be five years off and cost, let’s say 10 or 15 million dollars. But these days just complaining feels unhelpful so why don’t we recalibrate and imagine some fixes that could improve the Terminal right now and celebrate the new terminal whenever and wherever it emerges.

The Street View Lens

In the past I’ve often attached the phrase “soul sucking” when referring to the Mumford Terminal and asked folks to imagine commuters standing unprotected in the freezing rain on a dark winter morning. I don’t have any photographs of those conditions so I went to my favorite research tool, Google Earth Street View. Mumford is an important road so there is great coverage, eight views from 2012 to 2023. And since the sun always shines in Street View all were recorded on fine days from July to October.

The big reveal

Lack of seating is the obvious problem. For most people sitting on the curb or sidewalk is the only choice as they wait for their bus.

Google Street View, August 2018

This sequence from three different years shows that the concrete pad for one of the few actual shelters makes a great bench. What an idea. Also notice that people seek the shadows of the shelter and the single tree to shade them from the afternoon sun. The child playing the dirt is a sweet detail. When it rains this dirt turns into the mud that people have to “trollop through.”

Google Street View, August 2018

At this moment the glass shelter is most valuable for shade.  Google Street View, July 2012

Google Street View, July 2019

Sadly Street View records the decline and ultimate death of that one, tiny shade tree.

Google Street View, August 2023

So guys here is the big take away: just add lots of things to sit on. People sit on the concrete edging along the sidewalk where it exists. Simply add a low concrete wall along the whole length of the site. If you are feeling generous attach a plain, wooden cap. Around the corner from the Walmart there is a little patio with these simple but elegant concrete and wood benches. Something like this should also be achievable.

Light and colour

Seating would be a great start but imagine if the powers that be had enough band width for a few more upgrades. We live in a northern country that is dark and dreary for a significant part of the year. How about some party lights! Here is Christmas downtown in Historic Properties. Imagine the length of Mumford Terminal strung with lights all year long. It’s so cheerful I’m sure the gals in the photo don’t even notice the freezing rain.

Tourism Nova Scotia

And what about this sunny installation of shade awnings on the terrace back of the Central Library. How hard would it be to install something similar on Mumford? And maybe nearby stores would like to purchase inspirational advertising printed on the awnings, like the umbrellas in beer gardens.

And in winter look how the library terrace is transformed. If something similar was at Mumford it could feel like you were at a fiesta while waiting for the number 24 to Leiblin Park.

You can’t get there from here

Street View documents another well known problem that should have been addressed long ago. Many people catching a bus have shopped at Walmart and the Dollarama but there is no direct route for them to reach the terminal. Street View records people venturing into the dangerous Darién Gap of road crossings. I don’t know the solution for this situation but it certainly is not pedestrian barriers.

Laden with bags and about to venture into traffic.

Just made it across. Google Street View, August 2018

Buddy is looking to the left but does he see the giant truck to the right? The folks on the sidewalk have already made it across with their loads. Google Street View, August 2018

Caring merchants should be interested in making Mumford better for their customers. Look at all the Walmart shopping carts that have been pushed through traffic.

Google Street View, August 2023

How about today? Would today work for you?

So you get the idea. There are small things that we should be doing now to make the Terminal more comfortable and safe for bus riders. City staff reports from years ago detail all the problems of the site but it seems that while people are focused on big plans that will be wonderful for the next generation they are throwing transit riders of today under the bus, as they say.

Genius Loci

And finally here is the only special insight I have to offer. I visited the site of the Mumford Terminal in early spring 1965, that’s sixty years ago, long before any development on this part of the site. Here’s the photograph I took through still leafless trees towards the brand new Halifax Shopping Centre. This allée was, I believe, the remnant of a landscape associated with a vanished Catholic institution.

Here is the same view in the recent past with the Terminal in the middle ground and the shopping centre parking garage on the other side of Mumford. When I consider these two images I like to imagine that it is possible to summon the spirit of the earlier landscape as a muse to help heal and elevate the degraded terrain we have allowed to develop. Or did I just want an excuse to show you my old photo?

Google Street View, August 2018

Postscript

• Thirteen bus routes go through Mumford. Many city councilors have constituents who could benefit from a place to sit in the shade. They should all be voicing support for immediate change.
• The terminal is owned and operated by the Halifax Shopping Centre for Halifax Transit. Great! Many hands make light work.
• Robin Gerus, the brand new executive director of Halifax Transit, apparently takes the bus so he must have experienced firsthand the charms of Mumford. We have high hopes for his fresh eye and new energy.
• Realizing that the replacement of the Mumford Terminal is always five years off reminded me of Rick Mercer’s hilarious Seven Day Forecast skit. Take a look. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry.
• Probably I’m overinterpreting but some of the Street Views capture people who appear to be really melancholy. Maybe Mumford sucked their soul?

Google Street View, August 2023

Google Street View, August 2018