Delta council has applied for a special grant to pay for a new service that would shuttle seniors from the Kennedy Seniors Recreation Centre to anywhere they need to go: grocery stores, doctors’ appointments, visits with local friends and family.

Seniors have particular challenges getting around in North Delta, which doesn’t have the kind of rich bus service that exists elsewhere in the region. That scarcity is even worse for anyone needing special service.

“Many [buses] can’t carry a scooter or wheelchair, and we can’t tell how often those that do will run,” said Franca Babuin, director of volunteers at Kennedy. “Many of our seniors have mobility problems.”

Other organizations had batted around the idea of a shuttle bus.

Kennedy’s board of directors discussed the idea, Babuin said it was not “financially feasible.”

Another group, the community-services organization Deltassist, also identified it as a need in its transportation committee.

Margaret Nielsen, director-at-large at Kennedy centre, sorts through Christmas supplies for the centre’s upcoming breakfast with Santa (Photo: Tiffany Kwong)

“There are more and more seniors in this area. I think the transportation committee was instrumental in putting the suggestion [of a seniors’ bus] ahead to council,” said Margaret Nielsen, who volunteers with Deltassist and sits on the Kennedy board.

The committee completed “a walkability study that identified areas in North Delta where it was difficult for people with a disability to get around,” she said.

Related: Life on the road hard for Delta seniors

Nielsen expects she and her 87-year-old husband will require a seniors’ bus in the near future.

“I mean, people are living longer, so their needs are becoming greater. So, I think that having a seniors’ bus would be a great assistance.”

The project so far

On Nov. 5, The Corporation of Delta approved a staff recommendation to apply for the 2013 Age-Friendly Community Planning & Project Grants through the Union of B.C. Municipalities’ seniors’ housing and support initiative. The grant could provide up to $20,000 to jumpstart the seniors’ bus project.

Steven Lan, Delta’s director of engineering, said seniors need accessible and reliable community transportation.

“We want to provide a service that will help get [seniors] to the Kennedy Seniors Recreation Centre and help get them to their other appointments,” said Lan. “The centre is located quite far away from bus service and TransLink isn’t really readily available for [senior] users. We were looking for an alternate option.”

The Kennedy centre is located on a quiet side street where the closest bus stops are on Nordel Way and Scott Road. The area can be dangerous for pedestrians. According to 2011 Delta police statistics, eight out of the top 10 collision locations in Delta happened at either Nordel Way or Scott Road.

Unlike regular transit service, the proposed seniors’ service will be on-demand.

“The route would be a call-reservation system,” explained Lan. “Someone at the centre would receive the call that they want to be picked up and schedule with the driver to pick them up. Over time, we would have regular customers that determine the routes that could help drivers pick up several seniors.”

Delta seniors usually travel by walking, taking regular buses, getting rides from friends and family or booking trips with TransLink’s HandyDART.

North Vancouver has a seniors’ shuttle bus

John McCann is the driver and scheduler of the North Shore Seniors Go Bus, which can carry 12 senior passengers and four wheelchairs (Photo: Courtesy of Silver Harbour Seniors’ Activity Centre)

The vision for a seniors’ bus is based on the North Shore Seniors Go Bus Program, which is provided by the Silver Harbour Seniors’ Activity Centre.

Annwen Loverin, the centre’s executive director, said that the Go Bus program began in 2006. It was originally designed as a bus-stop program, but now operates 45 trips per day door to door.

“One of the biggest benefits is that seniors can choose what services and locations they want to access,” said Loverin. “In the beginning, we were sticking more to the route…but now it is really based around the regular riders who are coming every week.”

Startup funding for the North Vancouver program came from the same UBCM fund as the one Delta is trying to access now.

The first step is finding funding

Delta estimates the operating costs for a seniors’ bus will be approximately $70,000 per year.

“We hope to work with community groups, business partners and non-profits. But first, we must get funding and then apply for approval from TransLink. There’s lots to explore, but we’re taking advantage of the grant,” said Diana Cousins, a senior policy analyst for Delta.

The UBCM will announce successful candidates for its age-friendly B.C. grant Dec. 21. The shuttle service could be operational by the end of 2013.

Pedestrians walk past Authentic Rugs & Art on a rainy weekday evening. The Persian rug specialty store is being re-tooled due to poor sales and rising property taxes.

Moha Bateni crosses his arms and gazes out his storefront window. Across the street a crush of pedestrians file in and out of the King Edward transit stop on the Canada Line, but not one gives his business a second glance.

The Iranian-born Bateni is in the process of closing Authentic Rugs & Art, a business he’s owned for 14 years. He’s slashed 80 per cent off his remaining inventory of Persian rugs and plans to convert the space into a furniture store in a last-ditch hope that dining sets and bookcases will be more appealing to customers than high-end carpets. The combination of steep rents, chilled sales and property taxes – which have nearly doubled since the 2009 installation of the Canada Line – have sliced his financial situation to ribbons.

“For the past three and a half years, I’ve had very little business,” Bateni said. “It’s difficult to make a living here.”

According to urban-planning principles, this corner – served by the rapid-transit Canada Line and situated on an arterial and a major bus route – should be ripe for businesses. Every other stop on the line has seen development blossom around it. But those principles are being put to the test, as current businesses struggle on a corner that’s been dubbed the Bermuda Triangle by locals and as everyone tries to figure out the precise formula for success in this one-block commercial strip.

Larry Frank, an expert in sustainable urban transportation systems at the University of British Columbia, believes that the potential is there for a multi-use, pedestrian and business-friendly hub.

“There are opportunities for density at the intersection of King Edward and Cambie, particularly right above the station,” said Frank via email. “It’s essential [for Vancouver] to intensify development along our rail lines.”

The city of Vancouver released an image of what high-density, mixed-use development could look like at the King Edward – Cambie intersection. (Image: Cambie Corridor Plan)

But Richard Wozny, a Vancouver retail consultant who specializes in malls, says people shouldn’t assume just anything will succeed. He believes the location could be a gold mine for the right type of retail – small service-oriented storefronts like barbershops, cafes, newsstands, and fast-food outlets.

That’s not good news for store owners like Bateni, who aren’t able to capitalize on the existing foot traffic.

Business should fit neighbourhood dynamic

“The types of businesses that will thrive there should offer the normal neighbourhood conveniences,” Wozny said. “It’s a great place to invest in.”

The challenge for Bateni and his neighbours is that, even while property values and taxes have been skyrocketing thanks to the Canada Line and the city’s plan to allow redevelopment, businesses are hurting because this intersection seems perpetually resistant to growth and development.

Coming out from the Canada Line stop feels like stepping into a ghost town. Though the commercial district consists of a row of shops facing each other between 24th and King Edward, there are seven unoccupied storefronts. TransLink sold a vacant lot to a large real estate development company almost a year ago, but so far the land sits empty.

The buyer, Yuanheng Holdings, Ltd., purchased the lot for $9.4 million in November 2011, with a proposed 18,000 square feet of mixed-use mid-rise retail, office & residential development.

Wozny said that when condo units do go up, businesses that invest in ground-floor storefronts should find the neighbourhood more sustainable.

Johannes Angai, who runs Helping Hands Cleaners on the east side of Cambie, says he would like to believe the proposed residential development will provide a customer base for his ailing business. After 10 years, he’s not sure he can afford to wait.

Customers slow to embrace retail corner

Angai said it hasn’t helped that some of his customers have fled to larger houses in the suburbs, having sold their bungalows to cash in on the rising property values.

Marty Strong is one of the homeowners who stayed. A lifetime Vancouver resident who worked as an on-air DJ for several local radio stations, he lives just south of the King Edward stop on West 28^th Avenue.

He said he hopes the going-out-of-business signs and empty storefronts are the indicators of a neighbourhood in transition, a precursor to the promised boom of multi-use development.

But at this moment, Strong says, the King Edward-Cambie intersection is simply not a destination zone.

“It’s always been a bit of a Bermuda Triangle,” he says. “Nobody is getting off the [Canada Line] to shop there. It’s odd when you think about it.”

EV parking spot in downtown Toronto, Flickr (Neal Jennings)

Sean Allan, an engineer for BC Hydro subsidiary Powertech, said prior to the province’s announcement that he believed that BC might be playing catch up with other provinces.

Related: First electric cars generate charging buzz

“The cars are definitely coming, but is the world ready for them yet?” asked Allan, “I think that British Columbia is possibly less ready than some other provinces.”

Montreal’s ‘Electric Circuit’

Hydro Quebec has been actively lobbying businesses to install charging stations for plug-in electric vehicles, including RONA hardware stores and the Metro grocery chain.

Throughout 2012, over 100 stations will be rolled out in store lots across Montreal and Quebec City. This “Electric Circuit” is being described as the country’s first charging network for EVs.

The program is also unique in that Hydro Quebec has implemented a $2 flat rate for each charge.

Most other public charging stations have either given away the electricity for free (like Edible Canada) or included it with their parking fee (like EasyPark lots).

Toronto links transit and charging stations

The province of Ontario made headlines late this summer when it announced a $430 million partnership with Magna International to develop and research electric vehicle technology.

The province will kick in $48 million to various research projects, helping to create an estimated 728 jobs in an industry hit hard by the recent economic turmoil.

The Greater Toronto Area has also taken steps to link electric car infrastructure with the existing GO Transit system. Between now and 2014, 10 communities with GO Train stations will have charging infrastructure installed in the existing train station parkades.