My Health My Community results show that Langley City is a walking city

Earlier this year, I posted about My Health My Community which is a comprehensive survey that looks at lifestyle and health outcome indicators for people in Metro Vancouver. My Health My Community is a partnership between Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, Fraser Health Authority, and the eHealth Strategy Office at UBC.

Earlier this spring, I posted about information they compiled which showed that people who walk more have lower body mass which improves health outcomes. Land-use and how people get around is linked, so it should come as no surprise that communities which are designed to be walkable, have more people that walk to get around.

In the summer, I posted infographics on general health indicators for Langley that Fraser Health prepared. My Health My Community has now put together neighbourhood-level health indicator profiles.

Built Environment Neighbourhood Health Indicators - Langley City. Select table to enlarge.

Langley City is a walking city. Some 20.9% of people walk or cycle —active transportation— as part of their commute. 8.9% use public transit. Within Metro Vancouver, the average for people that use active transportation is 13.7%. In the Township of Langley, it is even lower at 8.7%.

When it comes to active transportation and commuting, the City of Langley is similar to the City of Vancouver where 25.7% of people use active transportation as part of their commute.

In the City of Langley, 20.2% of people use active transpiration as the primary way to run errands. This is higher than the regional average. In the Township of Langley, only 6.6% use active transportation when running errands.

When I was elected, I committed to doing what I can to improve the walkability of City of Langley. This means not only ensuring that we have safe active transportation infrastructure, but it also means ensuring that new development projects in the City of Langley contribute to increasing the walkability of our community.

As an example, building a drive-thru in Downtown Langley erodes the walkable of Langley City while building a project which includes street-side storefronts that connect directly to a sidewalk increases walkability.

Visit the My Health My Community website to view the full set of neighbourhood profiles.

The South of Fraser leads the region in bus ridership growth

TransLink released its annual transit service performance review yesterday. Unlike previous year’s reviews which only contained performance information on the bus network, this year’s review also includes SkyTrain, West Coast Express, and SeaBus performance information as well.

When it comes to investment in bus service hours, the South of Fraser has received the highest percent increase over the last 4 years with three percent growth. North Shore communities saw the second highest bus service hour growth at two percent.

Interestingly enough, the investment of additional service hours into the North Shore hasn’t resulted in an overall increase in bus ridership in that sub-region over the last 4 years.

Bus Service Performance by Sub-Region, 2011 - 2015. Select table to enlarge.

In the South of Fraser, transit ridership has grown 4 percent over the same period of years. In South Delta (Ladner/Tsawwassen) ridership has grown even faster with a 5% increase over the last 4 years. There is clearly a high demand for transit service in the South of Fraser. Because of limited funding for transit regionally, TransLink is unable to keep up with the demand for more transit service.

The following map shows the five busiest bus routes in each sub-region, and includes annual boarding values for each of those routes. This map is interesting because it shows were the core transit network is.

2015 Bus Boardings: Map of Top 5 Routes by Sub-Region. Select map to enlarge.

While 50% of the top 10 most over-crowed routes are in Vancouver, the 502 which runs along Fraser Highway and 319 which runs along Scott Road are also some of the top 10 most over-crowed routes for the entire region.

Over the years, TransLink has increased the amount of service hours on the 502 and recently created the 503, but demand for more transit service remains high along that corridor.

I take the 503 Aldergrove Express somewhat regularly, but I found anecdotally that its on-time performance is poor. As it turns out, the 503 is in the top 10 list for routes with the lowest on-time performance.

The 555 Carvolth/Loughead Station Express continues to perform well since its introduction in 2013. Unlike the money loosing Port Mann Bridge which the route travels across. Ridership has ballooned from 565,000 boardings in 2013 to 868,000 in 2015. The cost per boarded passenger was only $1.53 in 2015.

The 96 B-Line which runs along King George Boulevard and 104th Avenue which was also introduced in 2013 has seen its ridership grow from 2.9 million boardings in 2013 to 3.7 million in 2015.

Lessons from Auckland: Tapping in and out when using buses actually works.

I was in New Zealand at the end of August. During my time there, I had the pleasure of having Darren Davis of Auckland Transport give me a tour of Auckland. The tour focused on the region’s transportation network, land-use, and their interactions. Over the next little while, I will be sharing my observations from New Zealand and how they could be applied in Metro Vancouver.

Auckland is New Zealand’s largest region, and its largest city. Auckland used to consist of seven municipalities and a regional authority, sort of like the structure of Metro Vancouver. The national government decided to collapse the municipalities and regional authority several years ago into what is now Auckland Council.

Auckland Transport is like a super-charged TransLink. The agency is responsible for the whole transportation network in the region from sidewalks and local roads, to public transit. State highways are controlled by the national government. Auckland Transport is arms-length like TransLink with its directors appointed by Auckland Council and the national government. With these similarity, there are some best practices in Auckland that could be applied in our region.

One of the first things that I was curious about was their HOP card system. The HOP card is like the Compass Card.

Auckland Transport has a zone-based fare system. It also requires that people tap in and tap off when using buses, trains, and ferries.

If you recall, TransLink was having issues with people not tapping off the bus correctly and/or forgetting to tap off. They ended up scrapping zones and tapping off on buses to launch the system.

In Auckland, the HOP card readers are slower than the Compass Card readers on buses. Auckland Transport still insists that people tap on and tap off. They also created some highly visible reminds.

Auckland Transport HOP card reader. Remember to Tag Off. Select image to enlarge.

Auckland Transport “Please Tag Off” notice on bus door. Select impact to enlarge.

Another example of an Auckland Transport HOP card reader.

This never happened in Metro Vancouver. TransLink was very cautious and sensitive to rider's initial challenges when it launched the Compass Card system. If people forget to tap off in Auckland, they get charged the maximum fare. New Zealanders don’t like mucking around, and I was told that if you forget to tap off, you’ll learn your lesson for next time.

Darren did note that for busy bus routes like the 99 B-Line, off-bus readers would be needed at busy stops. Here is an example of an off-bus reader which allows people to tap on before boarding buses in Seattle.

Tap your ORCA Card at the curb before boarding a bus in Seattle. Select image to enlarge.

Auckland Transport's slower HOP card system shows that it is possible to have people tap on and off when using buses. It just takes some training, maybe a lessons learned, and a good amount of reminders.

Major changes to bus routes in Langley as of yesterday

With Labour Day also comes changes to transit service in Metro Vancouver. In Langley, there were significant changes made to the transit network.

If you look at the following map from 1988, you’ll see that in Langley there has been very little change to the coverage of the transit network even though the population has dramatically shifted and grown.

1988 Bus Route Map of Langley

Over the past several years, TransLink has been busy optimizing the transit network by removing service were there wasn’t demand, reinvesting that service into other areas where there is demand.

Because of how transit service was designed back in the 1980s with a focus on coverage instead of frequency, there were sections of the 502 and 501/590 routes that were only serviced a handful of times per day. Because of this irregular service, ridership along most of these sections were poor.

TransLink recently deleted the limited-service Salmon River section of the 502, and as of yesterday also deleted the limited-service Brookswood section of the 502.

Also as of yesterday, TransLink merged the 501 and 590, and deleted all afternoon trips past Langley Centre from the route. TransLink kept the 501/590 Langley South morning trips for a trail period. My concern is that because the City of Langley is currently rebuilding 203rd Street from Grade Crescent to Michaud Crescent, ridership numbers during the trail might be lower than normal.

To improve access for people in Brookswood, TransLink has also added extra early morning trips to the 531 which will now go to Langley Centre as well.

The 531 now goes through Langley Centre. Select map to enlarge.

While these changes will negatively impact some transit customer (I will no longer be able to catch the 502 directly outside my apartment), these changes make sense and will actually result in a overall improvement in transit service in Langley.

The new route for the 595 along 208th Street. Select map to enlarge.

A major improvement in transit service is available to residents in Willoughby and sections of Walnut Grove with the 595 now moving from 200th Street to 208th Street. This simple change will result in transit service now being available to one of the fastest growing corridors in Metro Vancouver.

I just got back from New Zealand where they are doing a wholesale change to the transit networks in both Auckland and Wellington, their largest regions, due to decades of neglect. Having an agency that is constantly evaluating and tweaking the transit network to perform its best is a good thing.