There are affordable solutions, but they would embarrass the MoT, the City of Vancouver and academics, especially at SFU.
An ever growing population, means more traffic and until the government ensures an attractive and affordable alternative to the car, which because of SkyTrain will not get in the foreseeable future, gridlock and endemic congestion will remain.
Hint #1: Building more traffic lanes never solves congestion, but it is a political solution, especially around election time.
Hint #2: This will happen in Richmond to Vancouver bridges when the massive $3.5 billion Massey tunnel replacement bridge is built.
North Van the new Port Mann? North Shore bridges at ‘tipping point’
Traffic is bad all over Metro Vancouver, but the worst spot to emerge in the last several years is the bridgehead at the Second Narrows in North Vancouver.
Municipal leaders were told in 2015 that the North Shoreai??i??s woes coincided preciselyAi??with the expansion of the Port Mann Bridge to 10 lanes in 2012.
ai???We noticed a blip since the Port Mann bridge was completed and that really opened up a corridor on the approaches to the Second Narrows ai??i?? Itai??i??s quite significant,ai??? Jason Jardine, of the Parsons consulting firm and a consultant to the provincial ministry of highways, told council.
He suggested a ai???tipping pointai??? may have been reached, when even a small amount of extra traffic causes blockage.
ai???We can get a certain amount of traffic through a bottleneck and then when things fail, they fail very abruptly,ai??? he said. ai???We have been close to that tipping point for many years.ai???
It seems like the daily jams ai??i?? albeit not all the same vehicles ai??i?? at the Port Mann for the last few decades simply moved a few dozen kilometres up Highway 1 to the interchanges by the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge.
Gavin Joyce, North Vancouver Districtai??i??s general manager of engineering, said it is a ai???very awkward time.ai???
ai???You canai??i??t get any more vehicles through,ai??? says Joyce. ai???You can see the congestion.ai???
North Vancouver District Coun. Lisa Muri takes in the traffic moving at a snailai??i??s pace at the bottom of ai???The Cut,ai??i?? heading northwest off the Ironworkers Memorial Second Narrows Crossing. ai???Itai??i??s going to get much worse,ai??i?? she says of increasing congestion ai??i??Ai??and itai??i??s not all due to vehicular traffic. Mark van Manen / PNG
Perhaps we should have seen it coming. Highway 1 was upgraded to eight lanes, while the North Shoreai??i??s section of road is just four. It was like squeezing a big pipe into a smaller one.
Life plans have been altered as a result. Some residents have reduced the number of times they go out. Eric Andersen, who lives in the eastern part of the district on MountAi??Seymour, has given up driving in the afternoons.
ai???Itai??i??s not worth my while. I donai??i??t want to be anywhere near Highway No. 1 after 2 p.m. Chances are Iai??i??m going to sit in traffic and steam,ai??? saysAi??Andersen, president of the Blueridge Community Association. ai???What used to take 20 minutes now takes one-and-a-half hours. Itai??i??s horrible.ai???
Professional drivers ai??i?? truck drivers, couriers and the like ai??i?? withAi??the latest gadgets are daily tracking the flow of traffic.
ai???There is a button in the vehicle for traffic conditions,ai??? saysAi??one courier. ai???It tells me exactly how far traffic is backed up: vehicles are moving at 18 kilometresAi??per hour for 7.3 kilometres. It is that accurate.ai???
Impeded flows have been noted at TransLink, which is responsible for regional transportation planning.
ai???The North Shore is one of the highest incidents of change we have seen,ai??? saysAi??Geoff Cross, vice-president of planning. ai???It doesnai??i??t take a lot of additional cars for that to happenai??? ai??i??Ai??about 3,000 more vehicles a day between 2005 and 2015.
North Vancouver District Coun. Lisa Muri, for one, believes development has outpaced the ability of roads and transit to keep up. A district report notes 10,000 new building units are expected by 2030, and 20,000 additional people.
And itai??i??sAi??not just the district thatAi??is expanding. Towers are slated all over the North Shore, including villages and town centres at Park Royal, Lower Capilano, Lower Lynn, Upper Lynn, Maplewood, Edgemont, Harbourside and Lonsdale.
ai???Itai??i??s going to get much worse,ai??? saysAi??Muri.
The problem is more than just highway expansion and the fact the Lions Gate Bridge is at capacity as well. North Vancouverai??i??s 50-year-old interchanges at the Second Narrows canai??i??t keep pace with the high-speed ones on the south side, built at a cost of $3.3 billion along with the new Port Mann. Some North Van on-ramps are so constricted that vehicles must crawl along to admit newcomers, cloggingAi??the whole system.
The municipality shares responsibility for the mess: Highway 1 has been used as a local road for decades, and secondary routes werenai??i??t developed to the extent needed to shield residents from gridlock.
Those looking for civic politiciansai??i?? excuses need look no farther than the mountains, which offer up road-eating terrain. Rivers and hills constantly get in the way, spoiling plans for a grid system like the ones thatAi??can be found elsewhere in the metropolis. The number of east-west and north-south connections can be counted on a few fingers.
ai???Itai??i??s a real challenge,ai??? Joyce says.
The opening of the new Port Mann Bridge, above, four years ago coincided with more traffic jams at the Second Narrows crossing in North Vancouver. Stuart McCall/North Light / B.C. Ministry of Transportation
North Vancouverai??i??s experience has implications farther south for the proposed $3-billion Massey Tunnel replacement project on the Fraser River, as politicians in Richmond and Vancouver believe traffic jams will be transferred to the Knight and Oak StreetAi??bridges and their surrounding neighbourhoods.
ai???Widening capacity in one area will shift the problem somewhere else,ai??? saysAi??Andrew McCurran, TransLinkai??i??s director of strategic planning.
Help is on the way in North Vancouver from three levels of government: A total of $150 million is earmarked over seven years to upgrade two interchanges and add a third at Mountain Highway.
Longer on-ramps will lead to faster flows, and the Keith Road bridges thatAi??feed the system will be expanded from two lanes to four.
But the fundamental problem will remain: Eight lanes on the south side of Highway 1 and four on the north side. There is no money to expand the traffic-constricting highway bridges over Lynn Creek, saysAi??Joyce; and a much-needed, intra-municipal bridge over lower Lynn Creek is not funded either.
He saysAi??the district is ai???working very hardai??? on funding to provide more substantial upgrades.
ai???I donai??i??t know where itai??i??s going to land,ai??? Joyce says.
Former B.C. highways minister Kevin Falcon saysAi??the Second Narrows was never meant to have ai???this kind of population.ai???
ai???There is a tremendous amount of catching up to do,ai??? he says. ai???The truckers deserve a medal for getting through.ai???
Adding traffic capacity is a bit like enlarging blood vessels as a body growsAi??ai??i?? the additional size is needed to accommodate more traffic. District council was recently told that building nothing should not be an option because an expanding society depends on moving ever more people. There is always congestion, but the difference is more vehicles are getting through.
North Vancouver resident Andersen is not optimistic about current plans to address the problem.
ai???I would stick it out for a year or two, if I knew plans were afoot to fix it. But I donai??i??t see any long-term fixes,ai??? he says.
The remedy is a third crossing, since both the Lions Gate and Second Narrows bridges are at capacity. But there is little support for another crossing on either side of Burrard Inlet.
Gordon Price, former director of Simon Fraser Universityai??i??sAi??city program, saysAi??Vancouver is not willing to admit 4,000 vehicles an hour onto downtown streets; North Van residents fear that bridge-building would mean even more people coming to their forested slopes.
Muri saysAi??development should be held back to give time for road-building and bus routes to catch up. But her views wonai??i??t likely be heeded because sheai??i??s in the minority on council.
Population on the North Shore and Lions Bay is predicted to increase by 35 per cent from 2006 to 2041, adding almost 63,000 residents, and the Sea to Sky corridor will accommodate more people as well.
ai???Itai??i??s too much, too fast,ai??? she says.
I hope so and a developer, no less, is spearheading the drive to move to “rail” transit.
RftV wishes Mr. Mariash well.
If Fraser Valley developers were of the same mind as well?
CTV Vancouver Island
Published Thursday, December 8, 2016
A well-known Victoria developer says heai??i??ll get a proposed railway line between Langford and Victoria up and running within a year.
The E&N rail line has sat dormant for more than five years, but Ken Mariash, the developer behind Vic Westai??i??s Roundhouse project, is spearheading efforts to revive it.
Mayors have eyed a commuter rail service between Langford and Victoria as construction kicks into high gear on the McKenzie Interchange, which is expected to create more traffic on an already congested stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway for the next several years.
An overgrown section of the old E&N rail line between Langford and Victoria is shown. Oct. 14, 2016. (CTV Vancouver Island)
ai???Itai??i??s important to get it done, and itai??i??s a bit painful to watch when itai??i??s not getting done,ai??? said Mariash.
Thatai??i??s why Mariash has boldly predicted that one year from Thursday, a commuter rail will ride the rails once more.
Heai??i??s also predicting a price tag for commuters ai??i?? $3 to $4 each way.
For many in Langford, thatai??i??s an option that could beat sitting in the dreaded ai???Colwood Crawlai??? for hours on end.
ai???I think the speed of the Colwood Crawl now has gotten down to below 15 kilometres an hour,ai??? said Mariash.
He said the cost to get the train running could be up to $10-million, money he hopes will come from all levels of government.
Langford Mayor Stew Young said heai??i??s also excited, noting Mariash has already funded reports into getting the track back in action.
ai???Weai??i??ve got to take advantage of that and give it one good shot here, but the business case has to be here,ai??? said Young. ai???The public has to know how much we have to subsidize.ai???
Local mayors are meeting with Mariash on Friday to continue their talks aimed at getting plans for the once-vibrant railway back on track.
TransLink’s fare-gates and Compass Card system was forced upon TransLink, not to reduce fare evasion, which was well within industry norms, but to ensure then Premier Campbell’s good friend, Ken Dobell, work as aAi?? lobbyist for Cubit Industries who make the fare gates. Lobbyists must be successful with their lobby of government or no one will hire them!
With a propaganda campaign orchestrated by the mainstream media worthy of Herr Goebbels himself, about those terrible fare evaders, the fare gates and Compass Card system is now fact.
Well, here is another take on fare evasion; no wonder Cubit was so intent to sell fare gates, they are becoming obsolete!
Ignoring Fare Evaders Can Make Mass Transit Fasterai??i??And Richer
In Oslo, it began with a defective gate, the kind of thing that sings ai???lawsuit!ai??? in America. In the Norwegian capitalai??i??s metro system, in 2005, newly installed turnstiles began to trap unsuspecting riders. ai???If you had a carriage or a baby stroller, you could get stuck,ai??? Christian FjAi??r, who oversees the local transit authorityai??i??s payment operations, said at an event hosted by the research group TransitCenter last month.
So the enterprising Norwegians had an idea: Donai??i??t just ditch the malfunctioning hardware. Ditch the turnstiles and gates altogether, along with the idea of physical barriers that demand payment.
Itai??i??s not so radical. By nixing fare gates, public transit agencies emphasize ease of access over making every last rider pay. Europe got intoAi??ai???proof of paymentai??? systemsai??i??where wandering personnel request evidence you paid your wayai??i??in the 1960s. They made it to American shores, mostly in light rail systems, by the 1990s.
Now, 21st century techAi??is making it easier than ever to blow up the turnstile. Modernized, cash-free fare payment methodsai??i??like reloadable tap-and-go cards, or apps that let ridersAi??use smartphones to get tickets, Apple Pay-styleai??i??speed up boarding. Passengers donai??i??t have to struggleAi??past fare gates. They can board through any door, instead ofAi??pushing throughAi??a busai??i??s front entrance toAi??pay the driver.
The result: Faster vehicles, less crowding, and thus more frequent service, leading (hopefully) to more riders overall. Meanwhile, data collected from systems usingAi??modernized proof of payment methodsAi??donai??i??tAi??showAi??fare evasion skyrocketing. People, it turns out, mostly follow the rulesai??i??especially if they know getting caught in a spot check carries a hefty fine.
Today, bus, tram, and rail passengers in Oslo canAi??use a tap card orAi??smartphone app to pay their fares before the trip, without risking the howls of aAi??gate-pinched toddler. The cityai??i??s transit agencyAi??is ai???moving away from trying to keep the non-paying passengers away to catering for the paying passengers,ai??? FjAi??r said last month.
InAi??Oslo and cities trying to update their fare payment systems, the general attitude toward transit scofflaws is, whatevs.
The Great Doors Experiment
San Franciscoai??i??s Muni system is one of the most the recent to fling open the fare gates and make the switch to all-door boarding. After the cityai??i??s light rail started letting people hop into any door in the 1990s, its buses got in on the act in 2012. Helped along by the tap-able Clipper Card, which riders purchase and load in advance, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency installed electronic readers at all doors. It increased the number of trained fare inspectors patrolling the system, too.
ai???Essentially what we were trying to do is keep the honest folks honest,ai??? says Julie Kirschbaum, who oversees the agencyai??i??s modernization efforts. And do just enough to keep the bandits on their toes.
It worked. In tourist-heavy areas, the systemai??i??s bus and streetcar dwell times per stop dropped 13 percent. Before, each person getting on or off needed 6.8 seconds. Now, they take 3. 5 seconds. Multiply those moments of savings by every rider boarding and alighting at every stop on every bus line, and youai??i??ve got hundreds of hours of extra time per year. All from opening up the back doors.
Related VideoThe Art of Designing Public Transit for Anti-Social Commuters
The cheaters are still along for the ride, according to Muniai??i??s latest data. But the agencyai??i??s surveys found fare evasion dropped from nearly 10 percent in 2009 to 7.9 percent in 2014. The resulting estimated loss in revenue fell from $19.2 million to $17.1 million.
That tracks with Osloai??i??s experience, where the public transit system also liberated all metros from fare gates. By making it easier for riders to pay for tickets through their phones, the system halved its fare evasion rates, to five percent. Trains are moving faster, too, which encourages more people to use the service. The agency has calculated the cost of slower operations versus what itai??i??s losing through fare evasion. It makes more financial sense to let the cheaters cheat, it says.
The Tech Hangups
Unfortunately, flinging open every door is not as simple as, well, flinging open every door. The requisite fare modernization efforts donai??i??t come cheap. New Yorkai??i??s been trying to trade in its swipey MetroCard for a tap-and-go, smartphone-friendly system for nearly a decade now, but wonai??i??t really get the ball rolling until 2018ai??i??for a cool $419 million.
Los Angeles, meanwhile, started its Metro with a fare gate-free, proof-of-payment system, but started moving back to gates in 2008. It cited fare evasion, yes, but also public safety and crime deterrence.
Different strokes, man. But cities like Oslo and San Francisco show thereai??i??s a counter intuitive logic to making transit easier to ride for all.
TransLink continues it ongoing program to bamboozle the public and politicians with their patented ridership bumf.
Boarding’s are up 4%, really?
Maybe, but boarding’s do not equate into actual higher actual ridership numbers, especially with the 130,000, $1.00 a day, ride at will U-Passes distributed to post secondary students.
Simply put, those 130,000 U-Pass customers, which TransLink does not keep track of, are making multiple boarding’s daily, skewing ridership numbers.
TransLink has a powerful tool in calculating ridership and it is called the Compass Card and with the compass Card, TransLink knows almost to the person, how many people are using transit on a daily basis. That TransLink doesn’t release these figure, but relies on questionable “boarding’s” numbers of old tells me a different story is at play.
Has real ridership stagnated or dropped or merely kept pace with population growth? Only TransLink knows. Problem is, TransLink has “0” credibility.
With 130,000 deep discount U-Pass fares in the system and many using the the transit system multiple times a day, the higher “boarding’s” climb, the poorer TransLink becomes. One cannot sustain a premium priced transit system on deep discounted fares.
Most Transit customersAi?? transfer from, or transfer to, bus, SkyTrain or Seabus, on a single trip thus a single trip in may see up to three or more boarding’s with a single transit trip in. With the U-Pass, this may increase three fold.
There is also an interesting comment that mode share by bicycle is down 20%, (which, around 2% of trips made, is a very small amount) but no mention of the car, which has about 57% mode share.
What you don’t hear from TransLink is the important story, but the main stream media don’t do investigative reporting on transit because it is a motherhood and apple pie issue and TransLink takes full advantage of this.
There are more hints that TransLink is continuing to bamboozle the public and politicians on ridership, but until more data is compiled, must wait for another day.
TransLink says ridership is up 4% so far this year.
Spokesperson Chris Bryan says numbers were originally on track for a 2% increase, but there was a bump in the fall.
ai???The rainfall we saw in the fall, as miserable as it was, itai??i??s driven people to transit we think. The ridership trend was going upward but it really took off these past three months or so,ai??? he said.
ai???Itai??i??s pretty good news to talk about. [In] 2015 we had record ridership,Ai??all-time high of about 364.3-million boardings on the system and weai??i??re on track for exceeding that,ai??? he said.
At the same time, Bryan says that boost in riders has come at the expense of other mode shares, particularly cyclists with trips by bike in Vancouver is down about 20% in October, over the same month last year.
Big things are happening in Ottawa, as the European light rail Renaissance has arrived in Canada
Ai??Photos: Courtesy Haveacow.
Vehicle testing marks next big milestone for O-Train Confederation Line
December 2, 2016
News Release
Ottawa ai??i?? A major milestone in the O-Train Confederation Line Light Rail Transit (LRT) project was celebrated today as the first light rail vehicle (LRV) assembled in Ottawa began testing on the track between Blair and Cyrville stations. Vehicle testing along the alignment from Blair Station to Tunneyai??i??s Pasture will continue until the launch of the O-Train Confederation Line in 2018.
David McGuinty, Member of Parliament for Ottawa South, on behalf of the Honourable Amarjeet Sohi, Minister of Infrastructure and Communities, the Honourable Steven Del Duca, Ontario Minister of Transportation, and Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson, along with other dignitaries from all levels of government, participated in a photo opportunity with the LRV in celebration of this milestone.
The O-Train Confederation Line is a $2.1-billion project that is jointly funded by the Government of Canada, the Province of Ontario and the City of Ottawa. The Government of Canada is contributing $600 million and the Province of Ontario is contributing up to $600 million. The City of Ottawa will also allocate up to $161.5 million of its federal Gas Tax Fund transfers to this project and $287 million of provincial gas tax transfers. The remaining project funds will come from development charge revenues and transit reserves.
The Rideau Transit Group is the private sector partner responsible for this first stage in Ottawaai??i??s future rail network. The 12.5-kilometre electric light rail line will provide rapid transit between Blair Station in the east and Tunneyai??i??s Pasture Station in the west and will connect to the O-Trainai??i??s Trillium Line at Bayview Station. The route includes 13 stations and a 2.5-kilometre tunnel that will reduce congestion through the downtown core.
Quotes
ai???The Government of Canada is committed to working in partnership with all orders of government to support infrastructure projects that create jobs and help the middle class grow and prosper. The O-Train Confederation Line will transform how people get where they need to go safely and efficiently, and I am pleased to see how well the project is moving ahead thanks to the tremendous effort by all involved.ai???
David McGuinty, Member of Parliament for Ottawa South on behalf of the Honourable Amarjeet Sohi, Federal Minister of Infrastructure and Communities
ai???This is great news for the City of Ottawa ai??i?? we are one step closer to delivering an efficient and world-class transit option for commuters. Construction on the O-Train Confederation Line project supports our objectives of developing an integrated transportation network across Ontario that will help manage congestion, connect people to jobs and improve the economy and our quality of life.ai???
The Honourable Steven Del Duca, Provincial Minister of Transportation
ai???Todayai??i??s milestone is significant as the first light rail vehicle assembled in Ottawa undergoes testing, demonstrating that we are on track to delivering a first-class transit system to our residents in 2018. This is a celebration of all the work that has taken place to date and is a glimpse of the future of transit for our city.ai???
Mayor Jim Watson, City of Ottawa
Quick Facts
33 of 34 Alstom CITADIS light rail vehicles (LRVs) are being assembled at the Maintenance and Storage Facility (MSF), located on Belfast Road.
Vehicle and system testing began this fall and will continue up until the launch of the O-Train Confederation Line in 2018.
One of the initial tests is related to dynamic envelope testing where foam pads are affixed to the vehicle as it runs along the alignment ai??i?? powered by the Overhead Catenary System (OCS) ai??i?? to ensure that adequate clearances are maintained from overhead wires, OCS poles, tree branches etc.
Residents will see rail vehicles traveling varying distances for testing purposes with no passengers on board.
Residents are reminded to stay off the tracks and not to trespass on the alignment, as energized OCS and moving vehicles are hazardous.
Vehicle movements will continue at low speeds between Blair and Cyrville stations to enable testing of the functions of various components of the vehicle and systems.
Some of the final panels and markings on vehicles will be added in the later stages of testing.
Testing will be ongoing as required until 2018, giving residents many opportunities to see the vehicles on the test track (Blair Station to just east of Tremblay Station) initially, and later along the whole alignment.
Approximately 100 jobs have been created in Ottawa for the assembly of LRVs.
What the FRA does, Transport Canada will soon follow.
This news is of great importance to Metro and Victoria’s metro regions, bringing in a transit option that Rail for the Valley has been championing for many years.
Proven European technology combined with proven European transit philosophy (which will come with the technology), just may make huge improvements for better and affordable transit options in North American cities.
Stadler 2/6 DMU in Austin. Flikr user Paul Kimo McGregor.
New regulations from the Federal Railroad Administration could open up exciting new options for passenger rail in the Northwest. Ai??Ai??TheseAi??updates have been in the pipeline for some time now and are finally ready for public review.
The first of the new rules creates a new ai???Tier IIIai??? for high-speed passenger rail. Tier I covers speeds up to 125mph (i.e. Amtrak Cascades, Sounder), Tier II goes up to 160mph, and the new Tier III (220mph) relates to true high-speed trains such as we might some day see in California.
The second and more interesting rule changeAi??provides an alternative crash safety standard for Tier I (and only Tier I) trains, for tracks that are shared between passenger and freight rail. Ai??Streetsblog has a good summary:
The FRA expects the new rules will enable railroads to use trains that are safer, more energy efficient, and cheaper to operate. The rules will allow American passenger train operators to purchase rolling stock designed to European safety standards (but not Japanese standards), without going through an expensive waiver process.
ai???It was an obstacle for all foreign railway manufacturers to bring any state-of-the-art trains into the country,ai??? said Alois Starlinger, a board member for the Swiss train maker Stadler Rail.
Building trains to unusual U.S. safety standards for the small American passenger rail market made rolling stock purchases needlessly expensive. Opening the door to standardized European train specifications will significantly lower prices.
Running cheaper, lighter Diesel Multiple Unit (DMU) trains on existing freight rail tracks could open up some more options for passenger rail. Ai??As our own Bruce Nourish explained when the regs were first announced:
To get a sense of the economic and environmental cost of Americaai??i??s overbuilt trains, letai??i??s look at a simple number, the weight of the trains, taking Sounder North as an example. To a first order approximation, the environmental and economic cost of building and operating a vehicle (of a certain type of fuel) is proportional to the amount of metal that goes into it. A three-car Sounder North train weighs about 240 metric tons (50 t carriages, 120 t locomotive), while theAi??Stadler 2/8 weighs 79 metric tons. So, roughly speaking, we could comfortably move Sounder Northai??i??s passenger load with a third of the fuel and materials we use today. This would do much to bring down Sounder Northai??i??s painfully high cost per boarding; to boot, a DMU train would almost certainly accelerate faster, ride more smoothly, and be quieter to the neighbors. DMUs on this line could be a huge win.
San Francisco residents were able to take the bus and trolley for free on Saturday after the city’s computer systems for taking fares wereAi??apparently hacked.
SF Muni computers displayed the message “You Hacked, ALL Data Encrypted,” the San Francisco Examiner reportedAi??on Saturday.
Machines where riders could fill up their fare cards had signs attached that said “out of service” and “free Muni” on Saturday. Fare gates and ticket machines were working on Sunday morning.
The attack seems to be an example of ransomware, where a computer system is taken over and the users are locked out until a certain amount of money is sent to the attacker. The Muni hack reportedly included an email address where Muni officials could ask for the key to unlock its systems.
Outages started happening on Friday afternoon but the bulk of the delays started on Saturday, according to a local ABC News affiliate. The extent and the identity of the perpetrator of the hack isn’t known yet.
“We are currently working to resolve the situation,” a Muni spokesperson told the Examiner. “There is an ongoing investigation and it wouldn’t be appropriate to provide additional details.”
Transit improvements coming soon? Don’t hold your breathe because TransLink’s planning is extremely suspect.
Certainly new buses will arrive for new routes and new drivers, mechanics and the rest of the employees needed to operate the new buses will be hired, but will this actually improve transit?
I doubt it because TransLink is fixated on its dated planning where bureaucratic and political prestige comes first and user-friendliness comes a distant last.
For this ever elder citizen, taking public transit today is the very last transportation option I would consider as the Mayors Council on Transit, don’t give a damn about a user-friendly transit system and customer comfort, all they care about is throwing more and more money on a dysfunction transit system all to garner votes from the 85% of the population who do not take transit.
UBC expert fears Vancouver subway is still far off
With funding now secured for $2 billion in transit improvements, the head of UBCai??i??s urban design program thinks other projects could see delays.
Jennifer Gauthier/Metro
The 99 B-Line runs down Broadway in Vancouver, B.C.
The head of the University of British Columbiaai??i??s urban design program thinks it may be a while before any of his students are riding a subway to school.
After TransLinkai??i??s board and the regionai??i??s mayors approved $2 billion in transit improvements on Wednesday, Patrick Condon wonders if the other outstanding projects in the mayorsai??i?? 10-year plan will be given the same urgency.
While Minister Responsible for TransLink Peter Fassbender told Metro the province is ready with its share of capital funds for the Broadway subway in Vancouver, light rail in Surrey and the Pattullo Bridge replacement, Condon says government seems to be looking 20 to 30 years into the future in interviews heai??i??s heard.
ai???I think you could say that the signals are there that the funding of the very largest pieces of this 10-year plan is certainly not secured and may not be even likely in the short term, said Condon, of UBCai??i??s School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. ai???20 years to get out to Arbutus Street with a subway is not going to help the corridor very much and itai??i??s not going to help the students of UBC. I suspect weai??i??re not going to be seeing good news about funding in the spring [when governments announce their budgets].ai???
Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson stressed the region needs to move quickly to secure funding for Phase Two of its plan.
TransLink staff hope to have an investment plan for the next phase ready by 2018.
Condon had good things to say about the plan passed this week, especially the five new B-Line bus routes that will service Fraser Highway, Lougheed Highway, Marine Drive on the North Shore, 41st Avenue and Hastings Street.
ai???Those are really important to increase the mobility along these important, and what are largely considered to be suburban, corridors,ai??? he said.
The 99 B-Line along Broadway in Vancouver may be overcrowded and insufficient now, but Condon said it had a great impact on public transit use and development along that stretch of the city.
ai???Itai??i??s been killed by its own success but itai??i??s really changed the way people get around in this part of the city and to get out to UBC, for sure,ai??? he said. ai???I expect to see some of those same benefits to these other parts of the city: more higher-density residential units and less people depending on cars along those important corridors.ai???
The plan, which will be rolled out over five years starting in early 2017, will see a 10 per cent increase in bus service, 20 per cent more SkyTrain service, a new SeaBus, more West Coast Express trains and a 15 per cent increase in HandyDART service.
To pay for it, municipalities will raise their property taxes by an average of $3 per household, raise fares in July by up to 10 cents on a single zone and implement a new development fee, which requires approval from the provincial government.
Zwei has decided to reprint this post from 2010, written by someone outside the metro Vancouver bubble, who tried to better the region’s transit.
In the ensuing time nothing has changed; the same oldAi??tired cast of charlatans trundling out the same old tired transit plans,Ai??desperately tryingAi??to convinceAi??the ever increasingly skeptical taxpayerAi??to ante up more and more tax money to fund transit improvements that everyone knows will fail to deliver what is promised.
The regional mayors, act as a collectiveAi??ai???Ship of Foolsai??? pretending they want better transit, when most secretly want miles and miles of new blacktop in their municipalities so their political friends can develop the ever diminishing ALR lands. The mainstream media,Ai?? desperate to retain advertising revenue form those in power and those who wield power, have acquiredAi??collective amnesia regarding transit and transit news and print, what they are told to print.
Herr Goebbels would be soAi??pleased.
The region has no real transit plan and no transit.
Vancouver is at first glance a beautiful city. It is surrounded by sweeping vistas and a dramatic skyline.
The climate is moderate but spend some time here and scratch the surface and it becomes far less attractive. It is a city that is divided politically; it is parochial, narrow minded and shallow. The people are characterless, flaky and disingenuous. Vancouver is the scam capital of North America, a skill set for which the local population is particularly adept.
There are times when I am certain that Vancouver is something straight out of Conradai??i??s Heart of Darkness.
It is a cold place, people in the same business do not interact of share information they do not network or help each other. There is an almost a Darwinian or Hobbesian social culture ai??i?? Vancouver is an empty void.
The political environment is polarized and doctrinaire. The left adheres to ideas that are at least a generation out of date. Vancouverites think that Naomi Klein is an intellectual when in reality she is a very silly charlatan. To Vancouverites the secret is a serious work of self help. The right is equally foolish in the banality of their free market ideology.
You donai??i??t meet people of substance here. You meet flakes. The press is dominated by yellow journalism. Rarely if ever have I read a real piece of investigative journalism. You do not meet people who form their opinions based upon facts. When you encounter Vancouverites and engage them in the discussion of social issues the argument usually become circular and they end of talking only about themselves. There is a kind of deep insecurity that comes from profound feeling of self loathing that is hard wired into the political culture here. Narcissism is the dominate religion and worshiping at the Temple of Mammon ai??i?? real estate speculation is the Holy Grail.
People here (generally speaking of course) are stuck up, materialistic yuppies. The downtown scene used to have decent variety, now itai??i??s full of ai???cookie-cutterai??? clubs and bars that cater to Armani clones.
Go east of here, or especially south of here, and youai??i??ll find friendlier people that arenai??i??t so consumed with cliques and materialism. If one hails from Harare, Timbuktu, Tripoli, or Darfur then yes, Vancouver appears pretty good, but ai???the most livable city on Earthai????
Not only is this pretentious, itai??i??s just plain wrong.
No where is the contrast more apparent, than in Coquitlam and Port Moody; cities like Surrey, Delta and Langley, South of the Fraser River and east along the Valley to Abbotsford and Chilliwack.
Politicians, planners, decision makers, wealthy Vancouver suburbanites and the `movers & shakersai??i?? contemptuously dismiss the communities beyond downtown as the boondocks; the disdain for the citizens of the Greater Vancouver Regional District and the Fraser Valley is illustrated in the attitude of the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, BC Transit and TransLink, to public transport in these areas.
The Emperor has no Clothes and no Transit.
From December 2010;The Rail for the Valley movement has long campaigned against this inequity:
We can only hope that the upcoming May (2017) election will end to the sixteen years of ineptitude, inequality, corruption & nepotism which started in Gordon Campbellai??i??s BC Liberal administration and now continued by premier Chritsy Clark and echoed by the provincial NDP will improve the outlook; I doubt it but, we can but hope and wish.
One should have some basis for comparison before showering such hyperbole on the overpriced, congested, and conceited squalor that is the most livable city in the world. If any city (or province) is presumptuous enough to put ai???the best place on Earthai??? on its license plates; itai??i??d better well be the case, because itai??i??s citizens donai??i??t uphold the credibility.
Vancouver is a poor-manai??i??s version of Seattle that, ironically, costs five times at much. Unlike Seattle, however, Vancouver has a dearth of friendly (and English-speaking) people, good music, and reasonably-priced beer. The self-satisfied smugness Vancouverites have toward their neighbour city to the south (or any metropolis, for that matter) stems from an amalgamation of an inferiority complex coupled with an identity crisis. Canada is like the U.S. in every way, except not quite as good. Nowhere is this exemplified more than in Vancouver.
Well, it had to happen, the fools council has approved ‘phase one’ of Translink’s ten year plan.
I doubt that any of the mayors in this old boys/girls club know very much about transit, but they certainly know what gets them votes and transit is a motherhood and apple pie issue.
Buying new SkyTrain cars is a no-brainer as the majority of the MK.1 cars have now operated since 1985 and now are over 30 years old. As well, buying new SkyTrain cars keeps the production line intact and with SkyTrain being a proprietary railway, this is important, lest one day new SkyTrain cars are ordered but no production line to produce them.
The pre-production work on both the Broadway subway and Surrey LRT is a complete waste of money, but TransLink is very good at wasting the public’s money.
What TransLink has not done, is to make the regional transit service more customer friendly, but then to do that, the six figured a year salaried mandarins in TransLink’s expensive ‘ivory towers’ would have face some very unpleasant questions.
The key to a better regional transit service is not more buses, SkyTrain cars and employees, rather it is providing a transit service that naturally attracts customers to transit. Flooding the system with 130,000 deep discounted U-Passes and double and triple counting ‘boarded’ passengers is not the way to run a transit system, but without public scrutiny, TransLink can and deso as it pleases.
The 2015 plebiscite showed that the majority of the public had no confidence in this obtuse bureaucratic empire, called TransLink and the ‘phase one’ spend-a-thon shows that those running TransLink learned nothing and remember nothing.
Phase one of 10-year transit and transportation plan for Metro Vancouver approved
The Mayorsai??i?? Council and TransLink Board of Directors have approved Phase One of the 10-year Vision for Metro Vancouver Transit and Transportation.
TransLink will roll out Phase One in January 2017.
The $2 billion-dollar planAi??will ai???bring noticeable improvements to the way residents travel throughout Metro Vancouver, by reducing overcrowding on transit and on HandyDart, providing new services to areas which havenai??i??t had transit before, helping to address bottlenecks on the regionai??i??s major road networks, and creating pedestrian walkways and bike paths.ai???
Map of the proposed improvements:
Funding Phase One
Phase One of the plan will be funded by a $370 million from the Federal Government and $246 million from the Provincial Government. The remaining $1.3 billion will be coming from TransLink.
Phase one will be partially funded by transit fare and property tax increases.
Translink says the fare increase will be 5 to 10 cents on a single fare and $1 to $3 on a monthly pass.
The property tax increase will be based on growth and development in the region.
There will also be a new region-wide development fee for transit and transportation and Translink will sell surplus property.
Unifor, which represents 4,700 transit operators, mechanics, maintenance and SeaBus workers, calls the phase one approval a ai???big winai??? but calls on the province to increase its contribution to capital costs from 33 per cent to 40 per cent.
Unifor says commuters can expect to see a 10% increase in bus service starting in April 2017 and new buses on the road.
Kent Spencer
Photos: Courtesy Haveacow.
Stadler 2/6 DMU in Austin. Flikr user Paul Kimo McGregor.
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