Heather Conn Blogs

Bus stop comfort?

Why stand at a bus stop when you can wait beside it in comfort, lounging on a couch or even sipping wine from a table with your sweetie? That seems to be the theory behind a year of practical pranks in Roberts Creek, BC, Canada and elsewhere on the Lower Sunshine Coast.

At many bus stops on the Sunshine Coast Highway between Gibsons and Sechelt  (a retirement haven for thousands of seniors), thoughtful residents have added a chair or two of their own for waiting passengers. These seats are no Antiques Roadshow specimens; they’re a delightfully eclectic collection, from your basic, boring white-plastic ones with hard backs to classy-looking, canvas chaise-lounges and even a few with padded fabric seats that almost look too good to give away.

Some people consider them eyesores, like the ugly couch above that appeared one morning by a Lower Road bus stop in the Creek . I heard about a table and two chairs with a bottle of wine added to one bus stop, but never saw them.

I like this whimsical addition to otherwise impersonal bus stops. It shows initiative and a flair for fun and gives character and comfort to the experience of waiting for a bus. Some local artists and photographers have even generated mugs and merchandising depicting some of these quirky seats. Hurray for these funky community chairs — maybe they’re a more inert form of public performance art.

I heard months ago that the Sunshine Coast Regional District wanted to remove them all. An official wooden bus stop seat with a protective overhang in our area supposedly costs $500. Keep the money. Let local residents provide seat support in their own ingenious way.