Hundreds of Nanaimo seniors are fighting to get their neighbourhood bus stop back.
The bus stop on Nelson Street, outside Kiwanis Village Nanaimo on Kiwanis Crescent, closed on Jan. 5.
“People are going to get hurt or killed,” Kiwanis resident Christine Dunham said.
There continue to be bus stops on Boundary Avenue, Strathmore Street and Dufferin Crescent. However, disabled seniors are struggling to walk and wheel down the street, including over treacherous sidewalks in January’s snowstorm.
“There’s no crosswalk here, so I have to take a chance going across I could get hurt and it’s my fault,” 87-year-old Monty Greer, a resident at the seniors’ home.
“It’s a terrible thing because a lot of people are hospitalized, in other words, it’s like a hospital there. We have bad hearts and that’s’ why we’re there.”
The Regional District of Nanaimo (RDN) runs BC Transit buses in Nanaimo and said the stop was removed to increase efficiency on the route. While the upcoming changes were advertised in newspapers, they now see the residents most impacted did not find out until it was too late.
“We definitely want to get the message out to everybody,” said the RDN’s Manager of Transit Operations Darren Marshall
The residents of Kiwanis Village Nanaimo have started an online petition with nearly 1,000 signatures. Transit staff will be recommending the board reinstate the bus stop at its next meeting on March 12.
Skye Ryan
