Motorists travelling Boundary Road in Burnaby, B.C., Saturday afternoon would have been surprised to see a protest carried out in an unlikely place, and in an even more unlikely manner. A “picnic protest” held by transit advocacy group Movement in the narrow, grassy median of Boundary Road called for change to a Bus Rapid Transit route that has been proposed to improve travel between the North Shore, North Burnaby, and Metrotown. TransLink has proposed two routes for a section of the BRT line between Kootenay Loop and Brentwood Town Centre. It will either run through Hastings Street and Willingdon Avenue, or through Boundary Road and Lougheed Highway, depending on response garnered from the public. The route is expected to span 21 kilometres and include 16 to 17 BRT stations, and will support up to 60,000 riders daily, according to the transit agency. The group of seven sitting atop their blankets Saturday afternoon had done so to highlight the unsuitability of the proposed Boundary Road route. “We think this is the wrong option, this is not the kind of place where you would have a picnic with your family,” said Denis Agar, executive director of Movement. “We want it to be on Hastings instead, where there’s shops and patios and it’s just a nice place to be.” The group argues that it is better to “put transit where people are”, where there are apartments, restaurants, and stores. “Take a look at the scene behind me and imagine if that is the right place to have lots of transit riders waiting for the bus, and maybe people that want to shop, and go to schools,” Agar said, as heavy traffic shuttled past either side of the median. “Is this really where you want transit to be, or do you want it to be on a nice, walkable main street, like Hastings?” Opting to go ahead with the Hastings/Willingdon option would serve the dense community of Burnaby Heights and would boost income for the numerous businesses within the area, said Agar, noting how people typically take transit to “go to restaurants” and “go and get their nails done.” According to Movement’s website, there are 330 small businesses in the Burnaby neighbourhood that would be more easily accessible to the transiting public if the stop were to be installed on East Hastings Street. TransLink’s survey allowing the public to have their say on which route should be chosen is available online, and will close Sept. 21.
