Doing The Same Thing Over Again Just Will Not Work
After receiving a number of abusive amount of Emails about the post (all deleted), has indicated to me that most people do not have a firm grounding in modern public transport philosophy, nor a good knowledge of provincial finances. Most forget, that in the end, both LRT and light metro are trains and there is only one taxpayer.
Many Vancouver Island rail advocates firmly believe that Vancouver Island is financed separately from the Province of BC, which is pure rubbish.
Very few people understand that $11 billion needed to finance a 21.7 km extension to the Expo and Millennium Lines 21.7 km in Metro Vancouver is one of the main reasons the province has ignored the plight of the E&N and of course RftV’s Valley rail project.
People don’t realize today that the Expo Line (the name SkyTrain was chosen by a public contest on a local radio station) was built strictly for politcal purposes by the then Social Credit government, using the proprietary Advanced Light Rail Transit (ALRT) system, renamed from the original Intermediate Capacity Transit System ICTS), which was unmarketable.. Each extension of the Expo line was designed to fit in the Social Credit’s three to four year election cycle.
Photo-ops and 10 second sound bites for electioneering were more important than a sound regional transit plan.
When the NDP were in power in the 90’s, they too understood the power of rapid transit and forced the Millennium Line using Bombardiers completely rebuilt ALRT/ICTS system, which they called Advanced Rapid Transit. To help sell this almost unsalable proprietary railway, the NDP contrived a report claiming that the only reason to build rapid transit was for land use purposes or in other words, rapid transit (SkyTrain) would be a driver for land development.
Subsequent provincial and civic politicians jumped on the development and densification band wagon and with that came the land speculators and higher property values. With higher property values came increased taxes and as taxes increased, rents and leases also increased. Fueled by illegal money laundering, from local casinos and compliant politicians, a modern day land rush was created where land speculators assemble lands along present and future rapid transit routes, then made handsome profits selling the land to land developers, who then induced local politicians to allow even higher densities, allowing bigger profits.
Today, Metro Vancouver is fast becoming unlivable, with basic housing being unaffordable: tent cities along main thoroughfares: drug induced death rate, almost unsurpassed in North America and endemic traffic congestion in the region.
What went wrong?
There is no simple answer, except that politicians just love those photo-ops and 10 second sound bites for the evening news in front of SkyTrain guideways, that rapid transit will solve our transportation woes; our housing woes; and generally anything else that sounds good in the media.
Thus politicians keep demanding the same thing be done, over and over again and spending obscene amounts of money, building small rapid transit extensions that have proven to do the opposite of what was promiced.
This reminds me of the of the Hans Christian Anderson’s fable, the Emperor’s New Clothes.
Two swindlers arrive at the capital city of an emperor who spends lavishly on clothing at the expense of state matters. Posing as weavers, they offer to supply him with magnificent clothes that are invisible to those who are stupid or incompetent. The emperor hires them, and they set up looms and go to work. A succession of officials, and then the emperor himself, visit them to check their progress. Each sees that the looms are empty but pretends otherwise to avoid being thought a fool.
Finally, the weavers report that the emperor’s suit is finished. They mime dressing him and he sets off in a procession before the whole city. The townsfolk uncomfortably go along with the pretense, not wanting to appear inept or stupid, until a child blurts out that the emperor is wearing nothing at all. The people then realize that everyone has been fooled. Although startled, the emperor continues the procession, walking more proudly than ever.
Like the fable The Emperor’s New Clothes, doing the same thing over and over again, by building more SkyTrain light-metro lines ever hoping for different results, has gutted the province’s ability to fund other and intentionally better transit projects in the province.
Like the fable, the vain emperor or premier (city mayors as well) walk the streets naked, proud at achieving nothing. TransLink and provincial transportation strategies are equally naked, reduced to doing the same thing over again, hoping for different results.
Yes, it still seems that Vancouver takes advice from swindlers, like the fable. Sad to say, your politicians just cannot begin to understand how the city has become the butt of many jokes around the world.
From what we read, our predictions have come true and the city has now passed the point of no return for transit as no matter what the city does or plans to do, you will never be able to build enough transit needed to provide good transportation in the city and region.
The almost religious zeitgeist by your politicians and planners is breath taking, where the good of the transit customer is tossed aside for the good of the politicians.
Canada is a small market, made smaller by ill conceived notions about public transit and how transit is provided.
It very sad to say, from what we read and what we see on news feeds your once beautiful city is slowly being turned into tenements and slums, in the name of your SkyTrain.
So true. Excellent post.