CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — A member of Charlottetown’s seniors’ engagement committee wants to see more benches in the city’s transit bus shelters.
During a recent committee meeting, Carolyn Villard asked that the appropriate department be contacted to get more information on how many bus shelters there are, how many don’t have benches and how much each bench costs.
In Charlottetown, of the 45 bus shelters 19 of them have benches. In Stratford, seven out of the 13 shelters have benches while none of the five shelters in Cornwall have one.
On high-traffic routes in Charlottetown, such as University Avenue, shelters often don’t have benches. The committee was told the bench takes up a lot of room, that there are lots of people in the space but that they are not waiting for long. The committee was also told one of the concerns with benches is people leave garbage or forget belongings on them.
Gloria Large, another committee member, said despite the high frequency of the University Avenue route, people can still end up waiting 15 minutes for a bus, too long for seniors or people with mobility issues.
Robert Foster, who also sits on the committee, suggested the city look into installing leaning benches, which are put in on an angle, thus removing the chance people will leave garbage on them or forget things.
