New Proposed Commercial Retail Building in Willoughby Town Centre: Being pedestrian-first while accommodating the auto

Transforming from an auto-oriented community to a walkable community doesn’t happen by chance. A municipality has to work hard to make it happen. This means that planning staff must have the know-how and desire to build a walkable community. Council also has to be fully on board.

On the flip side, a community can lose its walkability if a council is not vigilant about the projects it approves, and staff is not fully committed to advocating for walkability.

Willoughby in the Township of Langley is a community hopefully transitioning from an auto-oriented community to a walkable community. Willoughby’s new downtown is being built along Willoughby Towns Centre Drive near 208th Street and 80th Avenue. The Township also has planned for 86th Avenue around the Carvolth Park and Ride to be a walkable high street.

Some of the needed ingredients for a walkable community include having a sufficient density of people living within an easy 10 minute walk of where shops and services are to be located. Just one look around Willoughby Town Centre shows that the density is there. Another key ingredient is a pedestrian-focused public realm. The public realm must have wide, well-kept sidewalks with shops and services fronting them. A pedestrian should never need to walk through or by a parking lot to access the services needed.

One of the challenges transforming from an auto-oriented community to a walkable community is that people won’t instantly stop driving automobiles to shops and services. Parking must still be accommodated, just not prioritized.

Last week, Township of Langley Council looked at a new project that is being proposed in Willoughby Township Centre. The plan is for a two-storey commercial complex. The original plan was for a mixed-use complex, but the developer nixed that plan. The Township of Langley requires a certain amount of residential units in Willoughby Town Centre, and the developer has promised to add those units removed into a future phase. While I’m not pleased to see that the mixed-use component was removed, I wanted to focus on what was done right on this project.

Site plan of proposed two-storey commercial building in Willoughby Town Centre. Select image to enlarge.

The first thing done right is that the ground-level retail units all front Willoughby Town Centre Drive. Parking is at the rear of the building, and is accessed by a side street/lane. The other very important design element is that the ground-level retail units must be accessed from the street. No provisions have been made to access the ground-level retail units from the rear parking lot. I’ve seen some projects in Surrey that front the street, but as Surrey allows parking lot entrances, businesses sometimes keep the street-front door locked effectively turning their back to the pedestrian public realm.

Rendering of proposed two-storey commercial building in Willoughby Town Centre, looking east. Select image to enlarge.

For the Willoughby project, parking is accessed by a central breezeway that also serves as the pedestrian staircase to the second floor.

Rendering of proposed two-storey commercial building in Willoughby Town Centre, looking north-east. Select image to enlarge.

The parking is actually on two levels, but you wouldn’t notice it from Willoughby Town Centre Drive. The design actually reminds me of the first US shopping malls which were modelled on “Main Street USA” with hidden parking.

Rendering of proposed two-storey commercial building in Willoughby Town Centre, looking west. Select image to enlarge.

The cost of putting in underground parking is high, and this proposed two-storey commercial building project shows how it is possible to both accommodate the auto while building a high-quality, pedestrian-friendly public realm without breaking the bank.

The City of Langley has approved auto-oriented commercial buildings in Downtown Langley recently, this proposed project in the Township shows that it is possible to build a pedestrian-first building with parking that doesn’t destroy the pedestrian public realm.

Over time, parking will become less of an issue and future buildings will not require the same degree of parking. Vancouver has shown how you can transition from an auto-oriented community to a walkable community.

Bus ridership up in the South of Fraser, but at the expense of the rest of the region

TransLink recently released their 2014 Bus Service Performance Review. This review presents performance metrics for the bus network in Metro Vancouver.

One of the first metrics in the report is the amount of annual bus revenue hours provided. This metric is an indicator of the amount of bus service provided. Over the past five years, the amount of service hours has been relatively flat across the region, but sub-regionally is a different story. This is due to TransLink’s service optimization scheme which transfers service hours from more costly and less used routes, to routes where this is more of a demand.

If the transit plebiscite is any indication, people in the South of Fraser believe that TransLink is ignoring them. As the following table shows, TransLink has invested heavily in improving bus service in the South of Fraser. At the end of 2014, only Vancouver/UBC had more bus service than the South of Fraser.

Annual bus revenue hours between 2010 and 2014. Select table to enlarge.

In order to increase bus service in the South of Fraser, other parts of the region have had their service levels reduced. Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows, Richmond, and Northeast Sector communities have seen a reduction in bus service.

The next table shows the change in ridership over the last 5 years. Interestingly, South Delta communities have seen the highest growth in ridership over the last 5 years. The South of Fraser —Surrey, Langley, and White Rock— have seen the second highest growth in ridership over that same period.

Annual bus boardings between 2010 and 2014. Select table to enlarge.

Interestingly, ridership has flat-lined in traditionally transit-friendly areas like Vancouver, Burnaby, and New Westminster.

One of the new metric provided in this year’s performance review is the overcrowding factor on bus routes. Several South of Fraser routes made it on to the top ten list including the 320 and 502.

Top 10 overcrowded bus routes in 2013 and 2014. Select table to enlarge.

While people voted no in the transit plebiscite for a host of different reasons in the South of Fraser, there is certainly a demand for new transit service when it is provided.

For example, the 96 B-Line which services King George Boulevard and 104th Avenue was introduced in the fall of 2013. The 320 and 321 also service this corridor. In 2012, the 320 and 231 had combine annual boardings of 7,000,000. In 2014, with the addition of the B-Line service, there was 7,830,000 annual boardings, an increase of about 12%.

Ridership has also been very strong on the 555 which connects the Carvolth Park and Ride with the SkyTrain system. Annual boardings in 2013 was 565,000, this jumped to 713,000 in 2014, a 26.2% increase!

People in Langley really like there public transit where it is provided. The 502 was split into the 502 and 503 last year. The 502 connects Langley City to the SkyTrain system and runs along Fraser Highway. The 503 provides local service between Aldergrove and Langley City along Fraser Highway, then provides express bus service to the SkyTrain system along the remainder of Fraser Highway.

In 2013, there was 3,126,000 annual boardings on the 502. The 502/503 combined annual boardings in 2014 was 3,441,000, a 10% increase.

I know that a certain Township of Langley Councillor was upset when the 503 was created as it resulted in the discontinuation of the two bus trips per day in Salmon River/Uplands. It seems like that service change was the right move as it increased ridership and improved access for people in Aldergrove.

While more transit is needed in the South of Fraser, it appears that TransLink is providing more service to the sub-region, even if it is at the expense of other parts of Metro Vancouver.

TransLink transit ridership down first quarter

The American Public Transit Association has released first quarter ridership results for member agencies throughout Canada and the US.

In the first quarter of 2014, TransLink saw an overall 3.28% drop in ridership compared to the same period in 2013. TransLink ended 2014 with a 0.5% increase in ridership.

Metro Vancouver's population has been growing at a rate of about 1.3% per year since 2000. While the 2001 transit strike caused a 29.8% drop in transit ridership, in 2002, ridership jumped up 40%. Until 2013, ridership in Metro Vancouver was growing faster than population growth. This is why transit mode share, the percentage of all trips taken by transit, increased rapidly in the last decade.

In 2013 transit ridership dropped. In 2014, ridership grew only 0.5%. This is lower than the rate of population growth. TransLink says that the drop was due to fare increases in 2013, but in 2008 and 2010 there were also fare increases which didn’t impact ridership in the same way.

2013 was the year when TransLink ran out of money to grow service due to provincial government interference. This was also the year that TransLink starting cutting service from some parts of the region in order to keep up with the demand in other parts of the region. This service optimization is a major reason for the drop in ridership.

Overall ridership dropped 0.17% in the first quarter of 2015 compared to the same period in 2014. HandyDART ridership was up 1.93% and non-trolley bus ridership was up 0.18%. SkyTrain ridership dropped 0.56% and West Coast Express ridership dropped 1.42%.

Trolley bus ridership dropped 0.53%. This has been an ongoing trend since 2005. In 2004, there were 70,946,200 trips by trolley bus. In 2014, only 59,730,000 trips where by trolley bus. This due to a host of reasons, but I’ve noticed that north/south bus routes in Vancouver have had a larger drop in ridership than east/west bus routes. Trolley buses mostly serve north/south corridors. It could be that travel patterns are changing in Vancouver, but as a fixed transit service, the trolley bus network has not been able to adapt.

A Dark Day for the Livable Region: What the No Vote Really Means

While not surprised, I am disappointed that citizens in Metro Vancouver voted no to improving transit in Metro Vancouver. Langley, Maple Ridge, and Pitt Meadows had some of the lowest levels of support.

In Surrey, only 34% of eligible voters said yes to a 0.5% sales tax to improve transit and transportation in the region. Surrey would have been the largest recipient of transit and transportation service improvements in the region under the plan that voters rejected.

From the get go, Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner said that there was a Plan B for Surrey’s light rail project should the transit plebiscite fail. I’m sure that many in Surrey voted no because they felt that they would end up with light rail either way.

Of course nothing is free, the capital and operating costs for the Surrey light rail project will likely come from property tax increases and/or other city services being reduced as budget is reallocated to the light rail project. Hepner’s Plan B does not include money for increased bus service, funding major roads, or funding cycling improvements in Surrey like the plebiscite plan did.

One of the real tragedies is the result of the no vote for people who live in the Township of Langley. Traffic and parking are major problems, and will only get worse as the population in areas like Willoughby triples in the next few decades. People in the Township of Langley have been calling for more transit service, but because of the outcome of the plebiscite, will only see their limited transit service get worse.

TransLink has already indicated that they will cut service on routes that under-perform. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the community shuttle routes in Langley are completely eliminated. This is bad news for seniors, students, and working-class families.

One of the clear messages from the plebiscite is that people do not trust TransLink. There are many reasons why, but it all comes down to its governance structure. The sad reality is that TransLink and its current governance structure was created by the provincial government. Only the provincial government can change the governance structure. Minister of Transportation Todd Stone has indicated that the province may now look at changing the TransLink governance structure, but will it be enough?

Todd Stone also said this afternoon that our region’s mayors will still need to come up with the 1/3rd of funding needed to pay for transit improvements in the region. The province has always wanted the mayors to hike up property tax to pay for transit improvements. The mayors have consistently said no.

The major reason for saying no is that the mayors don’t want their property tax revenue going to a provincial agency for which they have little control over.

We are back to where we started in 2012 when TransLink needed more funding to expand service: a provincial government that wants mayors to hike up property taxes, and mayors who won’t raise property taxes to fund desperately needed transit improvements until there is governance changes at TransLink.

At the Mayors’ Council press conference this morning, there was a strong indication that the region’s mayors might step away from the Mayors’ Council altogether if the province doesn’t change the governance structure of TransLink.

Interestingly enough, with no new funding for transit expansion, the Mayors’ Council isn’t really needed. The only thing of importance that TransLink won’t be able to do is increase fares.

I know that many people voted no because they believe there is hidden money within TransLink; a no vote would clean up TransLink. This is simply not the case.

At the end of the day, new money is needed to improve transit in our region. In the meantime, residents in Metro Vancouver can look forward to more traffic gridlock, more broken-down SkyTrains, more over-crowded buses, and less service in the South of Fraser.

While Edmonton, Calgary, Ottawa, and Toronto are expanding transit service in a big way, Metro Vancouver can’t even fund a new bus route.

Transit is an important part of attracting businesses to the region. The results of this week’s plebiscite, the provincial government’s refusal to fix TransLink’s governance, and the mayors’ line-in-the-sand approach to property tax means that Metro Vancouver will not live up to its full economic potential.

The added cost of owning a vehicle, congestion, and pollution will further deteriorate the livability and affordability of our region.