The Editor,
We hear these days of so many institutions going bankrupt or in receivership — and these are long standing things like the Vancouver Aquarium.
Small businesses, which are a younger persons start at a future, may never get going again.
We also hear from transit about how much money they have lost and all the bus routes they will have to cut as well as a great many drivers. I could never understand why they stopped charging for bus rides in the first place. It makes absolutely no sense.
I firmly believe that if you were to cost out the necessary masks, face shields and gloves for the drivers (as you see in the hospitals) and finish getting the Plexiglass screens in all the buses, you would probably spend a mere fraction of what transit has lost to date.
They would still have money coming into the bank. People would still use the buses; although the amount would be somewhat less than before, at least it would still be creating revenue.
I think going to a “no charge” system was one of the stupidest public policy decisions I’ve heard in a long time. I think it is time now to get those compass cards working again — and fast.
Karen Harrison, Coquitlam
