Next Steps for the Cortes_Quadra Transportation Study

Roy L Hales/Cortes Current - There were a number of next steps connected to last summer’s Cortes/Quadra Transportation survey.

Kate Maddigan, Economic Development Officer of The Cortes Community Economic Development Association (CCEDA) explained, “I haven’t publicly said the final report is complete because I really wanted to put some attention into just making it shorter, like a briefing on that final report, rather than having people read the whole thing. Having said that, the recommendations, which is what I always skip to if I have to read a final report, are pretty straightforward. If I was to summarize the whole thing, I would just say these are the next steps and this is what those people who participated said they wanted.” 

“I'm just in the middle of completing a funding application to the Rural Transportation Solutions Fund, which is due at the end of this month.”  

“We basically wanted to do a pilot project of old and new approaches to passenger transportation. A shuttle on Quadra, which should come to no surprise to anyone who lives here. They wanted a bus that does a loop across the island. A lot of people could use that bus. There's also some new ride hailing, and ride sharing technology that other places are using, so let's get it working for our rural area.”

“You can get an app for things like ride hailing, which is Uber or Lyft. There's apps that have been developed out there to make it much easier for people to carpool. There is an option with these carpooling apps that allows people to make a donation towards gas or whatever other expenses a driver might have.”

One problem with bringing an Uber type passenger transportation service to our islands is you have to have a car that's no more than 10 years old. That's going to disqualify a lot of people." 

"Some people were suggesting we should assist matching someone who has a car that's less than 10 years old with people who want to drive. You can lend your car out to people who have the appropriate license. The response from Quadra was very good.” 

“One of the streams was for the SRD’s recent Grant in Aid intake is for the environment. Getting people out of their cars and using alternative passenger transportation options is definitely good for the environment. So we applied for that to just help us be able to explore ride hailing, ride sharing apps and also recruit drivers.” 

Cortes Currents: Hollyhock expressed some interest in using their shuttle bus to transport people to and from the ferry.

Kate Maddigan: “They were interested in that pilot project, and they were willing to provide a shuttle  twice a day, first ferry, last ferry.  We got a quote from them and we're factoring that into the budget for the pilot project, which we hope to roll out in the spring/summer 2025.” 

There has also been some talk about utilizing the Klahoose bus. 

We will undoubtedly hear more about all of these ideas in the months to come.