Category — Traffic

The “value for money” audit of Translink by the Auditor General, demanded by the regional Mayor’s Council in their first post-election meeting Jan. 18, looks like the first salvo in the latest struggle over new sources of transportation funding.

New funding is necessary if the region is to avoid a further property tax increase next year to pay for transit expansion, including the Evergreen Line.

Victoria is already celebrating construction of the Evergreen Line in advance of the upcoming Port Moody by-election, but the mayors, led by Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson and Surrey Mayor Diane Watts, don’t think they can get taxpayers to agree to a new source of funds if they don’t have proof the money will be well-spent.

No doubt Translink will agree to seek the audit, the provincial Auditor General will conduct it, and the real debate will begin. The mayors meet again today to consider all options.

Will it be carbon tax? Vehicle levy, anyone? Area-benefitting tax? Regional bridge tolls? Time will tell.

With Vancouver city planning staff expecting to bring a report to council before summer on options for the Georgia and Dunsmuir Viaducts, Seattle is well into the $3 billion project to replace its tottering Alaska Way Viaduct with a bored tunnel.

One mile of the Seattle Viaduct came down in nine days last October, without the chaos drivers always anticipate on such occasions. Latest updates from Seattle show the city is moving ahead with new traffic patterns to clear the way for the tunnel, which will ensure good connections remain to the port and other arterials.

But city after city is putting a freeway on death row.

The Seattle project is just one of a wave of removals right across America, homeland of the car. According to this update in Atlantic Cities, the battle is moving to the neighbourhood level, where more and more communities are debating the shape of their future. If a freeway can come down, why not an overpass? Well, in fact, it can.

Bolstered by the findings of a new study by Sauder School of Business Prof. Garland Chow, Vancouver’s taxi firms are seeking approval for 99 additional cabs to operate in Vancouver on weekends and special event nights. (Here’s an executive summary circulated to Vancouver city councillors last week.)

That’s well above the 65 additional cabs approved last year by Victoria’s Passenger Transportation Board on a trial basis. The Vancouver Taxi Association says Chow’s findings are so conclusive that the firms are seeking an extension of the 65-cab trial program until the full 99 taxis are approved. According to the report, the temporary permits reduced wait times and increased customer satisfaction substantially.

Under the program, the additional capacity is available Friday and Saturday nights, when customers have reported serious problems finding taxis prepared to take them out of the downtown core.

(Mayor Gregor Robertson is also urging Translink to consider expanded night bus and Skytrain service to help with the problem.)

Vancouver taxi customers should experience quicker, cheaper trips on congested routes, says the Vancouver Taxi Association, now that city council has approved a one-year trial to allow taxis to travel in bus lanes.

The pilot program  was an election commitment by Mayor Gregor Robertson, who was responding to a long-standing call for such action from taxi owners, who point out that similar rules are in place all over the world.

Here in Vancouver, however, riders would sit fuming in traffic while the bus lane next to them sat empty. Robertson secured a green light from provincial transport minister Blair Lekstrom and Translink is on board.

With more than 700,000 taxi trips a year in Vancouver, the impact could be significant. Where congestion is heavy, particularly downtown, taxis will be able to move into bus lanes, reducing travel times and trip costs.