This was first posted in 2020 and five years later mobility pricing is back on the agenda.
Why?
Simple, TransLink is broke. The now $16 billion price tag, for the full program to extend the Expo and Millennium Lines a mere 21.7 km has hit a financial iceberg and is $3 to $4 billion short of funding.
The federal funding provided, just barely pays for the added operating costs of this 21.7 extension program. Operating costs are never factored in by our local brand of politician simply want to hide from inconvenient truths. In their simple minds; “SkyTrain is driverless, so it is cheap to operate and pays its own operating costs!“
Ya right and now the big fact check; SkyTrain is heavily subsidized and in 1992, the annual subsidy was over $157 million ($300 million in today’s coin) and with Three major expansions, this cost has easily surpassed $600 million and in fact the cost is so high that unlike BC Transit, TransLink refuses to release any concise subsidy numbers.
The Civic and Provincial politcans lack the moral fortitude (read: they are cowards) to curb TransLink’s spending on politically prestigious (read: extremely expensive) transportation projects that the public cannot afford. Just the completion of the Broadway subway to UBC is now pegged at $8 billion in 2025 dollars!
Instead of building affordable and just as effective transportation solutions, the unchecked TransLink bureaucracy just wants more and more taxes and feckless politicians cave in to the demands of career bureaucrats who know little about modern public transport but know a lot how to gold plate a transit project.
The result, more and more new taxes, with many disguised as “Green” taxes to fool the public. In BC, this works well, even after 45 years selling porkies about the now obsolete and horribly expensive SkyTrain light-metro system.
First published November 2020.
The first rule of mobility pricing is:
One must have an affordable and user friendly public transit alternative.
Metro Vancouver doesn’t, nor is planning for one. Instead metro Vancouver is planning for politically prestigious mega transit projects and like all megaprojects, they cost a lot of money and government, whether it be civic, provincial or federal, has only one taxpayer to source income.
Metro Vancouver’s and the NDP’s addiction to the hugely expensive, yet extremely dated light metro, for the sheer rapture of cutting ribbons and laying plaques means the car must be singled out to pay for political largess.
Bent Flyvberg’s Iron Law of Megaprojects specifically addresses why politicians are obsessed with infrastructure at any cost.
…the “political sublime,” which here is understood as the rapture politicians get from building monuments to themselves and their causes. Megaprojects are manifest, garner attention, and lend an air of proactiveness to their promoters. Moreover, they are media magnets, which appeals to politicians who seem to enjoy few things better than the visibility they get from starting megaprojects. Except maybe cutting the ribbon of one in the company of royals or presidents, who are likely to be present lured by the unique monumentality and historical import of many megaprojects. This is the type of public exposure that helps get politicians re-elected. They therefore actively seek it out.
The die has been cast, with the NDP’s political promise to extend the obsolete SkyTrain light metro to Langley, Vancouver needs money to help pay for an extremely costly transit system woefully unsuited for the job it is supposed to do. (Zwei updates: Light-metros were never conceived as “suburban railways”, rather as a cheaper option to subway construction in dense urban areas.)
The sad fact, for almost $10 billion (Zwei updates: his cost is now estimated at $16 billion in 2025 dollars) in investment to extend the dated SkyTrain light metro to Arbutus in Vancouver and to Langley, including much needed rehab and upgrades to the aging Expo Line, will probably not take a car off the road.
Vancouver’s mobility pricing debate dominates council’s approval of emergency climate plan
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — A debate over charging Vancouver drivers a fee in a bid to reduce congestion and emissions dominated city council ahead of its approval of the Climate Emergency Action Plan, on Tuesday.
Council voted 6-4 to adopt the plan, including an amendment to have staff report back in two years with a feasibility plan on road pricing for all of the downtown peninsula and part of the central Broadway corridor.
“The already insufficient and unstable gas-tax revenue will decrease further as we continue to encourage an uptake of electric vehicle use, whose drivers currently pay little toward the roadway network,” the report says in arguing the need for a new revenue source.
“The number one issue we’re hearing about from the public was the City of Vancouver advancing a transport pricing framework without any coordination regionally,” says Dominato, adding it’s critical to coordinate with other municipalities and TransLink to invest potential revenue back into public transportation.
“But it has to be a regional approach because we’re so interconnected in our economies across Metro Vancouver,” Dominato says.
Mayor Kennedy Stewart acknowledged last week that the city lacks the power necessary to tax roads and the law would require changes before the city can go-it-alone on charging drivers.
Councillor Rebecca Bligh says she’s happy her amendment to separate the road/mobility/congestion vote from the rest of the plan was accepted, adding she heard loud and clear that more stakeholder engagement is necessary.
“We’re in the middle of a pandemic and in two ears we’ll still be feeling the effects of a pandemic, financially, for sure, and so we need to take all that into account while we study mobility pricing,” she says.
Bligh says she believes in the long run a system can be designed that will reduce congestion and accomplish a fair and equitable tax while reducing city expenses overall.
New focus on climate initiatives
With the adoption of the Climate Emergency Action Plan comes a commitment to add electric vehicle charging stations and city-wide residential parking permits. It also includes a plan to grow walking, cycling and alternative transportation methods.
Another large focus will be on using more sustainable building materials and reducing the use of natural gas, which accounts for 54 per cent of the city’s emissions, according to staff.
In an op-ed in the Georgia Straight this week, Councillor Christine Boyle made her case for parking fees and surcharges on high-emission luxury vehicles.
“Transport pricing and parking permits need to have fairness and equity at their core. We need to incorporate discounts or exemptions for low-income people and people with disabilities, and to consider the needs of precarious and low-wage workers,” she wrote.
Dominato and others have criticized the inclusion of additional parking fees and permitting, saying the COVID-19 pandemic has put too much strain on people’s wallets and the economy already.
“I really didn’t see a strong business case for that in terms of affordability,” says Dominato
[…] etc.) will fall on the general public, taxpayers, or society as a whole, not directly on them. Megaprojects (e.g., subways) with serious technical flaws, are prone to enormous cost and scheduling overruns, and cannot be […]
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Check out what others are saying...[…] etc.) will fall on the general public, taxpayers, or society as a whole, not directly on them. Megaprojects (e.g., subways) with serious technical flaws, are prone to enormous cost and scheduling overruns, and cannot be […]