When Westhills residents complained about the lack of bus service to their new Langford community, Rohan Rupf, Marketing director for Keycorp, started a petition.
He collected signatures in person and online for about a year before presenting the petition to B.C. Transit with more than 650 signatures in Sept. 2012.
B.C. Transit has announced it will be creating a community shuttle bus route serving both Bear Mountain and Westhills communities starting in January 2015.
“I think it’s fantastic that B.C. Transit has included us in their transit plan,” Rupf said.
There are about 1,200 people living in Westhills and Rupf personally knows about 200 who regularly make the 1.5 kilometre walk or car pool to catch the bus on Jacklin Road.
The timing means the buses will be running when the Langford YMCA opens, with a B.C. Transit park and ride designated adjacent to the athletic centre.
Westhills is about to bring in another 150 lots for sale in the spring of 2014 and Rupf explained the bus service will be an asset to the growing community.
“Langford is the fasted growing community in B.C., B.C. Transit should be looking at us as a priority,” Rupf said.
The hours and number of trips per day have not been finalized.
The route will include Bear Mountain Parkway and travel along Veterans Memorial Parkway to Langford Parkway and into the Westhills community.
A summer connection to Thetis Lake will also be added to some West Shore routes.
Construction also started Monday, Feb. 24 on Douglas Street in Victoria to install shared bus and bike lanes from Fisgard Street to Hillside Avenue. The lanes are expected to be completed by the end of May and will operate in peak traffic times to shorten travel times for transit riders.
charla@goldstreamgazette.com