Someone please memo this to the Minister of Transportation; the Premier; the Mayor of Delta and the BC Liberal party.
Guest column: Wider roads wonai??i??t solve congestion problem
(AP Photo / Jae C. Hong) 6356725
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Build it, and they will come.
In the context of the Legislatureai??i??s transportation plan, this common saying could be reworded to ai???Build more lanes and the congestion will remain.ai??? Oregon lawmakers are rightfully taking action to address our ailing infrastructure. But their solutions could not be more wrong. In fact, there is even a paradox ai??i?? Braessai??i?? paradox ai??i?? that outlines the fact that adding lanes will not reduce congestion. Discovered by Dietrich Braess, the paradox is the result of simple logic: When we make something easier, more people do it.
Our transportation system chokes commerce and the environment. Due to congestion and poor planning, Oregon attracts and retains fewer businesses than it could with a better transportation system. When a company includes the added costs of the hours spent delivering products, the Willamette Valley becomes a far-less attractive location. An inability to attract talented workers may dissuade companies from settling down here. At above-full employment, workers are in higher demand. Itai??i??s hard to attract the best workers to a job that requires a mind-numbing commute. Every hour spent on the road is an hour away from family, friends and Oregonai??i??s outdoors. The opportunity costs are tremendous.
The costs to our environment and our life spans may be larger. Air pollution from congestion, according to a Harvard School of Public Health study conducted in 2010, contributed to at least 4,000 premature deaths and was responsible for at least $31 billion in health care costs in 2000. The study estimates that even with lower emission vehicles on the road, the cost of emissions to our health and wallets will be immense. Researchers estimate that congestion will play a part in 1,600 premature deaths in 2020 and that health costs will surpass $17 billion in 2030. These are lives we can save and costs we can cut.
It is encouraging to see legislators from across the state working to reduce these costs and improve our system. They have spent countless hours receiving input from stakeholders large and small, urban and rural, young and old. We should commend their perseverance and pursuit of a transportation package that would substantially make Oregon a better place to call home. We should condemn the proposal they put forward or at least the proposed $1.1 billion for congestion relief.
The evidence is clear. In the blunt words of Charles Marohn, a civil engineer, ai???Trying to solve congestion by making roadways wider is like trying to solve obesity by buying bigger pants.ai??? Economists cite adding lanes as a prime example of induced demand. In layman terms, induced demand means that an increase in supply is quickly met by an increase in demand. A University of Toronto study found a perfect correlation between adding lanes and adding drivers. According to the co-author of the study, Matthew Turner, ai???If you had 1 percent more roads, you had 1 percent more driving in those cities.ai??? Californiaai??i??s Department of Transportation has published a study showing that increasing capacity has a slim chance of improving congestion.
What is the answer? To reduce driving, we have to reduce the incentive to drive. In Turnerai??i??s opinion, the only solution is congestion pricing. Itai??i??s a tactic used in London, Singapore and Stockholm that places a toll on people entering the city center that varies based on demand. Trying to head into the city at rush hour ai??i?? expect to pay more. When driving hits the pocketbook, people will hit the brakes on taking out the car.
Oregon has a congestion problem. Our solution should not make matters worse. Build lanes, and they will drive.
ai??i?? Kevin Frazier is legislative deputy director at Children First for Oregon and director of Passport Oregon. He lives in Portland.
The major rule about “Road Pricing” or congestion charges and that is, one must have an affordable and user friendly transit system in place before road pricing will be accepted by the populace, if not, it is not going to happen.
The Metro Vancouver region does not have, nor will have any time soon a transit system that would be acceptable for road pricing.
In 2015, 62% of the population voted against any further taxes going to TransLink, yet regional mayors remain blind to this.
The problem with TransLink is and always has been the SkyTrain light-metro system.
The region has paid up to four times more to build with SkyTrain and it costs about 40% more to operate than other transit alternatives such as light rail. Thus SkyTrain cost more to build, operate and maintain than LRT and this added cost, over time has nearly bankrupted the transit authority, as predicted almost forty years ago!
For this reason, Metro Vancouver’s light-metro system has hemorrhaged transit money away from other transit projects to shore up light-metro.
It is no coincidence that light rail (LRT) made light-metro, such as our SkyTrain, obsolete by the mid 1980’s.
But Metro Vancouver mayors, wearing rose coloured glasses are squandering more money on a next to useless $3 billion SkyTrain subway under Broadway and a massively expensive LRT, designed as a poor man’s SkyTrain in Surrey.
The myopic transit vision by regional mayors is extremely dangerous, as they have been conned big time, by the SkyTrain/light-metro lobby, which includes SNC Lavalin and Bombardier, who hold the patents for the ALRT/ART proprietary SkyTrain.
All this tax is designed to do is to hide transit planning blunders in the past and transit blunders yet to come.
As there is little or no alternative transit service for the vast majority of people in Metro Vancouver, all attempts for road pricing are doomed.
Independent commission to decide pricing models for transit and transportation in Metro Vancouver
Panel to be made up of people with transit-related expertise and community stakeholders
Independent commission will be named on Tuesday
Expert believes removing the political component from making pricing-related decisions could be beneficial
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) ai??i?? More bridges with tolls and fees based on how far you drive are just a couple of options under a possible mobility pricing scenario for the region.
The Mayorsai??i?? Council has formed an independent panel to look into different options to help pay for transit and transportation improvements around Metro Vancouver.
The panel will be made up of people with transit-related expertise, community stakeholders, and basically non-partisan individuals according to Transit Blogger and Langley City Councillor Nathan Pachal.
ai???Considering the results of the referendum you really want to have an independent party thatai??i??s impartial to look at all the options on the table,ai??? says Pachal, who adds balance is important. ai???When youai??i??re talking about taxation ai??i?? because it is at the end of the day ai??i?? you really want to have something where thereai??i??s consensus and youai??i??re looking at it from all perspectives.ai???
Though road pricing and mobility pricing arenai??i??t controversial topics themselves, Pachal says previous proposals from the Mayorsai??i?? Council have been denied by the province.
With a new provincial government coming in, he believes removing the political component from making these kinds of decisions could be beneficial.
He says the Mayorsai??i?? Council has been shifting toward road pricing for a while. In theory, road pricing and mobility pricing are similar, but the transit blogger says the latter takes things one step further.
ai???It looks at how weai??i??re doing in all transportation, so the transit network as well.ai???
TransLink is also working on its own pricing component that will complement what the panel decides.
The Mayorsai??i?? Council is expected to announce commission members tomorrow, as well as further details on the panelai??i??s functions.
Gregory (Scotland YardAi??detective): ai???Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?ai???
Holmes: ai???To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.ai???
Gregory: ai???The dog did nothing in the night-time.ai???
Holmes: ai???That was the curious incident.ai???
It is interesting what is not reported.
It seems, Postmedia did not report how many people were killed by SkyTrain in 2016, nor did they report if no one was killed.
Several incidents were recorded, but nothing really newsworthy.
Much is made of colliding trains, but the comment “Bryan said that SkyTrain, launched for Expo 86, has never had a collision involving two in-service trains, a record that is “unheard of ” in the industry for a long-running system.” is way too self indulgent. I don’t think London’s Victoria Line, opened in 1968, has ever had a collision either, being the first automatic metro in the world; or any other of the major metro that operate around the world.
This so called news item is nothing more than Postmedia’s poor attempt to accurately report on TransLink and SkyTrain, while not reporting very much at all.
A TransLink worker at a SkyTrain station – Date unknown Richard Lam.
15 May 2017
SkyTrain Incidents
Vancouver British Columbia – The list of SkyTrain “incidents” last year included a drunk who bounced off a moving train, a scooter and wheelchair that accidentally fell onto the tracks, a passenger who tempted fate to retrieve a cell phone, and maintenance workers scrambling to avoid being run over, according to documents obtained through freedom of information requests.
The documents, obtained by Postmedia from the B.C. Safety Authority, describe an incident on 28 Oct 2016 in which a technician and his partner entered the track area to perform maintenance.
“Moments later, the technicians realized a train was about to enter the station, so they jumped clear onto the centre walkway clear of the guideway,” the documents state.
SkyTrain, which includes the Canada Line, is a fully automated driverless system with technology designed to stop the trains in the event of an intrusion onto the tracks, be it a person or an object such as a backpack.
“The intrusion alarms are definitely a core part of the safety of our system,” TransLink spokesman Chris Bryan said on Monday.
Bryan said that SkyTrain, launched for Expo 86, has never had a collision involving two in-service trains, a record that is “unheard of ” in the industry for a long-running system.
A person on a motorized scooter accidentally drove onto the tracks at Joyce Station injuring himself on 19 Aug 2016.
Fortunately, no trains were present.
On 24 Jul 2016 a vandal placed a “five-gallon” can of paint on the tracks near Edmonds station.
“The paint was drawn into the motor, disabling the train.”
A drunk stumbled into a departing train and fell onto the platform on 22 Jul 2016, resulting in a minor head injury.
On 1 Jun 2016 a trespasser fleeing Transit Police ran down the tracks and “jumped from the concourse to the ground below.”
The person was taken away by ambulance with significant injuries.
On 20 Feb 2016 a man jumped onto the tracks to retrieve his cell phone when the train was in the station.
As the train started to leave, the man managed to “press himself against wall to avoid contact” and left the area safely.
A man was walking on the platform too close to a departing train and hit his hand on 2 Feb 2016.
He was taken to hospital.
On 28 Jan 2016 a six-car train was proceeding into a storage lane, when one car derailed due to the switch points under the train being reversed.
One day earlier, a wheelchair accidentally fell onto the tracks with no injuries or damage.
There were several incidents last year involving a “rail grinder”, which is used to maintain the smoothness of the tracks to increase their lifespan and to reduce noise.
The cases include a 13 Sep 2016 derailment due to a switch being improperly aligned, and damage to a section of track on 15 Sep 2016 when the rail grinder stones did not retract prior to stopping.
On 21 Dec 2016 a train under tow crashed into an unsecured gate, damaging both, and on 26 Nov 2016 a train struck a piece of handrail, causing damage to the train and a piece of metal to fall onto a car parked below.
Several of these incidents may have resulted in train delays, although the public would not have been apprised of the actual reasons at the time.
The provincial government is in turmoil and those who “Pay to Play” on the municipal scene are getting anxious, as billions in potential profits are being put on hold for the moment.
The Metro Vancouver’s metro Mayors Ten Year Plan is nothing more than a skillfully drafted document that is designed to direct the flow of taxpayer’s dollars into the pockets of political supporters and nothing more. The planned Broadway SkyTrain subway is a very good example of this.
Planning to build a dated and capacity constricted mini-metro in a subway under Broadway to Arbutus has now turned into a $3 billion nightmare and threatens regional transit in the region. The Broadway subway will not benefit transit customers at all and is inferior to a at-grade/on-street LRT option costing about one tenth to build!
Who benefits from a subway?
Land developers and land speculators who fund Vision(less) Vancouver’s political machine. it is called “Pay to Play”.
The cement manufacturers stand to make huge profits, with massive amount of cement used on the subway.
Engineering firms stand to make huge profits with all the extra engineering services needed with subway construction.
Politicians, cutting ribbons. Building subways is always a good background for politicians at election time, where they con the voters into thinking that the massive costs are actually worth it.
Surrey’s $2.5 billion LRT,Ai?? is being designed as a “poor man’s” SkyTrain and the same people will benefit from LRT’s construction as the Broadway subway, only on a smaller scale.
The Mayor’s Ten Year Plan is more about moving money, than moving people and those most in need for better transit, will be left at the station waiting for a train that will never come, as the political pork barrel express is about to leave.
Ai??
Mayorsai??i?? Council anxious political turmoil could derail ambitious transportation plan
With the continuing political uncertainty in B.C., the Mayorsai??i?? Council on Regional Transportation is calling on all parties to commit to quick action on Metro Vancouverai??i??s ten-year transportation plan.
Surrey mayor and Vice-Chair of the Mayorai??i??s Council Linda Hepner says the current state of political limbo has her uneasy about the future.
She says with the results of the election finalized the mayors want to hear from the parties that theyai??i??re committed to moving quickly on the regionai??i??s transportation priorities.
ai???Iai??i??m worried because itai??i??s a very hyper-political environment right now and when itai??i??s so unstable then, of course, you have to be worried about large projects.ai???
Those projects include big-ticket infrastructure items like the replacement of the Pattullo Bridge, a new light rail system for Surrey, and a subway along Broadway.
The concern comes against the backdrop of the Mayorsai??i?? Councilai??i??s ten-year-vision, a comprehensive plan to improve transit, roads and active transportation infrastructure.
Phase one of that plan, largely involving increases in bus, SkyTrain and SeaBus service, is already underway, while phase two, which involves the major capital investments has been approved but is not fully funded.
Ottawa and Victoria have both pledged to cover 40 per cent of transit funding, but cash for the Pattullo and questions around how Metro Vancouver will pay its remaining share remain unsettled.
ai???I am nervous, I was nervous around the referendum stage and the timeline it took for that and Iai??i??m just very concerned that this will cause another timing delay that simply canai??i??t happenai??? Hepner says.
The BC Liberals have said that if elected, they will still require a referendum on any new funding source the Metro Vancouver mayors develop.
There is a plan in place, which has received international recognition.
The Leewood Study has been ignored by most politicians, but not all and the time is right to put shovel to ground as regional traffic congestion in the Fraser Valley has become endemic and relief is needed.
Do not listen to the SkyTrain Lobby, as the aging gadgetbahnen is becoming extremely expensive to operate and maintain. No one has bought an ALRT/ART transit system in over a decade as it is too expensive not only to build, but to operate and maintain.
Do not listen to the light-metro lobby, as huge construction costs ($130 mil/km) make it unsustainable. Also, being elevated has not proven to be an advantage over at-grade LRT, in fact the opposite is true as at-grade transit is easier and cheaper to maintain and operate.
Do not listen to the subway lobby, as they live in a land of sparkle ponies and pixie dust. Subways are hugely expensive to build and hugely expensive to maintain, costing the operating authorities huge sums of tax money to operate. Due to their nature, subways do not attract ridership, in fact subways tend to deter ridership!
The former BC Liberal Government (in a minority position, as I write this) has absolutely no care for regional transit, except for building multi billion bridges and highways and has left good transportation planning rot.
The Leewood Study even though seven years old, gives the region an affordable 21st century solution for transportation from downtown Vancouver to Chilliwack, connecting the population centres of Vancouver/Burnaby; North and South Surrey/Cloverdale; Langley; Abbotsford; and Chilliwack/Sardis.
Do not be left at the station with the baggage of unworkable or unaffordable solutions and board the train with a ticket for success!
The Canada Line was down for three hours on Friday, but if one was looking for evidence of it, well TransLink is doing its best to cleanse the internet from reporting the problem.
Trying to avoid the fiasco of last winter, where TransLink abandoned customers, when the Canada Line failed in the snow, officials were quick to get to the radio to allay fears of transit users.
The problem, was in the Automatic Train Control, where a cable failed.
Cables just don’t fail and there must be a root problem causing the failure and dirty subway tunnels and the piston action of trains operating in subway tunnels creates an extremely corrosive atmosphere.
Operators of subways have “vacuum trains” for cleaning tunnels as preventative maintenance to help keep vital signalling equipment operating.
Could it be that TransLink is unaware that subways are dirty environments and must be kept clean? Has the subway portion of the Canada Line ever been cleaned?
If the answer is no, watch out for more “cable failures”.
A London Tube "subway" cleaning train.
Update: Canada Line resuming service between Oakridge and Bridgeport
Due to a track issue, there is no service between Marine Dr Station and Bridgeport Station. Gerry Kahrmann / PROVINCE
A mechanical issue that was disrupting service on the Canada Line has been fixed and normal service is resuming.
TransLink stopped running trains between OakridgeAi??andAi??Bridgeport stations for more than two hours Friday afternoon due to a track issue.
In a press release, TransLink said a bus bridge that was established to shuttle passengers between the two stations wouldAi??continue to operate until about 2:30 p.m.
ai???Expo and Millennium Lines are unaffected, and are running normally,ai??? Jill Drews, TransLinkai??i??s media relations advisor, said in a release. ai???Additional security and Transit Police are at the stations to ensure passenger safety and crowd control.ai???
Recent problems with Bombardier’s delivery of new trams for Toronto has made Canadian customers look elsewhere.
For two long, Ottawa has twisted arms of Canadian transit operators to buy the Canadian Bombardier product, to keep production going, propping up the giant multinational company and garnering votes from Ontario and Quebec.
This is not to say Bombardier provides a bad product, as their European designed trams are well received around the world.
This has lead to complacency with Bombardier Inc., which management has completely forgotten about customer satisfaction.
Problems delivering new trams for the TTC has set off alarm bells at MetroLinx, in Ontario………….
…….. which is now procuring trams from Alstom, a well regarded French company, which is presently supplying trams to Ottawa.
Vancouver will not have this problem as our proprietary ALRT/ART system has only one supplier, Bombardier, so production delays doesn’t matter.
The Canada Line EMU’s use a dated EMU design from Hyundai and being part of the consortium operating the mock P-3, no other car manufacturer need apply.
With SkyTrain light-metro, Metro Vancouver is stuck with two suppliers, who can sell us anything because there is no competition.
There are two lessons to be learned:
Throwing money at Bombardier, does not improve management, but keeps the largely inept corporation from going bankrupt.
TransLink is screwed because of the proprietary SkyTrain system and having only one supplier.
With the order with Alstom, Bombardier will have to face stiff competition, something their tired and protected management are deathly afraid of.
So, it took the compass Card to make transit more user friendly – NOT!
Is not TransLink’s main function to make transit user friendly, so more people perceive it is a good product, use itAi?? and hope, vote accordingly if there is another plebiscite?
This is pure spin, by an organization, that can’t seem to get it’s act together.
It doesn’t take a Compass Card to provide good service, rather good management, something that TransLink dearly lacks.
Memo to TransLink: Forget about the Compass Card, the Census and trip diaries; get out of your TransLink paid car allowance cars and ride the system. Yes, ride the system for a week and all you need to know to improve the transit system will will be clear.
The knowledge the Compass Card provides, put to good use by TransLink.
TransLink using data from 1-million Compass Cards to improve service
TransLink says data from the one-million Compass Cards will help them adjust service to better meet commutersai??i?? needs.
Spokesperson Jill Drews says data has always been collected over the years, but says the card has helped increase the amount of information available.
ai???So planners before would use things like census data and we did a trip diary survey every few years to find out how customers used the system, but now with Compass, weai??i??re able to see what all of our customers are doing and target service where itai??i??s needed to make the system more efficient.ai???
She says they are hoping to see if more customers use a particular route versus other options.
ai???We could also see if the demand is exceeding the capacity and maybe increase service or propose new route space.ai???
But she says they are respecting passengersai??i?? privacy.
ai???All of the procedures that we use for the compass program adhere to the BC Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.ai???
Drews says 95 per cent of trips on the transit system right now involve a compass product.
Photos have gone viral on the Chinese internet showing a metro station in Chongqing that was apparently constructed in the middle of nowhere.
Located on Chongqing Metro’s Line 6, Caojiawan Station was finished back in 2015. Of its three planned exits, only one is currently is in use, the other two being overgrown with weeds and shubbery. Still, even that one exit might be overkill.
After leaving the metro station, passengers enter a barren wasteland. The station is not connected to any major roads, meaning that commuters have to rely on a van service to get the rest of the way home.
A worker at the station told the Chongqing Morning Post that often there are no passengers to be found inside the station at all.
Subways sound great – at first, but when the realities of subway operation, including extremely high costs and user unfriendliness, the love affair with subways tend to wane with customers.
The huge cost of subway construction, means economies must be had and in Scarborough, those economies mean a lack of stations. Subway stations are both extremely expensive to build and extremely expensive to operate. This means the line will only have one station. It will give a fast journey time, but the time to get to the station will, in most cases, negate any time gained by a one stop subway.
What attracts people to transit?
Just about every study done on public transit point to user friendliness and ease of use as the prime reason for taking public transport.
A one stop subway is not user friendly, deterring ridership and in the end those politicians who championed a subway so they can cut ribbons at election time, maybe instead cutting their chances for reelection.
In Vancouver though, the mainstream media, a corporate controlled press, do not ask questions about transit and those politicians and their land developer friends have ensured no debate on subways will take place.
Here lies the problem with TransLink and transit in Metro Vancouver, politicians will not allow honest debate on transit, which causes the taxpayer to vote no in plebiscites.
Even the voters in Liberal friendly areas dumped the Minister responsible for transit in the last election!
What does it take for politicians to understand that the public has absolutely no confidence in transit, TransLink nor the people who run it!
And that is what the corporate controlled media and politicians are deeply afraid of.
Cut and cover subway construction, coming to Broadway very soon.
Critics shout down staff and local Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker as they challenge wisdom of replacing five existing Scarborough RT stops with one subway stop.
At a public consultation on the Scarborough subway extension, disgruntled residents were told the budget leaves no money left to rough in future stations. Building stations later would cause the line to shut down for several years, TTC project manager Rick Thompson explained.Ai??Ai??(Andrew Lahodynskyj / Toronto Star file photo)Ai??
That was the prevailing message from a packed meeting at the Scarborough Civic Centre during a public consultation on the next phase of planning for an extension of the Bloor-Danforth line to the Scarborough Town Centre.
Residents and subway critics at times shouted down staff and local Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker as they questioned the wisdom and fairness of replacing five existing Scarborough RT stops with just one new one.
The current plan, approved by a majority of city councillors, is to build a single stop at the end of a 6.2-kilometre tunnelled extension. An early estimate puts the cost of that extension at $3.35 billion, but that figure is considered preliminary and expected to rise.
That, disgruntled residents heard, has left no money to rough in future stations. Building stations later would cause the line to shut down for several years, TTC project manager Rick Thompson explained.
ai???It is so distressing that you forget everyone out here on this end,ai??? one resident said to loud applause. ai???Itai??i??s totally inappropriate to be served by one subway extension.ai???
Responding to concerns about a single new stop, Mike Logan, from the cityai??i??s planning department, explained the subway extension was conceived of as part of a larger network, including a proposed 17-stop extension of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT, whatai??i??s being called the Eglinton East LRT.
ai???Those are all funded?ai??? someone from the audience shouted about the additional lines.
Logan explained that only the subway is fully funded with $3.56 billion committed from all three levels of government.
ai???The stations are so far apart in Scarborough,ai??? another resident shouted from the back. ai???All the rest of the city gets them close together . . . Do we not count like the rest of the city?ai???
De Baeremaeker said he continues to believe a four-stop subway should be built. He blamed ai???downtown councillors,ai??? who represent the most densely populated wards in the city, for not wanting to fund more frequent transit stops like their residents enjoy.
ai???Iai??i??ve been moving heaven and earth to try to get more stations and more money,ai??? said De Baeremaeker, appointed to champion the subway plan by Mayor John Tory, who was elected on a pledge to advocate for ai???One Toronto.ai???
De Baeremaeker blamed a ai???suburban/urban divideai??? for Scarboroughai??i??s woes.
ai???You talk to my downtown colleagues, thereai??i??s no way theyai??i??re giving us money,ai??? for more stops, De Baeremaeker said. ai???In fact theyai??i??re still trying to stop this one.ai???
A man in the audience stood several questioners later to address De Baeremakerai??i??s points:
ai???I think Councillor De Baeremaeker is misleading us when he says the downtown councillors wonai??i??t afford more money for more stops. What the downtown councillors and many others . . . wanted to do was build a network of rapid transit all over Scarborough, but Councillor De Baeremaeker and his allies prefer to spend all the money available on just the one stop subway.ai???
Several members of the TTCRiders advocacy group commented on how a comparison to the previously-planned seven-stop LRT to replace the SRT ai??i?? what was fully funded by the province ai??i?? was never done and questioned why the options presented at the meeting failed to show all the alternatives.
Council voted in March to reject a request for that cost-benefit comparison and to move forward with the one-stop plan in its absence.
Logan explained to the room that staff had never been directed to do that study.
Staff are now conducting a mandatory environmental assessment of the subway extension. Critics say the province should insist on a comparison of the extension to the light-rail alternative.
The province, which under Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne has campaigned for a subway while fighting recent by-elections, has signalled they are not interested in that comparison.
Scott Brown
TransLink says data from the one-million Compass Cards will help them adjust service to better meet commutersai??i?? needs.
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