Mayor, councillor hop on bus to promote city transit

Despite describing the city’s violent crime out of control more than a year ago, Mayor Keith Hobbs on Wednesday said residents should feel safe enough to ride public transit.

Westfort Coun. Joe Virdiramo and At Large Coun. Larry Herbert joined Hobbs on his Wednesday walkabout. Hobbs decided to forego his usual foot patrol for a bus ride instead. Hobbs said the last time he rode a bus was when he was about 14 years old but wanted to get a sense of what it was like to go on a ride with city Transit.

In October 2009 Hobbs told tbnewswatch.com that “the plain fact of the matter is that violent crime in this city is spiraling out of control. Our officers are just tired of responding to it…we don’t have enough boots on the ground." He added that his son was attacked outside of the now shutdown Brodie Street bus terminal several years ago.

But things have changed, the new mayor said Wednesday. Hobbs said the moving of the bus terminal to its temporary location at city hall has made it safer for residents to ride transit.

"There are safety in numbers," Hobbs said. "We’re going to work on the safety issue in this city with our crime prevention council as well as me sitting on the police services board. We want to address all those safety issues. Brodie Street was a dangerous place, we had police there all the time and it was costing us a lot of money to police that area."

Hobbs added that he plans to ride one of the ride mainline buses at night to see if it is as safe as it appeared to be during the day.

To try to attract more riders, Hobbs said he wants to become an avid bus rider himself and may look at other incentives to ride, such as lowering fares for students and seniors from its current $2.50.

Lakehead University and Confederation College full-time students currently pay for their bus passes through tuition.

Some transit users say they felt safe taking the bus and were generally happy with its services.

Ray Jerry Linberg, 67, has taken the bus everyday, except Sundays, since the ‘80s. With more than two decades on the bus, he said he felt safe to ride the bus.

He said he’s enjoying his retirement from the Canadian Mental Health Association and didn’t have an issue with city transit.

"I think it is very good," Linberg said. "Sometimes the buses breakdown but other than that it’s pretty good."

Hebert, who often rides the bus, said he wanted to show people that the bus has flexible routes for everyone to get where they need to go in the city. With higher gas prices, taking the bus is an affordable option, he said.

He added that city council is looking at Intercity Shopping Centre and the Thunder Bay Transit building on Fort William road as possible locations for the permanent bus terminal.

But there’s some room for improvement.

"The east end bus shuts down at about 6:20 p.m. at night," Hebert said. "That’s the one that goes by the health unit and there are courses at night for people who might not own their own car. So I would like it to continue that route into the evening and continue to have it go until 10 p.m."