Out of Touch
The Vancouver Board of Trade, think themselves transit experts; nope, nada, not a chance as the VBoT is absolutely clueless when it comes to public transit, but they certainly glad hand any transit initiative that will enrich BoT members, such as cement companies, with absolutely no care for the transit consumer or taxpayer.
The main problems facing TransLink is:
- The cost per revenue passenger is one third higher than Calgary, Edmonton, and Toronto.
- Is consumer unfriendly.
- Uses dated “hub to hub” transit philosophy, with the equally dated light-metro.
I see no sign of TransLink or The Vancouver Board of Trade dealing with the real issues plaguing TransLink and instead just doing the same thing over agian, spending huge sums of money on nebulous transit projects that will do little improving regional public transit.
When one remembers that the Vancouver Board of Trade vehemently supported the Canada Line, even though it went over $1 billion over budget; bankrupted scores of merchants along Cambie St. and the end product had less capacity than modern LRT or even a modern streetcar!
Am am very sorry, but I just do not see why the VBoT, should have its opinion printed in the Sun, as they are simply out of touch with the situation.
Opinion: No regrets, and a key lesson from transit vote
By Iain Black, Special to the Vancouver Sun September 3, 2015
Iai??i??ve been asked many times in recent months whether the Vancouver Board of Trade regrets taking a leading role in the Yes campaign during the transit plebiscite.
With the benefit of nearly two months to digest the experience, I continue to respond with an emphatic ai???No regrets at all.ai??? So, too, do the business leaders on our elected board of directors, who unanimously voted to throw our weight behind the Yes campaign in a high-profile manner. This led to me assuming a co-chair role in the historic, diverse coalition that formed to support the mayors plan.
It has been our tradition for over a century to weigh in on (and often lead) complex and sometimes controversial conversations, particularly when the outcomes could transform the cities of this region. But beyond responding to that historic calling and taking a position on the matter, the plebiscite revealed a unique and compelling challenge facing our community in the long term.
That challenge involves the unity of our voice as community-building business people across Greater Vancouver. Of all the lessons I learned from the plebiscite (and there were many), the need for a regional perspective from the business community stands head and shoulders above the rest.
The great irony is that personally I chose to support the Yes campaign in large part due to Metro Vancouverai??i??s mayors agreeing to a broad, region-wide plan. This historic moment of agreement ai??i?? and with it the opportunity for transformative change ai??i?? will likely not happen again for many years. Unfortunately, Metro Vancouverai??i??s regional governance structure is arranged in a way that often pits mayors ai??i?? and their communitiesai??i?? interests ai??i?? against one another. The current structure makes it challenging for our municipal leaders to act cohesively in the best interests of our entire region.
This lack of regional political vision evolved into a poignant and humbling observation for the Vancouver Board of Trade during the plebiscite process, because we lived through our version of it as business leaders. Although the diverse coalition we helped form worked remarkably well, the business community was neither united in its view nor well-co-ordinated in its execution.
That said, the inability of Metro Vancouverai??i??s elected leaders to speak with one voice regarding the future of our region leaves others ai??i?? notably including the business community ai??i?? to step into that role. So we must step up, lean in, and take a new perspective, one that rises across municipal boundaries, across industries, across company size, and remains independent of the current municipal and regional government structure.
This idea of establishing a better defined, stronger, and broader business voice across the region is appealing to our organizationai??i??s members, if not essential. It will be key to not only future debates on transit and transportation, but also many other regional issues that require bigger thinking than our municipal leaders and fragmented organizations (including us business organizations) are typically structured or motivated to embrace.
Thus, investigating options for a regional approach is something weai??i??re going to look at over the coming months. Similar thinking is already driving a pivotal new research initiative we are working on with the Conference Board of Canada. That milestone report, which will be presented at our annual economic outlook forum in January, will use international comparators to establish a comprehensive economic and livability benchmark, with the end goal of creating a regional economic development strategy.
In addition, we are also embarking on a process of outreach across Greater Vancouver, seeking advice and direction from the men and women who make the capital investment and job-creating decisions that drive our regional and national economy and, ultimately, have a profound role in shaping our evolving communities.
We know from our 128-year history of leading region-defining conversations that it wonai??i??t be long before we are obliged to participate in another one. We must be better prepared when that moment arises.
Iain Black is president and CEO of The Vancouver Board of Trade. He is a former technology industry executive, MLA and provincial cabinet minister.
Ai?? Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
Movers and shakers at the VBOT have latched onto s-trains, subways and b-lines (hub to hub transit or HTHT) by TransLink as their road to prosperity and golden goose. There is nothing wrong with VBOT looking for business opportunities. There is something very wrong with VBOT conspiring to funnel money from taxpayers to SNC Lavalin and Bombardier with specious claims about HTHT reducing road congestion and carbon emissions.
“Not so sustainable HTHT by TransLink”
Unfortunately, HTHT by TransLink is the most environmentally destructive transit mode in existence. Its carbon emissions are the greatest of any transit mode and the sand used to construct the concrete guideways and tunnels for s-train is leading to the widespread loss of island habits and aquatic ecosystems. There is no mention of this in the environmental and social impact assessment for the proposed subway to UBC. Care to speculate on the reason for this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAPfwwb59uY
I’ll tell you; HTHT by TransLink does not require an environmental and social impact assessment, and TransLink is exempt from all noise and pollution by-laws, also. We all know the reason for this, don’t we? TransLink has proclaimed HTHT as sustainable transport.
Cars emitting no pollution are not sustainable and diesel buses emitting pollution are sustainable according to TransLink. Isn’t calling HTHT by TransLink “sustainable” transport analogous to the COV slapping a bunch of highway signs on Granville Street with traffic lights every few blocks and calling Granville Street a highway? How TransLink and the COV can make these silly claims is beyond me.
“Ridership and cost of HTHT by TransLink”
TransLink created HTHT which is twice as slow as driving (Statistics Canada) to try to make drivers give up driving and take transit. Shockingly, TransLink failed. Worse, TransLink is spending 33% extra on HTHT service which is statistically slower than regular trolleybus and tram service. Ian Black of VBOT has no regrets about his lead role in attempting to dupe taxpayers into funding stupid transit by TransLink? Fortunately 62% of the population didn’t fall for more dumb transit by TransLink (HTHT).
http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/kelly-mcparland-public-transit-stinks-statscan-confirms
Transit use is falling and presently only about 5% to 13% of the population uses transit (ranging from 100,000 people to 300,000 people daily depending on the day of the week). Spokespersons for TransLink often claim that 1.2 million people daily take transit. They are actually referring to the number of times that the transit users board the buses and s-trains on the best of days (boarded passengers). Isn’t this tantamount to fraud? I mean, ICBC doesn’t report how many times drivers get in or out of their cars. What’s TransLink doing telling us how many times their transit users get on or off buses and trains?
“However, TransLink is unique in using that number — both TTC and STM use “revenue passengers.” STM doesn’t even make “boarded passenger” counts public. Dermod Travis, executive director of IntegrityBC, questioned why TransLink would use a different term. He said… TransLink’s rationale is illogical.
“If you are using different measures, people will naturally feel that you’re doing it because you don’t want to be compared,” he said. “If you don’t want to be compared it’s because you don’t think you’ll measure up.”
http://vancouver.24hrs.ca/2014/09/03/translink-worse-than-toronto-for-complaints
Approximately 89% of the $1.5 billion annual operating budget which TransLink spends is for transit, and 33% of this is the premium cost for HTHT service in excess of what LRT or tram service costs. In Vancouver, this one-third premium to not run trams and trolleybuses and to run for HTHT by TransLink, instead, translates into an added annual operating cost of $441 million for HTHT doing nothing to attract drivers (89% * $1.5 billion/yr * 33% = $441 million/yr).
This is a whack of money which can be used to finance tram and trolleybus service as well as bridges for both transit users and drivers. Every day that we delay scrapping TransLink costs taxpayers about $1 million – but hey, it’s only money, ours.
“HTHT not so fast”
Now to my pet peeve with TransLink. TransLink does not offer three minute trolleybus service on West 9th Avenue (Broadway) and West 4th Avenue or three minute diesel bus service on West 16th Avenue – it does offer three minute service on the 99 B-Line route on Broadway. This is odd.
Can you guess the reason for the three minute service on the overcrowded 99 B-Line route and nowhere else in all of Metro Vancouver? I’ll tell you: if TransLink does offer three minute service on the West 9th Avenue, West 4th Avenue and West 16th Avenue bus routes to put more people on the buses starved for passengers on these routes – it competes with the 99 B-Line service and reduces the demand on the 99 B-Line route.
This solves the overcrowding on the 99 B-Line route. However, TransLink does not dare put more transit users on the trolleybuses running around mostly empty because it kills the need for the subway to UBC. SNC Lavalin and Bombardier won’t be able to bilk taxpayers out of billions of dollars to build their subway to UBC if trolleybuses operate every three minutes.
So, starting this week, TransLink (rather than attempt to put more people on the mostly empty trolleybuses running alongside and in parallel to the 99 B-Line diesel buses) is going to increase transit frequency on the 99 B-Line route along Broadway to suck more transit users off the other parallel bus routes on West 9th Avenue, West 4th Avenue and West 16th Avenue and onto the overcrowded 99 B-Line route! Wow, that will be great.
I can’t wait for the clapping seal reporters to show up at Commercial Drive and Broadway on Tuesday (first day of UBC classes) to write about the long line-ups for the crowded 99 B-Lines. Of course, they won’t be showing up at the trolleybus stops having no line-ups to write about all the empty seats on the trolleybuses.
Nobody at TransLink looked at overall commuting time of HTHT. Based on the speed of the s-trains, subways and b-lines: it was incorrectly concluded that HTHT is faster than trolleybuses and trams. TransLink staff completely ignored the time to reach the s-train, subway and b-line stops spaced miles apart in distance. Getting to the HTHT by TransLink requires long walks to reach or delays on polluting and costly “feeder” diesel buses to reach. Consequently, besides not attracting drivers to HTHT, transit by TransLink (HTHT) makes transit slower for the majority of transit users.
Trams and trolleybuses do not require time sucking feeder buses or their expense. Trams and trolleybuses save time by having stops near where transit users live. Statistically, compared to s-trains, subways and b-lines: trams and trolleybuses greatly reduce the commuting time for most transit users because the time to reach the transit stop matters more than the time on transit.
Along Broadway, replacing the three minute 99 B-Line service (HTHT) with three minute trolleybus service reduces the commuting time for most transit users and cuts five million kilograms of CO2 annually. Jeff Busby (TransLink) and Jerry Dobrovolny (COV) who are responsible for the “express” 99 B-Line hoax which they purport to be in place to “reduce commuting times and air pollution” will lose their jobs in the next six months or retire (I predict).
Broadway has trolleybus lines installed for zero emission trolleybuses, and the use of carbon emitting 99 B-Line diesel buses operated underneath trolleybus lines by TransLink for 100% of the 99 B-Line route undermines the stated objective of the COV “committed” to reduction of carbon emissions. This is difficult to defend with the 99 B-Line service slowing down the commute compared to trolleybus service.
We save money and improve transit as well as reduce road congestion and air pollution by scrapping all the s-trains, subways and b-lines. Public transit (HTHT) has no future. It is being replaced by ride shares (vehicle and microtransit).
http://www.bbc.com/autos/story/20150903-microtransit-aims-to-civilise-the-worst-part-of-your-workday
Employers looking to attract talent are offering door to door ride share or microtransit to get their employees off the crime and disease riddled public transit system (HTHT) which TransLink is foolishly pursuing, even as its ridership continues to plummet. Hasta la vista, HTHT swindlers at TransLink and COV; your days are numbered – you read it here first.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2vBv0M0HKo