After Over $8 billion Invested in SkyTrain, Vancouver Is The Most Congested City In Canada
No surprises here, Metro Vancouver has suffered from over 30 years of dreadful transportation planning, highlighted by meddling by the former Social Credit and NDP provincial governments and the meddling continues todayAi??with the provincial Liberal government.
From Zwei’s perspective, the regional taxpayer has invested well over $8 billion on an extremely dated transit system and an equally dated transit philosophy that came with it. In 2012, the chickens have come home to roost, so to speak, and the proprietary SkyTrain light metro system has increased congestion in the Metro Vancouver region, instead of mitigating traffic gridlock.
With light-metro, the thought was that the light-metro itself would attract motorists, but the problem was, many motorists would have to take a bus either too SkyTrain or from SkyTrain to complete their journey. It is widely known in the transit trade that transfers may deter 70% of potential customers from using transit and the more one has to transfer, the greater the loss. Forced transfers are even worse as potential transit customers learn to hate the transit service and do anything to not take the bus.
TransLink’s ruse to boost ridership figures on SkyTrain and the transit system, the U-Pass (a $1.00 a day universal transit pass, issued now to over 100,000 post secondary students in the region) is causing congestion on key transit routes, has further deterred attracting the all important motorist from the car.
The one thing that Zwei has learned from over three decades of consulting with transit experts is that; “Buses do not attract ridership, especially the motorist.”
Light rail is different than light metro because the tram/streetcar route can effectively service urban areas, that is just too expensive for light metro to expand into, thus LRT can offer a seamless or no transfer journey from where potential transit customers live to where customers want to go. The seamless or no transfer journey has proven to attract new ridership to a transit line. TransLink’sAi?? metro Vancouver’s and provincial transit planners are still in the ‘dark ages’ of transit planning and their adherence to the dated SkyTrain light metro and light-metro philosophy is proving to be a financial millstone around the regional taxpayer’s neck. Change is not going to happen anytime soon as local planners still treat modern LRT as a poorman’s SkyTrain and design it as such.
SkyTrain and the transit philosophy that goes with it has made Vancouver L. A. North and get used to it, because there are scores of planning bureaucrats and university academics would rather see the massive tax hikes that will beggar the regional taxpayer to fund grossly outdated transit planning, rather than admit that they got it all wrong!
Vancouver: Canada’s most congested city
By GORDON HOEKSTRA, Vancouver SunJuly 10, 2012Ai??
Vancouver is the most congested city in Canada and the second most congested in North America behind only Los Angeles, says a report by an Amsterdam-based company that produces vehicle-navigation systems. Hereai??i??s a look at traffic congestion on Burrard Street north of Nelson during rush hour Tuesday afternoon.
Photograph by: Gerry Kahrmann, PNG
Vancouver is the most congested city in Canada and the second most congested in North America behind only Los Angeles, says a report by an Amsterdam-based company that produces vehicle-navigation systems.
The first quarterly congestion index by TomTom, which covers 26 major North American cities, found that on average, journey times in Vancouver take 30 per cent longer during peak congestion periods than when traffic is flowing freely.
The company used data from thousands of its navigation-system customers in the Vancouver area, including the North Shore, Burnaby, New Westminster and Richmond, to calculate the increase in time spent in traffic during peak congestion periods.
The report found that vehicle commutes in Vancouver take 65 per cent longer during the one most congested hour of the evening rush period and 51 per cent longer in the most congested hour of the morning rush period.
Nick Cohn, head of congestion research for TomTom, said the data showed the Vancouver regionai??i??s congestion levels are worse on local and arterial roads than on highways.
Choke points in Vancouver include entrance roads to bridges such as the Knight Street, Oak and Lions Gate bridges, as well as downtown roads such as Georgia, Dunsmuir and Seymour, he said.
Cohn said the data the company collects ai??i?? available at routes.tomtom.com and used to market its products ai??i?? can help people plan their commute along less congested routes.
ai???We also hope that it helps city governments understand a little bit about their relative position and see maybe over time whether their efforts to change the mobility situation in their region are really working,ai??? said Cohn.
In Canada, Toronto (No. 9) and Ottawa (No. 10) also made the top 10 most congested list.
In Los Angeles, journeys take 33-per-cent longer during congestion periods on average than when traffic is flowing freely. The commutes take 56-per-cent longer at the morning peak and 77-per-cent longer at the peak of the evening rush hour.
Also in the Top 10 were Miami (No. 3), Seattle (No. 4), Tampa (No. 5) and San Francisco (No. 6). New York was ranked 15th.
Richard Walton, chair of the Metro Vancouver Mayorsai??i?? Council on Regional Transportation, said the TomTom report results appear to indicate that Vancouver has a similar problem to Seattle and San Francisco, cities where bodies of water create choke points.
He cautioned, however, that the data could be skewed if people using the navigation systems are using them because they are on the most congested routes.
But the Lower Mainland will continue to have a traffic congestion problem while its population grows and areas south of the Fraser River and east of Langley are underserviced by rapid transit, said Walton, the mayor of North Vancouver.
City of Vancouver staff noted the number of vehicle trips into downtown Vancouver in the past 15 years have decreased by 20 per cent. Thatai??i??s a result of an increase in transit, cycling and walking.
Russell Cullingworth is not surprised by the findings of the TomTom report.
Cullingworth spent 3-1/2 years commuting between Port Moody and his job at Canuck Place in Vancouver, calculating that he spent an additional 207 eight-hour working days in his car during that time.
Cullingworth needed his car for work, so taking transit was not an option.
In 2010, Cullingworth started his own company and now works from home, a decision he made partly to get back those lost commuting hours.
ai???I tried to listen to audio books and do something useful with the time, but itai??i??s also stressful. You are not relaxed, and the busier it gets, the angrier people get as well. [Thereai??i??s] a lot of road rage and crazy drivers out there,ai??? noted Cullingworth.
Cullingworth suggests one option may be to replace the ai???epidemicai??? of traffic lights with traffic circles or roundabouts popular in Europe.
They would cut down on waiting times at lights and keep traffic moving in a constant flow, he said.
Christine Philips, Cullingworthai??i??s girlfriend, who drives to work in Richmond, said the evening rush hour commute is much worse than the morningai??i??s.
If she leaves even 20 minutes later than 4 p.m. it can add 30 to 45 minutes to her trip home. ai???Thereai??i??s better things to do in life than sit in your car,ai??? said Philips, a human resources adviser for environment services firm Tervita.
She would like to see the lane on the two-lane Barnet Highway restricted to vehicles with two or more people opened up to all cars. While itai??i??s a good idea in theory to encourage people to carpool, generally itai??i??s not practical, she noted.
ghoekstra@vancouversun.com
Good points, you also can’t “transit” your way out of gridlock which Toronto has proven by spending more and more money on transit, than any other city in Canada, to get more and more gridlock.
Transit can only succeed in reducing some vehicle traffic when you provide accessible tram or LRT lines at grade to attract existing drivers who are willing to take transit.
When you go crazy with the wrecking ball to build high rise condos along elevated transit lines followed by massive high rise developments next to the elevated lines to try to concentrate transit users near the elevated lines, you also attract a much greater number of drivers moving into the condos next to the elevated lines – three drivers for every potential transit rider.
In effect, elevated transit by TransLink is acting as a catalyst for increased gridlock by stuffing more and more drivers onto the existing roads around the elevated lines – Metrotown in Burnaby is prime example. Loony so called TransLink planners are ironically making traffic congestion worse but the developers are happy and are making lots of money.
SkyTrain has.been the prelude for gridlock in the region. Too expensive to do any good, we keep building more but the population keeps out-pacing SkyTrain and the bus system and the car is the only way to go.
I know the old Light Rail Committee predicted this since the mid 1990’s and they been proven correct.
We should fire everyone involved in regional transit planning and start afresh.
In Europe, new tram lines are not considered unless the promoters of the scheme can prove a 25% modal shift from car to tram.
I find transit planning in Canada and especially the Greater Vancouver area haphazard at best. Over $8 billion invested so far you say, it seems it has been money flushed down the loo, as Vancouver has worst of all worlds, a very expensive light metro network and politicians too ignorants to do the right thing.
How planners and politicians stay employed in Vancouver is anyones guess, certainly it is not for making good decisions.