By Jamie Burke

“Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”

This infamous line, delivered by Dorothy to her beloved dog Toto, is from Tristen Foy’s favourite film ‘The Wizard of Oz’.

Tristen tells me this as we’re cruising along the 49 route together, sitting near the back of the bus. It’s a route I know well – as do many others. The 49 bus route runs both ways between UBC and Metrotown Station. As the third busiest route in Metro Vancouver, It is a lifeline for many in the community: students from Langara College and UBC, neighbourhood residents and professionals commuting to and from work. 

Although he’s not from Kansas, he recalls feeling similarly when arriving in Vancouver from Winnipeg in 2018 to pursue a career in acting after he was accepted into Langara College’s conservatory acting program, Studio 58. For Tristen, his love for ‘The Wizard of Oz’ stems back to childhood.

“It’s a movie that has just consistently been in my life and that I’ve always loved. I loved watching it when I was a kid. When I was a teenager, I loved watching it. Now it’s like it’s just a movie that I feel like I will just always love, and it’s also a movie that I can watch over and over again and never get tired of it”, he shares.

What was taking transit as a teenager like in Winnipeg, I wondered, as someone got off the bus at Victoria Drive. According to Tristen, there’s plenty of room for improvement.

“It’s unfortunate because Winnipeg is a growing city…”, he shares. “There’s no forward thinking in terms of growing transit in the city. “

As a born and raised Vancouverite, I probably took our public transportation system for granted during my own teenage years. The autonomy that it provided me during this time – one to make my own decisions, pave a path for myself – is not one afforded to other youth throughout the country. Tristen had to get his Driver’s License as soon as he could in order to taste this sense of independence. His first car? An old Plum Thunderbird, given to him by his father.

Now that he’s moved to the West Coast, he’s become accustomed to using public transit as his main means of transportation. While he sees transit in his hometown as “kind of all over the place”, Vancouver feels much more intuitive and straightforward.

But that doesn’t make Vancouver quite an Emerald City – at least, not yet. 

For one, the 49 takes the Bronze Medal as the route that affects the third greatest number of people when it comes to overcrowding. Tristen has found himself lost in this sea of overcrowding before. After getting passed by two 49 buses recently that were completely full, when he called Translink they advised that the frequency was every three minutes.

Video: Thelma talks about her commute on the 49

A bus every three minutes. That should do it… right?

But pinpointing the problems behind the 49 bus route isn’t a clear-cut line paved in perfect yellow bricks.

Traditionally speaking, in Metro Vancouver the busiest routes were always ones going north-south. Spreading like tentacles from downtown, these routes were used by streetcars over a hundred years ago.

But things have changed a lot since 1924 – not just the wifi password. Commute patterns have changed alongside job and labour market conditions in the city. The introduction of the Canada Line into our transportation ecosystem, while providing a much faster option to get north-south, means that more people would need to use east-west (i.e.: the 49 bus) to get to the Canada line.

In 2011, the 49 moved about 19,200 people every weekday. In 2019? 31,346. And that number is anticipated to get higher as ridership roars back to pre-pandemic levels.

How can the 49 possibly handle all these riders? 

Movement has been advocating to “save a bus”. But what does that actually look like? In other words, it simply means: bus lanes. Bus lanes allow for increased frequency, as it reduces the run time of a route. By reducing the runtime of said route by a headway (the gap between two bus arrivals), you “save a bus” – a bus that can then be reused.

Sunita Dhir, the BC NDP candidate for Vancouver-Langara, has seen first-hand the daily struggles that riders of the 49 bus route face:

“My parents are using [the 49] at least three to four times a week”, she shares. “They love just walking around Metrotown shopping mall.  But because they’re seniors, I tell them to go during off-peak hours because peak hours could be really busy for those bus routes.”

In a more ideal situation, her parents wouldn’t have to plan their visits based on off-peak vs. peak hours. But that’s the current reality our riders face. Sunita is eyeing expansion of busy routes, such as the 49, as one of the BC NDP’s priorities.

“We have so many students taking the 49 bus to UBC to Langara, so it tends to get really busy. I just don’t want my parents to stand or have to struggle looking for a seat during peak hours.”

Tristen and I were fortunate enough to have seats on the 49 that day. As we approach our final stop, we leave our coveted spots, say our farewells and go our separate ways. While I don’t think the 49 route is anywhere close to perfect yet, it’s encouraging to see people like Tristen, and Sunita, and of course our fearless leader at Movement, Denis, take the initiative to make transit better. After all, the yellow brick road wasn’t built overnight.

NOTE: Jamie’s a passionate transit user and she wrote about the role that music has always played in her commutes. That inspired her to help Movement make a transit playlist which you should definitely check out.

Jamie (she/her) is a Writer with Real Estate Magazine, as well as Partner of a marketing agency, Burke By Burke, with her husband Eddie. She is an avid reader, self-proclaimed foodie, urban land economics enthusiast, Barry’s Tea drinker and part-time yogi. She lives, works and plays in Port Moody, BC, on the ancestral and unceded homelands of the kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem), səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), q̓ic̓əy̓ (Katzie), qʼʷa:n̓ ƛʼən̓ (Kwantlen), qiqéyt (Qayqayt), and Stó:lō (Sto:lo) Peoples.

Please take a moment to sign our Vote Better Transport BC petition to finally get overcrowding relief on 49 and better transport options across BC.