UBC vs South of Fraser

Not surprising, some noise is being generated at UBC around the fact that their rapid transit line is now number three in line after the Evergreen Line and Surrey Line. An article from the Burnaby News Leader has all the facts and figure about how Broadway is the busiest transit corridor in the region and UBC is the second biggest transit destination in the region, but it fails to see the point in why Surrey has moved up in the list of rapid transit priorities.

UBC Alma Mater Society president Bijan Ahmadian said the line to UBC should be rated an "equally urgent priority" to the Surrey-area expansion.

"UBC is the second-largest transit destination in the region," he said, adding the 100,000 daily riders pack 99 B-Line buses that serve the Broadway corridor, more than the ridership of both the Canada Line and the Millennium Line.

"Metro Vancouver staff have gone above and beyond their jurisdiction to undermine a project that is about the sustainability of the region by pushing it back 30 or 40 years."

While UBC serves captive transit riders and Broadway is an established "streetcar corridor" with high transit modal share already, rapid transit is being proposed to try and shift modal share away from the auto and define the future of the South of Fraser to something more sustainable. This in an important goal for our region. How anyone at UBC can even dare to talk about regional planning is a shocker to me since they requested and we granted an exemption from the Province to not be subject to Metro Vancouver's regional planning policies. Rapid transit to UBC will not have the same profound effect on our region as it will have in shaping the future of the largest growth area in Metro Vancouver; the South of Fraser.