Big Frakking Parking Lot

If you missed the news yesterday, Langley is getting a $54.6 million, 1000 spot park and ride lot. It’s actually more than that:

Eastbound access from Highway 1 to the Park and Ride and Transit Exchange will be created, with underpass access on and off Highway 1 connecting to HOV lanes being extended as part of the Port Mann Bridge/Highway 1 project.
202nd Street will be extended to cross under Highway 1 and will permit Transit and

HOV vehicles access to Highway 1. This will also provide a new north/south transit connection from 200th St. to the Golden Ears Bridge. The Park and Ride will have room for approximately 1,000 vehicles.

This is welcome news for sure, and I’ve seen how successful park and ride lots can be in suburban areas (park and ride lots are very successful in Calgary), but Langley has bigger plans; it wants to be a truly urban, transit-friendly centre. For that to happen, we need to do two things to RapidBus to support this goal while we wait for light rail. First, the new Highway One RapidBus does not go down 200th Street into Langley City or into the depths of Walnut Grove. Transit service runs every 30mins down 200th and every hour in Walnut Grove today. We know that transit needs to run every 15 minutes or better for people to use it, so RapidBus needs to go down 200th Street and into Walnut Grove. Maybe we need two difference lines? Secondly, 80% of all trip in the South of the Fraser stay in the South of the Fraser. RapidBus goes along Highway One, which bypasses most of the urban areas in the South of the Fraser. Unless there is major chance to transit service, only the 388, 501/590, 595, and two community shuttle buses will tie into the RapidBus line on the south side of the river. All these buses run every 30mins of worse. Something will have to change unless this service is solely for people like me who commute into downtown Vancouver.

Anyway, it is great to see transit investment in Langley and I’m very happy.