Frequently Asked Questions

The Victoria handyDART Centre opened in April 2025.

handyDART is an accessible, door-to-door shared transit service for people with permanent or temporary disabilities that prevent them from using fixed-route transit without assistance from another person.  For those with disabilities that prevent them from driving, handyDART provides independence and ability to attend appointments, complete errands and socialize. 

In Greater Victoria, over 40,000 people use the service and 50% are over the age of 65.

The new handyDART centre will allow for the expansion from 56 buses to 63 buses in 2025 and in January an additional 7500 service hours will be added. This will help improve reliability and with increased buses and service we can improve our peak time trip requests for customers. Our goal is to reduce booking wait times with increased service hours and more buses.

The new location is centrally located and near main roadways that connect all corners of the Greater Victoria area, including growing demand in the western communities. Service is growing in all Greater Victoria municipalities; therefore, this location will help us to serve customers efficiently over the long term.

This site utilizes provincially owned land that avoids significant land purchase costs making it more cost-effective than locating in other areas of the Region. This contributes to maintaining affordability of transit services for Greater Victoria residents. There is high demand across Greater Victoria for increased transit service, and this new location facilitates the expansion of handyDART and the conventional transit system.  

A local inter-disciplinary team consisting of Morrison Hershfield, DAmbrosio architecture + urbanism, and MDI landscape architects led the design. Stantec is the Qualified Environmental Professional on the project and Aqua-Tex Scientific advised on stream restoration initiatives.

Responsive to public input, the building is located adjacent to the highway, the furthest possible distance from neighbouring properties.  The main entrance and exit is off West Burnside Road. 

The one-storey facility includes:

• Offices and dispatch area
• Maintenance and wash bay
• Electric charging and temporary gas fueling
• Employee parking

The building is 2,380 square metres in size and is built to a LEED Gold/Step Code 3 standard.

This centre is the first BC Transit facility built to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold requirements. LEED principles outline site requirements that employ best management practices to reduce chemical use, energy use, water, air pollution, solid waste, and/or runoff associated with the building site. LEED buildings use less energy and water, utilize renewable energy and fewer resources, create less waste, and preserve land and habitat.

This is also the first transit facility to have administrative areas built to Step Code 3. BC Energy Step Code is a voluntary provincial standard for energy efficiency in building construction. It sets a series of increasingly stringent performance levels to meet when constructing new buildings.

The site is the first Salmon Safe certified development on Vancouver Island, and the first for BC Transit in the province. The Fraser Basin Council recognized the contributions of the local community for setting high standards for water conservation, storm water management and restoration of the stream that runs into Craigflower Creek.

1. Indigenous consultation: Consult with Indigenous groups in the spirit of reconciliation and include Indigenous knowledge, perspectives, and participation in the project. 
2. Sustainable design: Use the redevelopment of this site as an opportunity to repair and restore the ecological function of this part of the Craigflower Creek watershed, and design a site and building that can achieve LEED Gold. 
3. Improved pedestrian and cycling experience: Introduce new or improved accessible connections for people who walk and cycle, including new sidewalks and potential realignment of the Galloping Goose Trail. 
4. Neighbourhood integration: Respect the qualities of the host neighbourhood by designing a site, building and landscaping that integrate well and enhance the neighbourhood. Consider and mitigate potential visual, safety and other impacts of the development on the surrounding area. 
5. Good neighbour: Build responsive relationships within the local community and First Nations to inform various elements of the redevelopment and on-going communications.
6. Effective and reliable service: Design a site that supports expansion of a sustainable, fully electric handyDART service that improves access to transit for people with permanent or temporary disabilities that prevent them from using fixed-route transit without assistance from another person.

About 19 staff support administration, dispatch, and maintenance, with around 60 drivers based there daily. Drivers and buses are largely not on-site during the day as they are serving customers across the region.  

Employees park in the spaces vacated by handyDART vehicles that are actively out providing service to the region.

• Dispatch: 4:30 a.m. to 12:30 a.m.
• Maintenance: 5 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• Office: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Fleet servicing: 3 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.

The building opened in April 2025 and is operated by the regional handyDART operator, Transdev.

Transdev Canada (formerly known as First Canada) are the long-time operators of handyDART in Greater Victoria. They operate the site and manage all employees. Transdev employees work on site in roles varying from dispatch and scheduling to mechanics and handyDART drivers.

To learn more about Transdev employment opportunities: https://careers.transdev.ca/search

Explore Transdev career opportunities ›

BC Transit had a memorandum of understanding with the Town of View Royal, committing to follow the spirit and intent of all of the Town of View Royal’s environmental development processes, permitting and bylaws for 2401 Burnside Road. BC Transit also contributed $150,000 toward local amenities and completed sidewalk and landscaping improvements.

The project followed the Town of View Royal’s environmental development permit process. The environmental development permit requires inclusion of detailed plans including site servicing, landscape plans, a tree inventory and tree protection plans. The Town of View Royal Environmental Development Permit is available on their website.

In addition, the project adhered to Provincial and Federal project requirements and approvals.

The project budget was $83.5 million.

The project was funded by the Federal and Provincial governments, along with the Victoria Regional Transit Commission

BC Transit was committed to designing a state-of-the-art building and a site that minimizes impacts to neighbours and the environment. The building applied sustainable building design and construction techniques aligned with the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold rating. The main building includes West Coast design elements to respond to the neighbourhood character and context. 

Office areas will meet Step 3 of the BC Energy Step Code, which is up to 40% more energy efficient than base 2018 BC Building Code. The one-storey building is approximately 21,300 square metres. 

The site is also designed to meet SAFE (Safety Achieved Through Functional Environmental Design) principles.

BC Transit commissioned an initial noise study completed in April 2018 that anticipated diesel vehicles for the site. BC Transit has confirmed the fleet will be only gasoline and eventually electric, which are quieter overall than diesel vehicles and do not require stationary idling as part of maintenance activities. In response to community feedback, BC Transit introduced a new alternative backup beeper for the handyDART vehicles, evaluating options for site placement of the facility, and considering the mitigations offered by a landscaped berm around the site. BC Transit then commissioned a new noise study to incorporate these elements.

A robust and detailed site lighting plan incorporates dark skies principles to ensure achieve both light pollution mitigation and site operational safety objectives.

A traffic management study was completed and upgrades to Burnside Road introduced dedicated northbound and southbound turn lanes into the property minimizing impact to traffic flow. Crosswalk improvements and intersection signal timing at the intersection of Burnside Road and Watkiss Way were made in 2023. 

Informed by the traffic study, and consistent with other how traffic impacts are evaluated for other developments, the traffic management plan was reviewed and informed by the Engineering Department at the Town of View Royal. 

The development of the property offered an opportunity to improve the Capital Regional District’s (CRD) Galloping Goose Regional Trail. The community noted in the first phase of public engagement that they would like to see the grade and visibility of the adjacent portion of the trail improved. As a result, the trail was straightened and the grade was reduced, making it safer and more accessible. 

Landscaping, grading and fencing all play a role in screening the property and creating an aesthetically pleasing streetscape. The site is fully fenced.  In the most public-facing areas, the fence is robust 8’ fence panels with a modern ornamental look. Fencing is designed for privacy, landscaping and softer neighbourhood aesthetic, while ensuring the security of the site. Hedging is planted along Burnside Road, alongside new boulevard trees. Virginia creeper is growing along the fence on the Galloping Goose.

The redevelopment of the handyDART site facilitated 1.5 acres along Watkiss Way being made available for the Town of View Royal to use for public space. BC Transit also provided $150,000 to the Town for improvements. The Town of View Royal consulted residents in November 2023 about what they would like to see in the park and in November 2024 shared a concept for the design. Construction is expected to occur in 2025.

BC Transit committed to recycling any trees removed from the site to create new habitat. Most of the trees were used in the new stream channel and some trees were saved to build birdhouses.

New Roads Therapeutic Recovery Community residents recently received new tools from Rona to build birdhouses for the new neighbourhood park along Watkiss Way. This initiative not only helped develop new skills but also a positive amenity and additional bird habitat to the neighbourhood. Residents at New Roads have built 40 birdhouses, which will then be painted by students from Eagle View Elementary School and installed in the new Watkiss Way Park.

Rocky Point Bird Observatory designed the birdhouses. Rona contributed the tools and Bird construction provided safety training to the men.

The tower was replaced with a modern monopole and was moved north about 70 metres. A compatibility agreement with BC Hydro outlines the activities and plantings that can occur in the BC Hydro right of way.

The power lines on Burnside were buried in summer 2024. Now buried, a new sidewalk, fencing and landscaping have been installed along Burnside Road.

Stantec Consulting provided Qualified Environmental Professional services to meet the requirements of the Town of View Royal Environmental Development Permit application. Their assessment determines Craigflower Creek setbacks and environmental mitigation requirements. 

All development was setback 30 metres from Craigflower Creek.

To restore the ecological health of the site, the plan included moving an onsite seasonal stream to the western, and southern edge of the property, creating over an acre of restored and protected streamside habitat. The stream now connects to Craigflower Creek, through a gentle transition area to allow the new stream to access its floodplain during periods of high rainfall and provide new amphibian habitat and rearing habitat for Coho salmon and other juvenile fish. In the first two years since the stream was constructed, 150 cutthroat trout and coho salmon have been counted.

Environmental monitoring occurred before, during and after construction. An environmental monitor, independent of the construction contractor oversaw construction activities

Rainwater historically flowed from the highway and through the disturbed site with no treatment or containment, into Craigflower Creek. Now rainwater is managed by a system of rain gardens and traditional stormwater flow attenuation to manage a 200-year rain event. 

Nine rain gardens (covering a third of an acre) capture water on site. Designed with plants and organically rich soil to filter runoff, rain gardens clean, cool and slow the flow of water. Water flows into the new stream channel and restored riparian area, feeding into Craigflower Creek. A series of rock weirs and pools slow and clean the water before it enters the Creek.

A comprehensive stormwater management plan was developed and approved by the Town of View Royal. 

Four watercourses were identified and corresponding streamside protection and enhancement areas (SPEA) were outlined by Stantec, the Qualified Environmental Professional (QEP).

Technical Study

• Craigflower Creek: 30 metres
• Watercourse 1 (highway edge): none required
• Watercourse 2 (centre of property): 10 metres
• Watercourse 3 (Watkiss Way): 2 metres

A tree survey was completed by a professional arborist to identify significant and protected trees. Several trees were removed and two trees will be planted for each tree removed. Trees removed will be recycled onsite as part of the new riparian habitat being created. 8,000 shrubs and trees were planted on site. Learn more from our landscape architect about the tree removal process.

Some perimeter landscaping occurred early in the project to allow more time for it mature and grow during construction of the building. Remaining trees were used to make birdhouses that will be installed near the stream and in the new Town park on Watkiss Way.  Learn more about the birdhouses.

Indigenous consultation was one of six principles that guided the design and sustainability practices on site.

The project consulted with Indigenous groups in the spirit of reconciliation and include Indigenous knowledge, perspectives and participation in the project. Consultation with local Indigenous Groups was undertaken from the outset of the project to identify their interest and perspectives on the site, and to involve Indigenous groups in the development and implementation of the project. Several opportunities for design elements to highlight cultural and environmental knowledge were informed by Indigenous communities.

Collaboration and community engagement are fundamentals of this project. Streamkeepers, Indigenous groups, and neighbours have shaped the design and sustainability principles, building placement, environmental mitigation, and third-party certification.

Indigenous groups offered holistic perspectives on creek restoration and cultural recognition, including plantings, art, and signage. The Esquimalt Nation will give the stream a Lekwungen name. Reduced barriers and hands-on learning are possible through partnership and training for youth and participation funding and training for First Nations.