I was at the second meeting of the Abbotsford Inter-Regional Transportation Select Committee last night. This committee will report back to Abbotsford Council by October 2008 on regional transportation issues.
The committee represents a broad range of views: everyone from the Abbotsford Chamber, City, BC Transit, and transportation planners to “activists” like myself. Getting such a diverse group of people to come to a consensus is quite a challenge, but at the end of this meeting a motion was made, and passed, that states we want to see a regional transit system that connects Abbotsford, Langley, and Surrey.
While this may seem trivial, it is an important first step. It will allow the group to focus on how and where we want this system to work.
According to 2004 Translink/BC Ministry of Transportation surveys, more and more people are making trips outside of the Abbotsford region. 4% go to Mission, 4% go to Chilliwack, and a full 11% go into Metro Vancouver. Of the trips into Metro Vancouver, 60% go into Langley and Surrey. That’s 22,000 trips a day. To put that into context, Mission (with the West Coast Express) has only 13,900 trips a day into all of Metro Vancouver. There are also 37,000 trips a day from Surrey and Langley into the Fraser Valley Regional District. Compare that to only 16,100 trips from Langley into Burnaby and Vancouver.
Another point that kept on coming up: transit spending will need to increase (ie: more local taxes) if we truly want to attract people to transit in the Fraser Valley. It was noted that Whistler, with a population equivalent of 26,023, and Abbotsford, with a population of 123,864, have the same amount of buses. Also, there was a strong desire to see the Abbotsford Airport and all the universities in the South Fraser/Fraser Valley connected to this regional system. Abbotsford Airport seemed very excited about restoring the Interurban service.
The committee also received a letter that came as a result of the May 5th Langley Township Council meeting to get a South of the Fraser Transit/Transportation Task Force started. The Abbotsford Committee recommended to Abbotsford City Council that Councillor Harris and Councillor Loewen be selected for the Langley Task Force.
The next meeting will be in one month.
Friday, June 6, 2008
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Sustainability
sustainable |səˈstānəbəl|
adjective
able to be maintained at a certain rate or level : sustainable fusion reactions.
• Ecology (esp. of development, exploitation, or agriculture) conserving an ecological balance by avoiding depletion of natural resources.
• able to be upheld or defended : sustainable definitions of good educational practice.
DERIVATIVES
sustainability |səˌstānəˈbilitē| noun
sustainably |-blē| adverb
It seems that wherever you turn these days, something is being toted as sustainable: sustainable shopping bags, clothes, cars, lipstick, you name it. While the use of the word “sustainable” indicates that there is growing awareness and concern about how we live our lives, the true meaning of the word has been lost in all the eco-hype and marketing spin.
I’m fond of the BC Ministry of Forests and Range’s definition of the word sustainability: “A state or process that can be maintained indefinitely. The principles of sustainability integrate three closely interlined elements—the environment, the economy, and the social system—into a system that can be maintained in a healthy state indefinitely.”
So with that definition in mind, I had a great chuckle when I was reading the Township of Langley’s 2007 Annual Report. Under the heading of “Contribute to a Sustainable Region” was highway and road construction. While this post is not intended to debate the merits or perils of road construction, the harsh reality is that road construction is rarely sustainable. If it were, we would never have to expand them. On the same token, driving cars and taking diesel Translink buses are not sustainable either. Growth is never sustainable. At some point in the near or distant future, it will have to stop. So am I anti-growth? Of course not, but I do think we can do a better job of managing growth and ensuring that it will stop in the distant future, and not the near. Our municipalities have a long ways to go on the sustainability front.
The right words people should be using are “moving towards sustainability.” The City of Surrey recently created a Sustainability Charter, and the Township of Langley is in the process of creating one. Hopefully the Township of Langley can avoid the issue that the City of Surrey has with their charter: business as usual.
I was chatting with a planner at the Township and he told me that the Sustainability Charter, once approved, should have a ripple down effect on every procedure and policy in the community. This would be truly exciting. Imagine a road built for sustainability modes of transportation like walk, biking, and streetcars. Or a storm water collection system that filters water back into the earth on site. Or neighborhoods that can sustain a person from birth to death. These are all possible today. I truly hope that we are moving out of the lip service to sustainability stage, and into putting sustainable principles into practice.
Smart Growth BC has excellent resources on how to move towards sustainability
adjective
able to be maintained at a certain rate or level : sustainable fusion reactions.
• Ecology (esp. of development, exploitation, or agriculture) conserving an ecological balance by avoiding depletion of natural resources.
• able to be upheld or defended : sustainable definitions of good educational practice.
DERIVATIVES
sustainability |səˌstānəˈbilitē| noun
sustainably |-blē| adverb
It seems that wherever you turn these days, something is being toted as sustainable: sustainable shopping bags, clothes, cars, lipstick, you name it. While the use of the word “sustainable” indicates that there is growing awareness and concern about how we live our lives, the true meaning of the word has been lost in all the eco-hype and marketing spin.
I’m fond of the BC Ministry of Forests and Range’s definition of the word sustainability: “A state or process that can be maintained indefinitely. The principles of sustainability integrate three closely interlined elements—the environment, the economy, and the social system—into a system that can be maintained in a healthy state indefinitely.”
So with that definition in mind, I had a great chuckle when I was reading the Township of Langley’s 2007 Annual Report. Under the heading of “Contribute to a Sustainable Region” was highway and road construction. While this post is not intended to debate the merits or perils of road construction, the harsh reality is that road construction is rarely sustainable. If it were, we would never have to expand them. On the same token, driving cars and taking diesel Translink buses are not sustainable either. Growth is never sustainable. At some point in the near or distant future, it will have to stop. So am I anti-growth? Of course not, but I do think we can do a better job of managing growth and ensuring that it will stop in the distant future, and not the near. Our municipalities have a long ways to go on the sustainability front.
The right words people should be using are “moving towards sustainability.” The City of Surrey recently created a Sustainability Charter, and the Township of Langley is in the process of creating one. Hopefully the Township of Langley can avoid the issue that the City of Surrey has with their charter: business as usual.
I was chatting with a planner at the Township and he told me that the Sustainability Charter, once approved, should have a ripple down effect on every procedure and policy in the community. This would be truly exciting. Imagine a road built for sustainability modes of transportation like walk, biking, and streetcars. Or a storm water collection system that filters water back into the earth on site. Or neighborhoods that can sustain a person from birth to death. These are all possible today. I truly hope that we are moving out of the lip service to sustainability stage, and into putting sustainable principles into practice.
Smart Growth BC has excellent resources on how to move towards sustainability
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Maps of Streetcar and Interurban Network
To sound like a broken recorded, I highly recommend that anyone interested in the history of public transit, streetcars, and interurbans in BC read Henry Ewert's The Story of the B.C. Electric Railway Company.
On that note, I have posted some of the many maps from the book. These maps represent the transit system in its hayday during the 1930's and 1940's.
As you can see, Vancouver had a very well developed streetcar system.
If you take a close look at the streetcar route numbers, you can see that they mirror some of our current trolley bus route numbers.
You can thank the streetcar and interurban systems for creating many of the cherished and people-friendly neighbourhoods in our region that exist today. The vast majority of these neighbourhoods were located alone these lines.
The Fraser Valley Interurban that we would like restored.
I find it very ironic that we tore up our streetcar and interurban systems in North America in the 1940's and 1950's to make room for the auto, only to start rebuilding them again (at a much higher cost) starting in the 1970's until present. Today we are realizing that we must place a greater importation on public transit if we are to see reductions in green-house-causing gases. Cities like Toronto were truly lucking in bypassing this costly mistake.
On that note, I have posted some of the many maps from the book. These maps represent the transit system in its hayday during the 1930's and 1940's.
As you can see, Vancouver had a very well developed streetcar system.
If you take a close look at the streetcar route numbers, you can see that they mirror some of our current trolley bus route numbers. You can thank the streetcar and interurban systems for creating many of the cherished and people-friendly neighbourhoods in our region that exist today. The vast majority of these neighbourhoods were located alone these lines.
The Fraser Valley Interurban that we would like restored.
I find it very ironic that we tore up our streetcar and interurban systems in North America in the 1940's and 1950's to make room for the auto, only to start rebuilding them again (at a much higher cost) starting in the 1970's until present. Today we are realizing that we must place a greater importation on public transit if we are to see reductions in green-house-causing gases. Cities like Toronto were truly lucking in bypassing this costly mistake.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Langley Advance - Forum topic set
The Langley Advance ran a piece on our upcoming meeting and workshop.
OnTrax, with SmartGrowth BC, will hold a sustainability workshop on June 18 from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Langley.Check out their website for more information.
OnTrax will also host its next regular meeting at the Township Civic Facility's Yorkson Meeting Room on June 10 at 7 p.m. The meeting will focus on streetcars, with Township councillors Jordan Bateman and Grant Ward speaking.
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