Topic
Officials hope citizens will embrace public transit beefed up for Olympics.
Canada Line train: lure to drivers?
When the 2010 Olympics hit town, parking restrictions, road closures and 24-7 priority lanes might make driving hard for Metro Vancouver commuters.
That could cause widespread anger and frustration, but VANOC and the city hope permanent improvements to public transit will get people out of their cars and into buses and trains -- during and beyond the Games.
When life returns to normal, will Vancouver be left with legions of commuters using sustainable transport options?
Or will people simply revert back to their cars, as one planning expert has argued? VANOC today unveiled its comprehensive transportation plan, a wide-ranging strategy that's meant to ensure athletes, spectators and media get from accommodations to venues -- and back -- in a timely manner.
Clearly, the logistics are daunting. During the Games, Vancouver will host up to 135,000 spectators each day -- the equivalent of staging 17 back-to-back Superbowls, VANOC's executive vice president Terry Wright told reporters.
And that's on top of an expected 6,100 athletes and officials, 10,000 accredited media and a 55,000 strong workforce.
Aiming to reduce car trips
To deal with the influx, transportation planners from VANOC, the city, the province and TransLink have taken aim at single occupancy vehicles. Their goal is reduce automobile traffic by at least 30 per cent during the Games.
In the downtown core, that means significant parking bans along major roads, 24-7 rush-hour restrictions and the closure of major arteries such as the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts.
Across the city, vehicles will be prohibited from driving in dedicated Olympic lanes, which will be open to only accredited Games traffic and Translink buses.
Though the restrictions will clearly make driving harder for Metro Vancouver commuters, planners are looking at putting more people than ever into public transit to ease the crunch.
As part of the strategy, Translink will use a $17 million contribution from VANOC to permanently add 48 SkyTrain cars, 200 buses and a new SeaBus to Vancouver's transport infrastructure.
'Expanding transit is fundamental': city manager
With the Canada Line set to open by early fall, city manager Penny Ballem estimated total transit trips across Metro Vancouver will increase by one third during the Games. "Expanding transit is a fundamental part of our strategy," she said.
Planners will also promote biking and walking as alternative forms of transportation and encourage local businesses to promote ride-share and car-pool programs.
All that considered, the Games will likely see a major commuting shift from vehicles to transit and other options, but will that change endure? Wright certainly hopes so. "We want to create an opportunity for sustainable choices," he said. "Some of which we hope will hold post-Games and help with the long-term transportation challenges and livability challenges within the region."
'Shift tons of trips': UBC's Condon
Patrick Condon, a professor of landscape architecture at the University of British Columbia, told The Tyee that transportation is responsible for a whopping 30 per cent of the province's greenhouse gas emissions. And in that category, single occupancy vehicles are the biggest culprit.
At the moment, Condon said public transit accounts for only about 12 per cent of trips in the Metro Vancouver region, compared to 80 per cent by personal automobile. It's a sobering statistic that will have to be reversed if the province ever wants to meet its goal of reducing emissions to 80 per cent below 2007 levels by 2050, he argued.
"We're going to have to shift tons of trips that are currently by single occupancy vehicle into transit," Condon said.
The professor supports the added buses and trains in the 2010 transportation plan, but he's unsure the Games will mark a significant shift from personal automobiles to transit.
For one, many local residents will likely stay away from downtown or take time off work to avoid the commuting crunch, which will reduce their exposure to alternative transport options. And secondly, Metro Vancouver's reliance on personal vehicles stems in part from sprawling suburbs without access to effective public transit.
"Frankly, 17 days is not much," Condon said. "We have a much deeper set of problems than what would be influenced by the Olympics."
Arguing for light rail
Many of these problems could be solved with an extensive system of light rail, which is cheaper than Skytrain expansion and could turn arterials such as Kingsway and Scott Road in Surrey into vibrant, transit-centred communities, Condon said.
During the 2010 Games, a demonstration street car will run between Granville Island and the Athlete's Village at Southeast False Creek from February to March. Condon said the demonstration project would be a good way to stimulate sustainable transportation across the region.
"I would hope that the tram line is going to stay active," he said. "That would be positive legacy for the Games."
Ballem said the city has had conversations with TransLink about keeping and extending the line once the Games are over. But she added a final decision will depend on a variety of factors such as possible cost-effectiveness and ridership levels.
"It really needs to be put up against other key priority choices that we have to make in our transportation network across Metro Vancouver," Ballem said.
Asked if it is likely the Olympics could mark a turning point for transit use across Metro Vancouver, Ballem sounded hopeful.
"That would be wonderful," she said. "That's certainly a big goal for us... and the whole region would really like to see a legacy from this."
Related Tyee stories:
![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
19
Login or register to post comments
echman
4 years ago
why gateway
How can the government want reductions in CO2 emissions at the same time expand highway 1 and 99 and build a second Port Mann.
Also, light rail is better over short to medium distances, but long commutes like from Surrey to Vancouver are not as effective.
Grumpy
4 years ago
The Canada Line lure the car driver?
No bloody way. The Canada Line is the epitome of bad transit planning. Too expensive to service where people live and stations too far apart to be convenient, the Canada line will be a disappointment.
Why?
Studies have shown that the majority of transit customers will walk 300 metres to a transit stop; as the journey increases, the number of customers drops dramatically. That's why in Europe tram/bus routes have stops every 400 to 600 metres.
But the car driver is another story. Already making the decision not to take a bus, a car driver will not take a bus to a metro, especially if he has to make a transfer!
Example: Why would a Richmond resident switch to transit (after loosing his direct bus service) when taking the car will be just easier and quicker. RAV will increase journey times for many, which again deter new transit customers. subways are notorious in deterring ridership, which many European countries have found to their chagrin.
The sad fact is, that the Canada line may force more people off transit than attract!
Light-metros like SkyTrain and RAV have been singularly found to be poor in solving public transport problems and are now largely regarded as obsolete, with "show case' airport lines being the only refuge left for the mode.
What made light-metro obsolete? Modern LRT, but that is another story.
alive
4 years ago
back to the past
I see the future now:
Small cramped apartments and people commuting by trams and bikes.
By golly: just as it was when I grew up in the fifties in wartorn Denmark.
So much for progress!
Grumpy
4 years ago
Through the future darkly!
Quote:
~ "at the moment, Condon said public transit accounts for only about 12 per cent of trips in the Metro Vancouver region, compared to 80 per cent by personal automobile" ~
This (12%) figure has remained the same for well over a decade and a half, despite now over $6 billion of taxpayers money invested in the SkyTrain light-metro system. TransLink has also admitted that 80% of SkyTrain's customers first take a bus to the metro, while at the same time refuses to give any estimates of how many cars th metro has taken off the road.
When Grumpy quoted the 80% figure to a transit experts, the reply was - "it seems that the authorities have spent a great deal of money to give bus riders a somewhat faster, yet inconvenient trip, on a portion of their trip." "If the same thing happened here, heads would roll!"
What would give cause for censure elsewhere is deemed good planning here!
DJT
4 years ago
Unbelievable....
I fail to understand why the city essentially is going to be taken hostage for "games" that a large percentage of the population didn't want, with that percentage growing day by day. It seems like VANOC has a hell of a lot more power than they should. Exactly who gave them their mandate and the freedom to do whatever the hell they want, including having people laid off? What a frikken joke.
echman quote:
"How can the government want reductions in CO2 emissions at the same time expand highway 1 and 99 and build a second Port Mann".
A look into how much money the Road Builders Association (and anyone else who stands to gain)donated to the government would be a good start. After all, that's what most of what they do is dictated by, isn't it?
Grumpy
4 years ago
An answer for DJT
Those who make the parking restrictions do not take transit. Those who command us to take transit, do not take transit! It is a simple case of the elites telling the peons what to do or else.
Has anyone been consulted? - No!
Does anyone care? - No!
It is a diktat from dictators and it should be treated as such.
We are being lead by the nose by a "Ship of fools" and we should not stand for it any more.
seth
4 years ago
telecommute and new taxi system
Traffic congestion and the need for the Port Mann upgrade could be eliminated within the year if our government organizations instituted mandatory telecommuting plans adding corporate carrot/stick incentives later. The US GTA has marked 40% of US federal civilian employee jobs as telecommutable. I would assume Canadian/BC/muni governments are more or less the same. A Carlton university survey found 60% of those surveyed would telecommute if they could. Stats Can has it that that institutions under the control/purview of the BC Government ie hydro ferries municipals control more than 350,000 employees.
Kingston had a taxi system in the 70's where the cabs were dispatched in an orderly fashion east to west and north to south picking up and dropping off passengers as they went along. The fare was about double the bus fare With modern GPS and computer based control ,it would be easy to set up a similar system. Not going to happen though. Taxi cab companies like it the way it is and spend millions in campaign donations to keep it that way. An outfit tried to set up a van based system $5 anywhere in the Surrey BC but were shut down by the city.
Rod Smelser
4 years ago
West Coast Express Cars
One radio news item stated that additional cars for the West Coast Express were somehow part of the Olympic package. However, I was told by phone that these cars will be delivered in mid-2010, after the Games are over.
snert
4 years ago
Thank God er, Gordon
for the Golden Ears bridge. Absolutely no need to drive towards Vancouver any more.
avandoc
4 years ago
don't forget the car dealers
who are major contributors to the BC Liberals. They want more blacktop and less transit.
The other huge missed opportunity was creation of affordable and comfortable rail service from Vancouver to West Van, Squamish and Whistler. Instead we have a dangerous road that will be a little less dangerous and more incentive for driving.
Campbellwearsatutu
4 years ago
prepare to empty your wallet
Translink is turning into TAXLINK
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Drivers+face+fund+transit+roads/1383243/story.html
Stump
4 years ago
Wallets will remain full
$100 per year is hardly a huge sum. $0.27 per day in fact. Especially if Translink is going to through a bus pass into the bargain. You'd get your money back and then some, by using it less than once a week.
Stump
4 years ago
through? I meant to type
through? I meant to type throw.
Rod Smelser
4 years ago
snert: Premier Campbell has nothing to do with the GE Bridge
Thank God er, Gordon
snert
for the Golden Ears bridge. Absolutely no need to drive towards Vancouver any more.
The Golden Ears Bridge is a Translink project, not a provincial MOTH project.
Two of the unfortunate aspects of this project have to do with the Abernethy Connector on the Maple Ridge side. Expropriations of ROW were conducted unfairly, with farmers being paid a mere $40K per acre. And the route selection at particular points, especially the Formosa Farm, was quite wrong. Also, the original sketches sold to a trusting public illustrated a wide ROW with landscaping. But then Translink decided not to spend the additional money needed to buy a wide ROW. So the final ROW is just wide enough for the eventual four lane road, shoulders, and a chain link fence. No landscaping is needed because there's no room for it.
Altogether, it's been a really sub-optimal approach and an intentionally abusive treatment of local residents by a Translink Board that answers to business interests and to local politicians in bigger, more influential municipalities. The business people and the bigger local government players all had the same attitude: "Don't spend a dollar more than you have to in Maple Ridge!"
RickW
4 years ago
snert
You said it! And that's why drivers won't be motivated to take public transit. It was no different with the gas tax. It was supposed to cut carbon emissions by getting people to drive less.
Har de har har har!
Using a tax to "motivate" people means the tax has to be onerous. And especially using an automobile tax to fund ways other than the automobile is tantamount to an oxymoron. The taxers know full well that $100 isn't going to stop people from driving. That's why it's set so low. Same with the "carbon tax".
It's just a tax grab, and something else for Carole James to throw at the Liberals come election time.
What the "transportation planners from VANOC, the city, the province and TransLink" need to learn is to spell (and understand) the phrase U-S-E-R C-O-N-V-E-N-I-E-N-C-E...............
I would suggest that readers pay more attention to Grumpy.
morechatter
4 years ago
Popcorn, peanuts, natchos?
The Olympics a Legacy well I don't want to spoil the party so wish you luck with that though. Maybe it will be a pick me up for those facing finacial doom you never know as they rally around the telly watching the games from their livingrooms as they cheer on their players from all parts of the globe.
morechatter
4 years ago
The Canadian Line or the Canadian Lie?
Which is it as these lease holds prove to be a nightmare in the States as Banks aren't telling why they want more money just that they want it and remember they are holding the trains. The Private part is where they take the publics money and then you never hear about it again. They are a mistake and it is unfortunate Mr. Campbell has seen fit to put BC on the roadway to H.e.l.l. we need your money and we need it now.
morechatter
4 years ago
Unbelievable.... Is right
Is an understate meant its cruelty as all I have been hearing about is the Olympics and for Eight Years. And I don't care that much for sports unless participating. So whats in it for me a few hours on the on the TV maybe a cheer or two or maybe annoyance as its probably all thats going to be on. But believe me I'm not cheering because there is nothing but a bunch of hype about a bunch of guys doing sports so a bunch of guys can make a bundle and maybe they can become famous. Its the trade off. My bud won the Canadian Gold and he drove me nuts going for the Olympics but oh well each to his own. So you were saying about the Olympic thing our media is being held hostage to the message and like I said no use for sports and events that promote poverty and unfairness and call it a sport and then want to make a legacy of it.
morechatter
4 years ago
Grumpy? 6 Billion
They say 6 Billion Grumpy I got a feeling thats very, very unlikely. But thats for their eyes only, the private part of the deal the public part well they just need to get used to paying and paying. But relax its not happening until after the election and then Watch It as this Governments going to be digging deep into the pockets of its residents as its on the hook for many a thing but you'll be the last to know I'm sure. Its a Guarantee!