I received the following information from Steve Burke of the Surrey Citizen Transportation Initiative (CiTi) and thought I'd pass the information along.
The following is information compiled by Patrick O'Connor, one of Surrey CiTi's members and a veteran bus driver. This is a snap shot in time so it is understood that the data is not current to March 2012 [November 2011].
Although there is some cross over for buses serving adjacent communities, for the most part, Surrey originating buses serve adjacent communities more than the reverse. Consequently Surrey originated buses are even less capable of dealing with Surrey's public transportation needs.
Although the data is not pin point accurate given these variables the take home message is clear. Surrey is underserved by bus public transit in comparison to the rest of Metro Vancouver. Given Surrey's population growth, we are falling even further behind. This is forcing motivated potential public transit users to revert back to cars and SOV's (single occupancy vehicles).
1. Population served by Surrey Transit Depot
- Surrey 475,000
- Langley 131,000
- North Delta 52,000
- White Rock 20,000
Total 678,000
2. Buses serving the Total Population (at AM rush hour)
- 145 Conventional
- 20 Community Shuttles
Total 165
3. Ratio Population/Buses served by the Depot = 4,109
4. Ratio Population/Buses in Metro Vancouver (TransLink service area) = 1,900
5. To reach this ratio the Surrey Transit Depot would require 357 buses
6. Other pertinent information
- When Vancouver had ~ 475,000 population (equivalent to Surrey's current) more than 400 buses served the community
- 15 years ago the Greater Vancouver Regional District had a population/bus ratio of 1,200 - to attain this the Surrey Transit Depot would require 565 buses
- Currently Toronto and Montreal have a population/bus ratio of 1,200
2 comments:
This math is pretty far off.
It conveniently omits all of the buses from Richmond Transit Centre that serve South Surrey / White Rock routes along Hwy 99, as well as all of the community shuttles operated out of Langley.
I think that would give a very different picture of things SoF.
I left a comment yesterday but it must have gotten lost in cyberland. The number of buses as a ratio to population is a red herring. If people in Vancouver are located in denser more transit friendly environments they will use more buses as a ratio to population. Even if it was decided that transit system efficiency was unimportant and equity was the most important metric you should be using route km and not number of buses. Not that I think equity should be the driving factor for transit decisions. As I understand it the SoF area has the highest subsidy per route km due to long distances and poor ridership. Some of the poor ridership may be corrected by adding service but the fundemental problem is a lot of Surrey's poor urban form in relation to walking and transit.
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