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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
City councillor Adrian Bell continued his pursuit of a GPS tracking system for Yellowknife's transit service at council last week.

The City of Whitehorse is experimenting with a GPS tracking system with the assistance of company NextBus. Bell said he has been in contact with the contractor and said one of the things the city should consider is getting its transit information on to Google Maps.

"Anytime I go to a city and need to take a bus somewhere, I usually Google Map it and hit transit and it tells you which bus to take," said Bell. "We must be the only capital city in Canada, or the only one with true public transit, that doesn't have (the routes) up on Google Maps. This is low hanging fruits and we can do this. We have the technology."

Former councillor Paul Falvo, who remains a member of the Ecology North transportation issues committee, said last week one of the reasons he remains involved in trying to improve public transit has to do with GPS tracking. He said one day last week he took a cab to work rather than a bus because he didn't want to face the uncertainty of when the bus will come while waiting in the cold.

"If you had a GPS on board you could dial up and find out how many minutes to the stop and not even look at the schedule," he said.

Ecology North makes appeal for improved transit routes

Ecology North member Lloyd Thiessen presented a revised public transit system to city council that he hopes will improve transportation efficiencies for bus riders. Calling it "Option 5," it references four items presented to council last summer during busing contract talks. Thiessen sought to address the lag time at the Old Airport Road/Borden Drive and Finlayson Drive/Kam Lake Road intersections and better incorporate Niven and Kam Lake into the system. His proposed revised routes would include four 30-minute routes, with two optional routes for the summer.

Thiessen said he would like to see new routes in place by September, although acting senior administrative officer Dennis Kefalas said it might be more likely to have it in place for next January because the city would need to run a pilot project and present council with recommendations.

City to replace four buses with low-floor models

The city has given the go-ahead to replace four out of eight buses with low-floor bus models this year, acting public works director Chris Greencorn announced this week. An Xcelsior Better By Design New Flyer model was tested for two of the three days it was in town last week and was ultimately found to be workable in the city's climate and road conditions.

The bus replacement was part of a four year, $1.25 million contract signed with service provider First Canada, formerly Cardinal Coachlines, last fall.

The city has acknowledged some problems were found driving on Franklin Avenue past the Gallery of the Midnight Sun, where the ground scraped the bottom of the bus due to dips in the road in that area. Greencorn described the roadway as needing an "extensive patch-up," but added the city is optimistic the buses will meet the city's public transit needs.

"It still won't eliminate the need for the YATS system, but we are hoping it will help people that don't handle the stairs all that well," said Greencorn. "They can just walk right onto the main floor of the bus."

Currently, there are eight regular buses with four steps in the fleet. There are also two YATS (Yellowknife Accessible Transit System) buses which serve peopled with disabilities at their door.

Greencorn says these buses will continue to be used, however, the low-floor buses will provide another option for some with disabilities due to the improvement in accessibility.

Each of the low-floor buses being brought in typically hold 42 people seated. However, Greencorn said there is some flexibility with what the layout may look like.

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