B-Line to tragedy

This page never ceases to be amazed how quickly Vancouver has devolved into a police state in the time I've lived here. Translink will be placing armed officers on Coast Mountain Bus Company's 99 B-Line route, the busiest transit route in Greater Vancouver. While 241 assaults were made against bus drivers last year, just how many of those warrant gunning down the perpetrator? Most assaults occur when brown-nosing drivers take it upon themselves to enforce Translink's extortionary fares, when their union has made it clear to them on more than one occasion that it's not their job.

The 99 B-Line deployment is an accidental shooting waiting to happen. The route stretches from Broadway/Commercial Drive Station to the University of British Columbia campus, with most of the city's major health care facilities at VGH in the middle. Sooner or later, a student activist, maybe with the Bus Riders Union, a psychiatric outpatient, or just somebody who's having a really bad day is going to get on the overcrowded bus and cross an overstressed bus driver.

This situation plays itself out just about every day in this city and is usually resolved without much trouble. Now you have men with guns involved.