If Vancouver is looking at extending alcohol service hours at restaurants and bars in the city until 3 a.m., it also needs to extend transit hours.
That’s the word from one transit advocate and urban planner, with Vancouver city council looking at a motion at Tuesday’s meeting that would allow bars to sell alcohol for another hour.
Denis Agar with Movement YVR says SkyTrain and Night Bus service in Metro Vancouver is woefully inadequate, especially for people trying to get out to the suburbs.
“It’s fine to have a fun nighttime economy. Extending the hours to 3 a.m. is great, but the truth is, there just aren’t a lot of good ways to get home at night. The transit system kind of disappears at about 1 a.m.,” he said.
“We really need a huge investment into our Night Bus network, and we don’t have to look far to see places like Toronto that have a really well-developed night bus network that goes to every corner of the city, and it’s frequent. We need to draw inspiration from that.”
Agar says Surrey is most underserved “by far.”
“I actually rode the N19, the only Night Bus that goes to Surrey. It takes something like 80 to 90 minutes, easily double how long it takes on the SkyTrain,” he explained.
He adds that he’s not optimistic that we’ll see an expansion of services.
“The problem is that there’s just no money there to expand service. We need more money injected into the transit system so that we don’t have to choose between night service and addressing overcrowding,” he said.
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“Overcrowding is really terrible in parts of the region, especially Surrey, and that’s a really urgent problem. But night buses are an urgent problem, too. So ultimately, we just need cash injections into the system so that we don’t have to choose which problem to solve.”
Agar says it’s not just people having a few drinks who’d benefit from extended night transit service, but hospitality workers and the people keeping those bars and restaurants running.
“If you go out to a night bus stop today, the majority of the people you’ll meet are people working shifts and working in bars and restaurants,” he said. “I think they often get missed in this conversation, but they’re the ones that can’t afford to live in Vancouver, are forced to live out in Surrey, and are doing these mega, mega overnight commutes,” Agar said.
The motion to extend alcohol service hours is set to go before Vancouver council on Tuesday night.
