Transport 2050: Real-Time Sensors to Make Driving More Reliable. Paid and Permit Parking throughout all of Metro Vancouver.

As I noted yesterday, TransLink is responsible for the major road network in Metro Vancouver (excluding provincial highways.) The agency recently adopted Transport 2050, the long-range transportation strategy for our region.

One of TransLink’s goals is to make driving and parking more reliable, reducing congestion. While many people think that means road expansion projects, TransLink has a different approach. Simply building more road capacity without other measures counterintuitively increases congestion. This induced demand occurred when the province removed the Port Mann bridge tolls.

TransLink would like to set up a real-time sensor network that would help the province and municipalities optimize the existing road network. These sensors could help optimize traffic signals in real-time, for example. TransLink and its partners would connect these real-time sensors into a central database for further analysis to help optimize, monitor, and plan the road network. Others could use this data to optimize routing, mode (driving or taking transit,) and time of day for specific trips.

Another approach TransLink would like to take to reduce congestion and make driving more reliable is to work with ICBC to introduce pay-as-you-drive insurance. The less you drive, the less you pay.

Transport 2050 notes that new east-west connections on the North Shore and in North Surrey may be required as well as a long-term solution to connect Highway 1 and Highway 91A to support goods movement.

Another Transport 2050 strategy is to make parking, pickup/drop-off, and loading/unloading more reliable.

A parking meter in Coquitlam.

TransLink envisions that all street segments with parking should have at least one or two available parking spots free at all times. To accomplish this goal, municipalities would implement on-street paid parking. Municipalities would set the price as low as possible to ensure parking is always available. Real-time data would help people find available parking and help set parking pricing.

Transport 2050 calls for introducing permits to park personal and commercial vehicles overnight on all streets to manage parking in the evening.

Pickup/drop-off and loading/unloading zones will become even more critical in the future. TransLink calls for dynamic curbside zones to serve these needs based on demand.

On-street curbside management would require the support of all municipalities in Metro Vancouver.

For more information on how TransLink would make driving and parking more reliable, read Strategy 2.3