Category — Traffic

The NPA streetcar program re-announced by mayoral candidate Suzanne Anton today offers nothing to the tens of thousands of commuters crammed on crosstown routes today who hope Metro Mayors vote Oct. 7 to approve new investments in bus and Skytrain service by raising the gas tax.

I say “re-announced” because the streetcar has been a staple of Vancouver election campaigns for a generation. I should know — I have strongly supported a streetcar program and still do.

But streetcar dreams and streetcar realities are a study in contrasts. Here are some realities:

• Translink has consistently refused, until 2009, to consider the streetcar as part of the regional transportation network. It only did so in 2009 as the Broadway Corridor study began after Mayor Gregor Robertson’s 2008 election, and then as a key to build ridership on Broadway and sustainable development on False Creek flats. This change by Translink means Vancouver could promote the streetcar as part of the regional network and see funding shared by the region. The NPA plan would put the entire $200 million cost on Vancouver taxpayers and would not even serve the flats;
• As the NPA demonstrated in the Olympic Village financing fiasco, public-private partnerships are fraught with peril. Transit systems do not make money. Vancouver taxpayers would be on the hook for the entire $200 million, plus operating losses and the premium cost of private sector borrowing. Proponents often propose to finance such projects with huge density lifts, as in Hong Kong. Where would the NPA add this massive density in a line that would snake through heritage neighbourhoods and around the West End?
• Triggering new investment in existing bus routes and out to the TriCities is the main task facing Metro municipalities today. That’s the reality and that’s where senior governments have offered to cost share. Does Councillor Anton support the proposed two cents a litre increase in the gas tax so service improvements could arrive next year? Or are Vancouver transit riders supposed to wait, and wait, and wait, for the streetcar that could only come with regional commitment to the Broadway corridor?

The reality is that the previous NPA council committed the city to $9 million in capital investment for the 2010 Games streetcar pilot project with no idea when or if the entire system could be built. The rusting tracks are a monument to that “no real plan, no real budget, fingers crossed” approach. It was a great ride for eight weeks.

My money’s on the Translink streetcar option. It’s cheaper, more practical and may actually arrive in my lifetime.

If you support Translink’s Moving Forward supplement to expand transit services across Metro, then “like” the 4TransitNow page I’ve started on Facebook to give riders a voice — and invite your friends.

Metro Vancouver’s mayors will vote Oct. 7 to approve or reject this service increase.

Sick of being passed up at the bus stop?

Keen to see Translink win approval of the Moving Forward supplement that would add the Evergreen Line and increase bus service seven percent by 2013?

It’s time Transit Nation spoke up and 4TransitNow is one way.

The Moving Forward supplement would increase gas tax two cents a litre and find $30 million a year from other sources — perhaps property tax — to buy:

• major bus service increases in Vancouver, particularly on east-west routes;
• new service to support U-Pass expansion;
• station upgrades at Main, Commercial, Metrotown, Surrey Central, New Westminster and Lonsdale Quay;
• the 11-kilometre Skytrain Evergreen Line to the Tricities with five new stations and 28 new cars;
• King George Boulevard B-Line;
• Highway 1 Rapid bus;
• regional service increases on key corridors; and more.

Vancouver city council today asked city transportation engineers to report to council Oct. 4 on Translink’s Moving Forward plan for transit expansion.

The report will give members of the public a chance to register their views on a plan that will grow bus service seven percent by 2013 as well as jumpstart construction of the Evergreen Skytrain extension to the Tricities.

Without the supplement — to be funded by two cents a litre n gas tax as well as $30 million from other sources, possibly property tax — transit service across Metro will flatline.

But service hours per capita would actually decline as population growth continues.

That would mean more pass-ups, more crush loads and more service delays as a straining system seeks to carry the load. [Read more →]

Despite recent claims to the contrary, cycle trips are up 40 percent along the Hornby and Dunsmuir separated bike lanes, according to the latest counts posted today.

As has been the case in every other city, the added safety created by lane separation is building traffic, which helps reduce automobile congestion and has countless other benefits.