Wrong Again – How Long will it Take Them To Get It Right?

They have got it wrong, but in Vancouver we have have always got transit wrong.

Speed of a transit system is not the prime factor in attracting ridership, it is part of the mix. The main reasons for successful transit, according to the internationally acclaimed study ' Bus or light rail, making the right choice', by Professor of Urban Transport, Carmen Hass-Klau, it is the ease of use, ambiance, ease of ticketing and the seamless (no transfer journey) that were the main reasons for a successful public transit service.

Translink still plans for small metro lines and compel bus riders to transfer onto the metro, even if it increases their commute times, such as the Canada line, pretending recycled bus passengers make the metro successful.

Modern LRT, operating on-street/at-grade has commercial speeds comparable to metro, with metro having fewer stations (about half) making the mode seem faster, but fewer stations along a transit route means fewer transit customers as the the car seems the better transit mode.

Vancouver is the only city in North America and Europe that fails to seriously plan for modern LRT and continues to trundle out expensive plans for more metro lines, based on questionable ridership figures and spurious transit claims. Fewer few people actually believe Translink's claims.

Added into our transit planning nonsense, which is akin of alchemists of old trying to turn lead into gold, is the cottage industry of combing transit with density or growth, while at the same time ignoring current transit chaos. Transit planning has turned into a developers dream, by allowing naive city councils to upgrade property zoning along metro lines into higher density (read high-rise) buildings, ultimately making the transit corridor a canyon amid high-rise construction. All would work only if the people moving into the new high-rise apartment and condos work along the metro line, but in most cases they don't and work where transit service is poor and they drive instead.

Modern light rail, on the other hand, is built to provide an economic service on transit routes when buses become uneconomic to operate, thus from the start, economy is the by-word with LRT construction, something that is completely ignored by those advocating metro or light-metro like the Canada Line and SkyTrain.

In the end, what makes public transit attractive is that it is designed with the transit customer in mind taking the customer where he/she wants to go. Until we design affordable public transit in the region, catering to the transit customer's needs, TransLink will continue to scream poverty every year and demand new and higher taxes to fund their inept transit planning. 

Driving trumps transit in Vancouver

 By KELLY SINOSKI, Vancouver Sun August 24, 2011 10:14 PM

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Driving+trumps+transit+Vancouver/5302581/story.html#ixzz1W1G7mtee

 

Lower mainland roadways are snarled with traffic as more than 80 percent of commuters choose to drive, according to StatsCan.

Photograph by: Jason Reed, REUTERS

The vast majority of Canadian commuters continue to drive to work rather than take transit despite a push to get people out of their cars and on to buses and trains, Statistics Canada reported Wednesday.

The reason? It’s faster to drive.

The federal agency’s 2010 General Social Survey, which sampled 6,650 respondents, found that the average Vancouver car commute was 25 minutes, 23 minutes shorter than the average transit commute of 48 minutes.

“Since the use of public transit involves walking, waiting and sometimes traffic congestion, it is not surprising that commuting times are generally longer for public transit users,” the report said.

Congestion, sharing the road with cars, transfers, low-density transit hubs and out-of-sync schedules all contribute to the lag times for public transit.

Rapid-bus lanes and underground tunnels could speed up the transit commute, the report said, but on average car commutes are faster.

Zweisystem's note: The preceding sentence underscores the ignorance about modern light rail in the region. Modern LRT operates on what is called a 'reserved-rights-of-way' or a right of way that is reserved for the exclusive use of the tram or streetcar. Traffic doesn't block LRT as it is able to travel free of traffic on the R-R-O-W, which translates with modern LRT having almost the same commercial speeds of a metro at a fraction of a metros cost. Until Translink embraces modern LRT, transit funding will be problematic and traffic gridlock will continue unabated.

And, it seems, drivers are reluctant to test the system. About 82 per cent of Canadians travelled to work by car last year, while 12 per cent took transit and six per cent walked or cycled.

Of the 10.6 million workers who commuted by car nationally last year, about nine million have never used public transit to get to work, according to the survey. And of the 1.6 million who did, about 53 per cent said they found it inconvenient.

Then there’s the stress that accompanies long commutes, especially if workers are stuck in daily traffic jams.

About 39 per cent of full-time workers who took less than 15 minutes to get to the office said they felt pressed for time every day, the report said. Among those whose commuting time was 45 minutes or more, the percentage rose to 49 per cent.

Others blamed the long commute for messing with their life-work balance. “The feeling of being trapped in a routine and the impression that there is no time for fun also increased with commuting time,” the report said.

The average commute across Canada, including all modes of transportation, was about 26 minutes. The average commute in the Toronto metropolitan area is the longest in the country, at 33 minutes, followed by Montreal at 31 and Vancouver at 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, workers who walk or cycle to work have shorter trips, about 14 minutes on average.

TransLink spokesman Ken Hardie said the stats aren’t surprising, noting that depending on where you go in Metro Vancouver, the transit story changes.

In downtown Vancouver, for instance, about 40 per cent of commuter trips are by transit; in Surrey, the number is less than five per cent.

But, he noted, while transit may take longer, it’s generally more reliable, partly because of bus-only and queue-jumper lanes. “There’s a time reliability,” he said. “It may be that it’s not faster than a car but it’s as close to the same time each day as possible.”

Hardie said TransLink’s push for more transit services such as the Evergreen Line and rapid transit in Surrey are aimed at creating a better balance between cars and transit across the region so people who don’t drive have other transport options.

In some cases, he said, people are willing to swap time for money: As it gets more expensive to drive a car, they are more willing to try transit. “Cars have a place on the network; [you] can’t do without them,” he said.

The StatsCan figures were released just days after TransLink announced that it expects to post a record year for transit ridership — surpassing last year when the city hosted the Winter Olympics.

There have already been 114.4 million transit trips in the first six months of the year, four per cent more than last year.