BC Transit Partners with Vancouver-Based Spare to Modernize handyDART Transportation Across 29 B.C. Communities

VANCOUVER, British Columbia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 7, 2026--

Spare, a leading transit technology company and provider of accessible mobility systems for public transit agencies, today announced a partnership with BC Transit to deliver the first unified digital platform for handyDART transportation across the province. Spare will work with BC Transit to introduce a standardized model across the 28 transit systems with handyDART, giving riders from urban centers to rural towns the same access to booking tools and real-time trip information. Upon implementation of the system, individuals who rely on handyDART transit will be able to book and manage rides directly through a mobile app, without needing to call a reservations line.

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“Standardizing an entire province’s accessible transit network is a major milestone,” said Kristoffer Vik Hansen, CEO and Co-founder of Spare. “We’re proud to support BC Transit in improving mobility for the people who depend on these services the most, including family and friends of our own team members. This project shows how thoughtful innovation can make public transit more equitable for everyone.”

A B.C.-based partnership that is breaking new ground

Founded in British Columbia, Spare has built its business working closely with public transit agencies and communities across the world. The company’s founders and many employees live and work in the same regions served by BC Transit, giving the team firsthand insight into the realities of delivering accessible transportation in large and geographically diverse jurisdictions. Spare’s platform is designed to support the unique needs of transit agencies and their riders, offering tools for trip coordination, service oversight and rider-facing digital options, while maintaining local control and governance. For BC Transit, the new system will provide additional data to help forecast demand, plan for the future and advocate for funding where it is needed most.

How the Spare platform supports riders and helps BC Transit meet its goals

Spare’s technology enables BC Transit to coordinate trips, track key operational metrics and manage service quality across 28 transit systems through a single interface. Its role-based access controls ensure transparency, privacy and secure information sharing among staff and local operators. By unifying its data and operations, BC Transit will be able to compare services across regions and optimize operations through modern technology, while improving reliability and rider experience.

This collaboration positions Spare as a national leader in modern paratransit technology and provides a blueprint for other provincial and statewide agencies seeking to unify fragmented systems across wide geographies.

About BC Transit

BC Transit is the provincial Crown agency charged with coordinating the delivery of public transportation across British Columbia, except for those areas serviced by TransLink (Metro Vancouver). More than 1.9 million British Columbians in over 130 communities across the province have access to BC Transit local and regional transit services. For more information, visit BCTransit.com.

About Spare

Vancouver-based Spare is the modern operations platform that helps government agencies deliver more reliable, efficient and community-focused mobility. Founded in British Columbia, Spare has deep roots in the province, with founders and team members who live and work in the communities they serve. That local perspective shapes how the company partners with agencies to improve access, reliability and rider experience across Canada.

Spare integrates transit operations with advanced asset management and maintenance tools to give agencies real-time visibility and proactive decision support with the flexibility to adapt services on the fly and manage costs in an economically sustainable way. By consolidating back-end operations into a single system, Spare helps agencies deliver safer fleets, lower costs, improve on-time performance and meet rising expectations for digital self-service, while supporting staff with tools that reduce manual work.

With major use cases across provinces, Spare supports accessible and innovative transit for Canadians from coast to coast. Spare works with transit agencies including Brampton Transit, Hamilton Street Railway (City of Hamilton), Medicine Hat Transit, Oakville Transit, Saint John Transit Commission, Saskatoon Transit, Winnipeg Transit and Milton Transit. Agencies rely on Spare to scale proven service models, including coordinated multimodal operations and sustainable same-day paratransit, strengthening mobility as a public service that connects people to work, healthcare and daily life.

Spare will work with BC Transit to introduce a standardized model across the 28 transit systems with handyDART, giving riders from urban centers to rural towns the same access to booking tools and real-time trip information.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday that he will allow service members to carry personal weapons onto military installations, citing the Second Amendment and recent shootings at bases across the country.

In a video posted to X, Hegseth said he is signing a memo that will direct base commanders to allow requests for troops to carry privately owned firearms “with the presumption that it is necessary for personal protection.”

He said any denial of a service member's request must be explained in detail and in writing.

“Effectively, our bases across the country were gun-free zones,” Hegseth said. “Unless you're training or unless you are a military policeman, you couldn't carry, you couldn't bring your own firearm for your own personal protection onto post.”

Questions about why service members lacked access to weapons have often emerged following shootings on the nation's military bases. Such shootings have ranged from isolated events between service members to mass casualty events, such as the shootings by an Army psychiatrist at Texas’ Ford Hood in 2009 that left 13 people dead.

Hegseth cited some of the events in his video, including a shooting that injured five soldiers at Fort Stewart in Georgia last year. Officials said the shooter, an Army sergeant who worked at the base, used his personal handgun before he was tackled by fellow soldiers and arrested.

“In these instances, minutes are a lifetime,” Hegseth said. “And our service members have the courage and training to make those precious, short minutes count.”

Defense Department policy has prohibited military personnel from carrying personal weapons on base without permission from a senior commander, with strict protocol for how the firearms must be stored.

Typically, military personnel must officially check their guns out of secure storage to go to on-base hunting areas or shooting ranges, then check all firearms back in promptly after their sanctioned use. Military police are often the only armed personnel on base, outside of shooting ranges, hunting areas or in training, where soldiers can wield their service weapons without ammunition.

Tanya Schardt, senior counsel at the Brady gun violence prevention organization, said in a statement that Defense Department leaders and the military’s top brass have opposed relaxing the current policy, which was originally enacted under President George H.W. Bush.

Schardt noted that most active duty service members who die by suicide do so with a weapon they own personally, not one military-issued, and argued that there will “undoubtedly be an increase in gun suicide and other gun violence.”

While fewer American service members died by suicide in 2024, the suicide rates among active duty troops overall still have gradually increased between 2011 and 2024, according to a Pentagon report released Tuesday.

“Our military installations are among the most guarded, protected properties in the world, and they’ve never been ‘gun-free zones,’” Schardt said. “If there is a problem with violent crime on these installations, then the Secretary of Defense has an obligation to alert the American people and describe how he’s working to prevent that crime.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks to members of the media during a press briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, Tuesday, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)