Category — Traffic

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.

Is relief in sight for commuters jammed on B-Line buses on Vancouver’s Broadway Corridor? That may depend on the outcome of the HST referendum and Premier Christy Clark’s election calculations.

Despite the dramatic growth in ridership since the 2010 Games, Translink has no funding to add new service, never mind complete the Evergreen Line. Evergreen construction would clear the way for final planning on the Broadway Corridor, where Translink’s options are getting positive reviews in the latest round of consultations.

The Translink Mayor’s Council meeting that must green light a new funding formula, including a proposed increase in the gas tax, is less than a month away. After some serious confusion, Premier Clark has endorsed Blair Lekstrom’s tentative agreement with the mayors on the gas tax, but the ever-fractious Mayor’s Council has some major players who are almost certain to oppose ratification.

If the debate is unfolding in the midst of a provincial election triggered by the HST referendum result, and on the eve of the Nov. 19 municipal elections, any outcome is possible. Riders, hold on tight.

Jan Broocke,  director of the Passenger Transportation Board, says  there are a number of inaccuracies in my account, published here earlier this week, of the PTB’s review of a proposal to allow suburban taxi firms to send 15 percent of their fleets into the Vancouver market on Fridays, Saturdays and special event days.

The clarifications are helpful, but don’t change my view that the suburban firms’ application should not be processed until Vancouver has evaluated the current pilot program that added 65 temporary licences to Vancouver’s fleet. That won’t happen until early 2012.

For the record, here is Ms Broocke’s letter: [Read more →]