🚨 A Bus Ride That Says Everything: When Public Transit Becomes a Health Hazard in B.C.
By Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita
Yesterday I had one of the worst bus rides of my life — and it exposed exactly how broken things have become in British Columbia.
I was sitting in the back when three men got on. They looked rough. Within seconds it was clear they were high, agitated, and not fully present. Two held vape pens, and the whole time I was bracing myself, terrified they would start vaping fentanyl — because that’s happening now. There are videos online of bus drivers being forced to evacuate buses because someone started vaping toxic drugs on board.
As they talked, they spoke horribly about a woman they knew, accusing her of having lice. One had his pants half down — a sign of street-level sex work and exploitation. And when I stood up to leave, the smell hit me so hard I nearly threw up. This wasn’t normal “body odour.” It was the smell of untreated infections, unwashed clothing, and human suffering.
And this group was heading to a warming shelter.
This is what the public is encountering daily now.
This isn’t just “unpleasant.”
This is a health hazard, a safety hazard, and a sign of systemic collapse.
🧩 This Isn’t About Blaming Individuals — This Is About a System That’s Failing Everyone
What I witnessed wasn’t three “bad people.”
It was the result of:
- Untreated mental illness
- Toxic drug dependency
- No access to consistent hygiene
- Overfilled shelters
- Poverty so deep it’s become survival mode
- A province that keeps reacting instead of preventing
The city bus shouldn’t be a rolling emergency room.
It shouldn’t be a refuge of last resort.
It shouldn’t be the only safe, warm place left for people in crisis.
But that’s what’s happening.
🚍 Transit Riders Are Not Safe. Drivers Are Not Safe. The People in Crisis Are Not Safe.
What we have now isn’t compassion — it’s neglect disguised as “harm reduction.”
Passengers shouldn’t be exposed to:
- Possible fentanyl contamination
- Violent outbursts
- Severe untreated infections
- Extreme odour that signals real health risks
- Verbal harassment
- Physical unpredictability
And the people suffering shouldn’t be forced into crowded public spaces because there’s nowhere else to go.
Everyone is losing.
🔧 What Needs to Change — and Who Needs to Step Up
Here’s who can fix this, and how:
➤ 1. BC Ministry of Health & Mental Health and Addictions
You need to:
- Fund mandatory intake assessments at shelters
- Provide immediate-access detox and treatment, not years-long waitlists
- Deploy outreach medical teams to warming shelters and bus exchanges
- Ensure crises are treated as medical emergencies, not “lifestyle choices”
➤ 2. BC Housing
You need to:
- Create dedicated shuttle services for warming shelters and supportive housing
- Require hygiene facilities (showers, laundry) before sleeping mats
- Stop pushing people in crisis onto public transit
➤ 3. TransLink and Coast Mountain Bus Company
You need to:
- Implement smoke/vape detection alarms onboard
- Increase transit security presence during shelter hours
- Train drivers with rapid removal protocols for health hazards
- Restore safety for riders who rely on buses daily
➤ 4. Local Governments
You need to:
- Advocate for proper treatment funding
- Create daytime hygiene centres
- Expand public washrooms and laundry access
- Stop pretending “more shelters” fixes the root issue
➤ 5. MLAs Across All Parties
You need to:
- Stop the political silence
- Admit this is harming everyone — including the people you claim to protect
- Push for actual treatment, not endless pilot programs
- Treat transit safety as an emergency issue
❤️ This Is Not About Hate — It’s About Survival and Dignity
We urgently need a public safety system AND a public compassion system.
Right now, we have neither.
People shouldn’t be forced to ride in conditions that make them sick.
People in crisis shouldn’t be so neglected that other passengers gag from the smell of untreated infections.
This isn’t “normal urban life.”
This is collapse.
And ignoring it will not make it disappear.
📣 To everyone who can help: We’re asking you — pleading with you — do your job before someone gets hurt.
Because yesterday, sitting on that bus, it felt like we were already too late.
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