Surrey Set for Major Transit Expansion?

CBC reports this morning that the City of Surrey is going to see some significant improvements to transit services. You can read all about it here. It comes as a surprise of sorts because when the Mayor's Council voted to fund TransLink, it was said that this money would only allow TransLink to fund current levels of service.

According to the CBC, transit expansion along Broadway is being put aside. So apparently those Broadway funds are now available to increase transit capacity in Surrey! This is GREAT news for those of us south of the Fraser.

Don't expect the expansion tomorrow as the Evergreen Line must first be completed before the Surrey connection begins. The CBC article says:

"In its latest report, "2040 Shape our Future," the federation of 22 municipalities in the Lower Mainland says that once the Evergreen Line to Coquitlam Centre is completed, rapid transit should be expanded in Surrey before a line out to the University of British Columbia is built."

Voter Approved Transportation Tax

People generally don't like tax increases if they don't know what it's for. Political parties in BC tried to make carbon tax a big issue, but it didn't become one. People knew what the carbon tax was for and understood what it was designed to do. The HST on the other hand is a general tax increase, and looking at what's happened in BC over the last little while, it hasn't been popular. No matter the merits of HST, people are less likely to support a general tax increase. I mention this because I found an article called Local Option Transportation Taxes: Devolution as Revolution. The article looks at the history of user fees and taxes in transportation system in America and how voters have approve taxes to support transportation projects.

Ever since the widespread adoption of automobiles, Americans have preferred to pay for highways and bridges with “user fees”—that is, money collected from those who use the roads.

During calendar year 2002, American voters considered 44 separate ballot measures to raise money for transportation. Nine of them were state-wide elections, and only a few involved user fees like fuel taxes. Local sales taxes are by far most common in these measures, but some local governments have enacted vehicle registration fees (arguably a user fee, but more accurately a form of property taxation), taxes on real estate sales, local income or payroll taxes earmarked for transportation, and taxes on new real estate developments.

I quick search of Google will also reveal page upon page of voter approved transit sale taxes. All this to say that I believe that people in Metro Vancouver would be willing to pay more money for transit improvements in our region if they know the money is going direct to transit funding.

Stop Numbers

Bus stops in Metro Vancouver are very minimalist. At the worst, you get a pole that says "Bus Stop" with a stop number that is stuck in the mud. At the best, you get a bus shelter, sign with route name, number, and a timetable. Traveling around North America, I have to say Portland has one of the best bus stop way-finding systems because the route name, number, map, and stop number are on the pole. I would love to see this in Metro Vancouver. That being said, TransLink has improved bus stop way-finding in the last few years.

I got a message from a friend that used to live in Calgary and now lives in Victoria. She was lamenting about how hard it is to find next bus information from BC Transit. Apparently, you need to know the cross street and direction of your route as there are no stop numbers. It was very confusing for her. TransLink used to be like this, but have since introduced the stop number. You can text, go online, or call in to get bus stop information. Yesterday, I called in because the texting service wasn't working and found that the robot voice on the other end gave me the route number, name with termination, and next time. Now if the texting service also included the route name, things would be great. I think the next step should be for real-time bus information as all TransLink buses have GPS systems installed. Finally, if they could put maps on at least the key bus stops, we'd have a world class way-finding system for buses in Metro Vancouver.

Long-form Census and the American Community Survey

I blogged earlier about how we use census data for urban and transportation planning and that the move from a mandatory long-form census to a voluntary system will affect data quality. Much has been said on the issue and a quick Google search will turn up lots of information.


In the US, they used to have a mandatory long-form census that went out every 10 years. People didn't like the long-form census and the US Census Bureau started the annual American Community Survey (ACS). Beta testing started in 1996 and the ACS went live in 2000. The 2010 US census was the first census without a long form. Unlike Canada, the US government spent 15 years transitioning to the ACS. The ACS is also mandatory; failure to complete the survey could result in a fine.

In 2003, the US Census Bureau tested a voluntary ACS and found that:

-A dramatic decrease occurred in mail response when the survey was voluntary
-The reliability of estimates was adversely impacted by the reduction in the total number of completed interviews
-The decrease in cooperation across all three modes of data collection resulted in a noteworthy, but not critical, drop in the weighted survey response rate
-The estimated annual cost of implementing the ACS would increase by at least $59.2 million if the survey was voluntary and reliability was maintained
-Levels of item nonresponse for the data collected under voluntary and mandatory methods were very similar
-The use of voluntary methods had a negative impact on traditionally low response areas, that will compromise our ability to produce reliable data for these areas and for small population groups such as Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, American Indians, and Alaska Natives
-The change to voluntary methods had the greatest impact on areas that have traditionally high levels of cooperation and on White and non-Hispanic households

In the end they kept the mandatory ACS. Since the Canadian government is going to a voluntary system, it will have to spend more money due to the cost of processing more forms and doing more followups to get data quality up. Either way, it is certainly going to be interesting in 2011 as there will be a new baseline for data trending which mean that information on transportation and other urban topics will not be able to be compared to 2006 or earlier data.