Horse manure from Vision(less) Vancouver and the N.P.A.
Wow, such BS from Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson and mayor wannabeAi??Kirk LaPointe, saying he is going to build an affordable subway is laughable.
Robertson has no proof to back up his claim that a subway will be; “taking 50,000 cars off the road”. One should remember the empty claim that the Canada line would take 200,000 car journeys of the road a day, which it never did and today, there are more cars on the road than ever!
The NPA’s Kirk LaPointe promises of counter-flow lanes and a affordable subway are so bizarre, one wonders if he is a left over from the X-files.
The royal fool, Geoff Meggs, is also in on the act and it is all so embarrassing as neither Vision(less) Vancouver or the NPA have a clue about transit and transit mode and if either party gains control of city hall, Municipalities and cities south of the Fraser should seriously consider leaving TransLink and forming a south Fraser Transit Authority and let Vancouver bankrupt TransLink with subway mania.
Traffic flows along Broadway do not warrant a subway; in fact
they barely warrant a streetcar line!
Mayor Gregor Robertson and Kirk LaPointe trade barbs over transit plan
Mayor Gregor Robertson addressed reporters at the VCC-Clark SkyTrain station to reinforce their commitment to improving the cityai??i??s transit system.
His party’s transit system plan involves upgrading bus stops, sustaining enhanced transportation services for seniors and supporting the 10-year TransLink plan in the referendum. This will include the new B-Line services, more night buses and the early stages of the Broadway subway to Arbutus.
ai???That subway is the single best thing that you can do for our economy and environment, taking 50,000 cars off the road,ai??? said Robertson.
ai???We will also advocate strongly in support of the referendum. We will not waiver on that one bit, because winning a transit referendum isnai??i??t just about the Broadway subway; itai??i??s about massive improvements to transit across the region.ai???
Phase one of the Broadway Corridor Rapid Transit Project would be a 5.1 km extension of the Millenium Line SkyTrain from VCC-Clark to Arbutus with a projected cost of $2 billion. The line will eventually route to UBC in the future second phase.
At a news conference on Tuesday, Non-Partisan Association mayoral candidate Kirk LaPointe announced that he would deliver an ai???affordable, underground Broadway subwayai??? to UBC in addition to creating counterflow lanes on major roads and adding capacity to the 99 B-Line bus route.
Robertson responded by saying NPAai??i??s ai???lack of understanding when it comes to major issues like transitai??? puts the city at risk. LaPointe is always ai???evolvingai??? and changing his mind on the Broadway subway, and he is proposing drastic changes but is weary with the details, added Vision city councillor Geoff Meggs.
ai???Mr. LaPointeai??i??s plan seems to be to make our main streets more like freeways,ai??? Meggs said in a press release.
The lanes should not be viewed as creating a freeway within the cityai??i??s boundaries, LaPointe acknowledged at his news conference, but rather an opportunity to ease congestion during rush hours.
ai???Gregor Robertson has jacked up parking rates, heai??i??s taken away car lanes and heai??i??s shown no respect for drivers, at all,ai??? LaPointe said. ai???He doesnai??i??t get the fact that sometimes ai??i?? sometimes ai??i?? a car is the only option that works.ai???
During Vancouverai??i??s first mayoral debate of the election season yesterday, LaPointe also called out Robertson lack of leadership suggesting that he had nothing to show for six years of commitment to the transit plan.
ai???I could grab your pen and do a sketch on paper and thatai??i??s as far as we have gone,ai??? said LaPointe. ai???You are not doing your job as mayor,ai??? LaPointe told Robertson. ai???Youai??i??ve had six years to get the job done. This was your No. 1 transit priority from day one. Howai??i??s priority number 11 going?ai???
In response to Green Gregor’s contention: “That subway is the single best thing that you can do for our economy and environment, taking 50,000 cars off the road,” said Robertson”
I’ll be sending off the following email copied to the media:
http://metronews.ca/news/vancouver/975661/vancouver-mayor-gregor-robertson-takes-flack-for-25klunch-on-twitter/
Mayor Gregor Robertson,
Vision led by you is blind, deaf and dumb. You claim to be Green; yet Vision has allowed TransLink to replace the zero emission trolleybuses, which once operated on Cambie Street, with diesel buses emitting huge amounts of carbon emissions. From Commercial Drive to UBC along Broadway, Vision has let TransLink chip away at the zero emission trolleybus service to the point where 89% to 100 % of the transit service is diesel bus service, now. This weekend as usual, TransLink is operating noxious and noisy diesel buses 100% of the time and is not offering any trolleybus service to UBC. These diesel buses in operation entirely underneath trolleybus lines are spewing out not only massive amounts of lung damaging particulate matter into people’s homes but also tremendous amounts of CO2 into the environment on the No. 9 “trolleybus route” to alter the climate. Incidentally, the particulate mater levels from the diesel buses operating far too frequently along Broadway exceed the Canadian standard, and you are fully aware of this. You and Councillor Geoff Meggs, your “transit expert”, literally disgust me and many others who I know.
Visionless vision for transit in Vancouver
You’re a miserable disappointment as mayor, Gregor. You’re being disingenuous when it comes to the supposed reason for the subway to UBC. Your main goal isn’t the subway to improve transit or even remove cars from the roads; it is to win support for “your subway” which won’t be built for another 10 to 20 years, if ever, so that Bob Rennie, your pal, can start constructing high rise luxury condos right away for sale to rich overseas buyers – under the guise of doing so to remove cars from the roads. With all the future transit users who won’t need a car, it baffles me that each luxury condo still includes one or more parking spaces for the future subway users. While more transit capacity for the condo dwellers is being planned by Vision to accommodate the added transit users concentrated along Broadway, there is no plan by Vision to upgrade Broadway to accommodate the many more added drivers concentrated in the condos along Broadway – road congestion can only worsen in Vancouver – therefore.
I guess that adding many-many more parking spaces for many-many more drivers moving into the high rise condo developments along Broadway is going to reduce vehicle use by 50,000 cars – in the Robertson scheme of things. Have you considered zoning all future condo units along Broadway to not include any parking since you are so sure that everyone moving into the planned condos units along Broadway is not going to drive and is going take transit?
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Hypothetically speaking, if the subway to UBC is going to take cars off the roads, so too will LRT, trams or just more buses. There has been no modal shift from driving to transit and won’t be in the future. Driving at 100 kph on Highway 1, Highway 91 and Highway 99 or driving at 50 kph in traffic is much faster than taking b-lines traveling at 22 kph in traffic or s-trains traveling at 40 kph. Even cycling is faster than transit for most commuters in Vancouver when the time wasted walking to the transit stop and the time wasted waiting at the transit stop are taken into account.
Subways, s-trains and b-lines are not competing for drivers or even cyclists based on speed because they are the slowest way to travel in Vancouver – subways, s-trains and b-lines are competing for regular transit users on buses which are slower than subways, s-trains and b-lines. Subways, s-trains and b-lines are scams by TransLink and just increase transit costs. They do nothing to reduce the number of cars on the roads – according to statistics from TransLink.
Families are fleeing the costly and dinky condo suites along the subway and s-train lines in Vancouver to live in spacious detached homes in Delta, Surrey… Langley – to then to drive into Vancouver along Highway 1, Highway 91 and Highway 99. This is not sustainable. Vision is racking up awards for being Green with its specious statistics – driving to UBC and downtown Vancouver is down touts Vision – but Vision fails to mention that there isn’t anywhere to park in downtown Vancouver and UBC and that driving is way-way up in 97% of the city. Vision is distorting the truth and transit oriented communities along subway lines are merely relocating drivers and are not reducing drivers.
Dredging of sand used for concrete to build subways and condos not sustainable in Vancouver
Dredging of the Pacific Ocean is taking place unabated for the sand which is vital for the concrete used to construct the towering concrete condo dwellings and concrete subway lines as well as elevated concrete guide ways for s-trains in Vancouver. Wiping out aquatic eco-systems and communities in the Maldives to mine sand for concrete and destroying our beaches for the subways and condos constructed from concrete is apparently environmentally sustainable – as far as Vision is concerned. Vision members making money from the subway construction and condo development has nothing to do with it. Okay, I see.
Vancouver isn’t any different from Bombay. Speculative buying by unscrupulous developers along planned transit subways and s-trains are driving up the cost of housing and have made Vancouver unaffordable. Watch the following video to learn more…
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https://www.knowledge.ca/program/sand-wars
Modest development around conventional transit routes (for electric buses and trams) with homes made from lumber for families to live and wok in Vancouver is Green. Modest homes built from lumber along tram lines are sustainable.
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http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/greenpowerbus-touts-zero-emission-coach-1.2791795
However, Bob Rennie can’t make his big profits unless the subway to UBC is constructed from concrete for him to build his “sustainable transit orientated towering condo communities” and of course to become filthy rich in the process. Sand for concrete is not a sustainable resource. Towering condos built from concrete along subway lines are not sustainable.
Gregor, you have made the subway to UBC an election issue. Outstanding, and given the facts, nobody in his or her right mind will vote for it or you. Unlike the subway which will add more carbon emitting buses clogging Broadway, further; trams take buses off Broadway to:
Double the transit capacity to UBC, virtually right away
Reduce the number of buses on the roads and the amount of money “paid to TransLink for transit by taxpayers” in Vancouver
Slash carbon emissions
Improve air quality
Reduce noise from transit
Cost a pittance, $60 million at most for the tram line to UBC
Pay off this $60 million for the tram line from operating savings – self financing
Who am I going to vote for in the November municipal election in Vancouver? It won’t be you, scheming Gregor Robertson, or any of the two-faced Vision members destroying aquatic eco-systems for the sand to build condo developments and subway lines in Vancouver. Absolutely not.
Eric Chris, Vancouver
In case you missed it, Gregor talks subway to UBC…
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/gregor-robertson-talks-vision-lawsuit-campaign-donations-with-cbc-s-andrew-chang-1.2831442