Next Wednesday, March 10 at 7:00pm South Fraser OnTrax will be hosting our monthly meeting. We will have special guest Eliza Olson who is the founding president of the Burns Bog Conservation Society. She will be speaking on the importance of Burns Bog for the ecosystem in Metro Vancouver and some of the challenges that it currently faces. This is sure to be an informative night. See you next week!
Details:
Wed, March 10, 7pm – 9pm
Yorkson Creek Meeting Room
Township of Langley Civic Facility, 4th Floor 20338-65 Avenue, Langley, BC
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
BC Budget Transportation Overview
Well, I had a look at the Provincial 2010/2011 budget and wanted to point out some of the transportation highlights and spending. You can also view a copy of the budget for yourself.
First let’s look at transportation capital projects over $50 that have been approved by the Treasury Board (basically projects being built right now).
For Transit: $0
For Roads: $4.5 billion
-Port Mann Bridge and Highway 1 Expansion: $3.3 billion
-South Fraser Perimeter Road: $1.1 billion
-Sierra Yoyo-Desan Road (Northern BC): $187 million
Things look bleak for transit.
Now if we look at “in-the-works”, smaller spending, and operating costs for the next three years:
For roads there is $1.8 billion
26% for rehabilitation, 40% for interior and northern roads, 18% for the Gateway Program, and 16% for other road projects.
For transit there is $822 million
-Evergreen Line: $302 million
-Rapid Transit Projects (Rapid Bus on Highway 1, 7, 99, and in Kelowna; Faregates and Smartcards on SkyTrain): $224 million
-News Buses and Other Projects: $216 million
For cycling there is $9 million which could build about 450km of bike lanes.
About 30% of the BC Budget's 3-Year Plan and 13% in total is committed to sustainable transportation. This isn't very good. The South Fraser gets more buses and no light rail. Also, no way to pay for operating these new buses as TransLink is broke. Cycling funding is very minimal. Maybe the 2011 budget will have money for light rail given the success of the Olympic Line Streetcar?
From Transportation Minister Shirley Bond in the Vancouver Sun:
First let’s look at transportation capital projects over $50 that have been approved by the Treasury Board (basically projects being built right now).
For Transit: $0
For Roads: $4.5 billion
-Port Mann Bridge and Highway 1 Expansion: $3.3 billion
-South Fraser Perimeter Road: $1.1 billion
-Sierra Yoyo-Desan Road (Northern BC): $187 million
Things look bleak for transit.
Now if we look at “in-the-works”, smaller spending, and operating costs for the next three years:
For roads there is $1.8 billion
26% for rehabilitation, 40% for interior and northern roads, 18% for the Gateway Program, and 16% for other road projects.
For transit there is $822 million
-Evergreen Line: $302 million
-Rapid Transit Projects (Rapid Bus on Highway 1, 7, 99, and in Kelowna; Faregates and Smartcards on SkyTrain): $224 million
-News Buses and Other Projects: $216 million
For cycling there is $9 million which could build about 450km of bike lanes.
About 30% of the BC Budget's 3-Year Plan and 13% in total is committed to sustainable transportation. This isn't very good. The South Fraser gets more buses and no light rail. Also, no way to pay for operating these new buses as TransLink is broke. Cycling funding is very minimal. Maybe the 2011 budget will have money for light rail given the success of the Olympic Line Streetcar?
From Transportation Minister Shirley Bond in the Vancouver Sun:
"We have an incredible incentive after seeing the success of the Canada Line, in particular, during the Winter Games," Bond said. "The transportation system worked exceptionally well."
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Transit saves you money
When looking at the benefits of a transportation project, planning types usually use the value of time as an indicator of economic benefit. Example:
Let’s say that time is worth $20 an hour or 33₵ per minute. If 200,000 people-a-day save 5 minutes-a-day for a year, you can say that Project G has an economic benefit of $120 million a year. (PS: this is what was done for the Gateway Program.)
Sadly time savings may not be as important to people as we think. (Otherwise people would be living closers to where they work and commuting less which is not the case save for Vancouver) Todd Litman from the Victoria Transport Policy Institute looked a the real economic benefit of providing high-quality transit. First off, there are two kinds of transit users: captive users (travelers who lack alternatives) and discretionary users. Basic transit does not attract discretionary users. He found that:
Click table to enlarge
So high-quality transit saves $664 per capita annually in actual cash that you can put back in your pocket. Remind me again why we aren’t building more transit?
Let’s say that time is worth $20 an hour or 33₵ per minute. If 200,000 people-a-day save 5 minutes-a-day for a year, you can say that Project G has an economic benefit of $120 million a year. (PS: this is what was done for the Gateway Program.)
Sadly time savings may not be as important to people as we think. (Otherwise people would be living closers to where they work and commuting less which is not the case save for Vancouver) Todd Litman from the Victoria Transport Policy Institute looked a the real economic benefit of providing high-quality transit. First off, there are two kinds of transit users: captive users (travelers who lack alternatives) and discretionary users. Basic transit does not attract discretionary users. He found that:
This report uses data from U.S. cities to investigate the incremental costs and benefits of high quality transit service. It indicates that high quality public transit typically requires about $268 in additional subsidies and $104 in additional fares annually per capita, but provides vehicle, parking and road cost savings averaging $1,040 per capita, plus other benefits including congestion reductions, increased traffic safety, pollution reductions, improved mobility for non-drivers, improved fitness and health.
Click table to enlargeSo high-quality transit saves $664 per capita annually in actual cash that you can put back in your pocket. Remind me again why we aren’t building more transit?
Monday, March 1, 2010
The Transit Games
I have to say that the last two weeks have been lots of fun. Working downtown, I was able to catch some of the party of these games during the weekday. And of course, I went downtown on the weekend. Even Langley shared in the spirit. I regularly saw the 502 from Aldergrove half-full of Olympic volunteers. If I could say anything about these games, it really was the transit games.
From the beginning of our Olympic bid, the plan was to get people throughout our region on transit and it worked! Sure there were some lineups and even some hot tempers, but all in all it was a very good experience. I have to thank the people of TransLink (and all the operating companies) for a job well done. In fact, I actually got home in better time on transit during the games than regularly due to the added transit service (even on the 502.) It’s sad that these enhanced services are going away. If there was one transit gem during the games, it would be the Olympic Line streetcar that ran between Granville Island and the Olympic Village Canada Line station. Talk about traveling in style: leather seats, wood paneling, and even leather straps to hold onto when standing. The Olympic Line streetcar really opened people’s eyes to what transit can be. You don’t have to break the bank to have good quality services. I hope people's experience on the streetcar will translate into more streetcars being built in our region and the South Fraser. It will be interesting to see how this factors into the transit funding issue currently facing our region. Will people be willing to pay more money for improved service and expansion? Vancouver actually closed down major roads and things worked great. Getting around in a car wasn’t even that bad. I had to drive around for work during the games and experienced very little delay. So let’s get on with building transit, as the games proved, it's worth every penny.
Many have called this Olympics the friendliest games ever and commented on the party atmosphere downtown. This is not chance, but almost by design. Vancouver has a strong sense of place and downtown is all about the pedestrian. Even without the games, downtown Vancouver draws you in. This should be a reminder to our politicians in the South Fraser that building around people is better than building around the car.
From the beginning of our Olympic bid, the plan was to get people throughout our region on transit and it worked! Sure there were some lineups and even some hot tempers, but all in all it was a very good experience. I have to thank the people of TransLink (and all the operating companies) for a job well done. In fact, I actually got home in better time on transit during the games than regularly due to the added transit service (even on the 502.) It’s sad that these enhanced services are going away. If there was one transit gem during the games, it would be the Olympic Line streetcar that ran between Granville Island and the Olympic Village Canada Line station. Talk about traveling in style: leather seats, wood paneling, and even leather straps to hold onto when standing. The Olympic Line streetcar really opened people’s eyes to what transit can be. You don’t have to break the bank to have good quality services. I hope people's experience on the streetcar will translate into more streetcars being built in our region and the South Fraser. It will be interesting to see how this factors into the transit funding issue currently facing our region. Will people be willing to pay more money for improved service and expansion? Vancouver actually closed down major roads and things worked great. Getting around in a car wasn’t even that bad. I had to drive around for work during the games and experienced very little delay. So let’s get on with building transit, as the games proved, it's worth every penny.
Many have called this Olympics the friendliest games ever and commented on the party atmosphere downtown. This is not chance, but almost by design. Vancouver has a strong sense of place and downtown is all about the pedestrian. Even without the games, downtown Vancouver draws you in. This should be a reminder to our politicians in the South Fraser that building around people is better than building around the car.
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