I live downtown, and have fairly established travel patterns, so I don’t try out new bus routes often. Today, however, in light of the snow, I tried a couple new routes: the C21 and C23.
Normally this wouldn’t merit mention, but these buses are a relatively new addition (for me at least) to downtown Vancouver.
They’re short buses, and they’re the right size solution for the problem. I really appreciate that Vancouver’s transit service, Translink, has obviously done some thinking and analysis on these routes. They were traditionally under (or un) served, but didn’t necessarily merit a full size bus. I know it’s hardly a stroke of genius, but it’d be easy to imagine them throwing a big diesel bus at the problem when all it neede was a nimble short bus.
I see that Translink calls them ‘community shuttle minibuses’:
For over seven years, TransLink’s distinctive blue-and-yellow Community Shuttle minibuses have been providing more convenient transportation choices for people who require neighbourhood-friendly service on less busy residential routes. On September 4, new Community Shuttle routes will begin service in Tsawwassen and at UBC, and two popular downtown Vancouver shuttle routes will be extended to Main Street SkyTrain Station.
They’ve been around for seven years, but have only recently extended the routes I mentioned.
DarrenBarefoot.com 
Those buses have slightly lower operating costs than the big buses, but their real operational savings was that Coast Mountain went to the wall with the unions on the issue of whether they could create a special lower-paid job position to drive the short buses.
Absent that, the scheduling flexibility of running all long buses is probably the better choice.
Ryan: There must be some union rule that allows the short bus drivers to play music, because both drivers were playing their radio. Maybe the bigger buses don’t have a radio?
They’re not so great when you’re trying to get from the airport to Airport Station and you have a big suitcase or two.
At first glance I thought this was going to be a review of Shortbus. ha. Disappointingly less risque.
Maybe I missed it, but I couldn’t find a link to a pic. But I did find this the other day:
This is a friction point for me because I use public transit for commuting — drive to GO Transit station, GO Train to Toronto, subway to bus/subway interchange, bus to work and reverse the process in the evening. Where I live they use huge articulated vehicles but the community is ring-roads and cresents off them and the crescents can’t be navigated by the artics. Solution proposed by the mayor: do nothing. Obvious solution: lots of little mini buses during rush hours and (and this is the key point) some kind of device that you can press a button on that signals a mini-bus that you want to be picked up. (Cost recovery part: you press the button and the fare is automatically charged.) The system sends a message to the bus and the bus drivers knows to go down the crescent (the unit in the bus would display a map). The home device also has a map showing (using the GPS in the bus system) where the bus is. When it gets within 20-30 metres of your door, there’s a bell that rings on your device and you head out to walk straight on to the bus. Okay, some rough edges are there but it makes the bus almost a taxi.
I’m with John B. regarding the picture issue. I went a-digging, and found this http://www.translink.bc.ca/Transportation_Services/Regional_bus/default.asp not so great picture.
So far I’ve ridden on the Tsawwassen one, one in Richmond connecting Steveston with Silvercity Riverport and the one downtown that goes down Burrard and over to Denman via Beach. All because they were the most convenient way of getting from point A to point B without having to make extra transfers.
I finally tried out the Tsawwassen bus on Monday as I wanted to hike from the centre of town down to Centennial Beach, but didn’t want to hike back (in the cold, in the snow, towards sunset). The bus only runs every hour, so I had a bit of a wait, but it was pretty well on schedule.
I was the only passenger on the run and from what I’ve noticed out here when I see them passing, a dearth of passengers seem to be the norm. Perhaps it’s because the areas they serve here have been used to being disconnected from the system for so long that everyone has just arranged for alternate transportation. Or maybe they just prefer to drive cars! I wonder how long they’ll continue the service here if ridership doesn’t hit some kind of minimum target.
I rode on one of them when I was in Vancouver for WUF3, it was one that went down Davie. I think they’re great, perfect for routes where frequency matters.
I hope that Victoria moves in this direction with transit I specifically think that the Cook street village to downtown , and a James Bay to downtown runs would be perfect candidates.