TransLink dropped masking requirements on its buses and SkyTrains in March, but a transit advocate wants to see N95s return to the Metro Vancouver transit network.
On Sept. 28, Luke Solvang of North Vancouver asked the TransLink board of directors to require passengers to wear a N95 masks, or an equivalent respirator, and for MERV-14 air filters to be installed over TransLink’s fleet.
“We know that clean air and N95s work,” Solvang said.
“We know we cannot ‘personal responsibility’ our way out of an airborne pandemic. We remind you that public health orders are a minimum, not a maximum — and right now, officials have set the bar to nothing.”
TransLink’s board of directors did not respond to the NOW for comment.
Solvang stressed that transit riders and staff are at an elevated risk to contract COVID.
He referred to an August report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, showing public transportation industries in California have experienced COVID at a rate 5.2 times higher than the cross-industry average, and mortality rates 1.5 times higher.
“We know that transit ridership reflects inequalities in our society tied to class, income, race and ability — so we have to ask ourselves now, who in our society is carrying that disease burden the heaviest in the context of travel and transportation?”
Solvang later told the NOW he is also particularly concerned about elderly people who take transit.
He requested the board of directors introduce air quality monitoring on TransLink buses, SkyTrains and SeaBus service to better provide information to the public.
“We know that infections are occurring continuously in the population, and this will only escalate this fall without any other previous mitigation measures,” he said.
“In the TransLink microcosm, show our society by example what real pandemic mitigation looks like because this is not going away anytime soon,” Solvang said to the directors.
“We need to stop living in denial and we need to adapt to uncomfortable realities.”
The presentation is available to view on TransLink’s YouTube channel.
