How Stuff Works: 200th Street Traffic Lights

One of our members, Herb Klein, sent an email to Township of Langley Councillor Jordan Bateman inquiring about how traffic signals are coordinated along the 200th Street corridor. I found the information interest, so I thought I would share it. As a side note, I believe the traffic signals along and around the Langley Bypass as coordinated with the Ministry of Transportation (MoT), City, and Township.

-72 Ave operates independently. The nearest signal is 1 mile away, and there are no benefits to including it in coordination.

-80 Ave to 84 Ave are linked together on the Township's ICONS traffic management system and are coordinated. We are having some issues with vehicle detection at 80 Ave that our tech is trying to resolve.

-86 Ave to 92A Ave are interfaced with the MoT signals and are not linked to our ICONS system. Currently, 86 Ave to the [traffic signals on the 200th Street Overpass] are linked and communicating. There is additional equipment that is being ordered to add 91A and 92A Ave into the MoT system. Once this is complete, the signals from 86 Ave to 92A Ave will operate as one system.

-96 Ave is not linked into the system as it is too far away from 92A Ave to offer benefits from coordination.

Have a great weekend!

Prendergast on Light Rail Demonstration Project for South of Fraser

On Tuesday, I blogged about a presentation to get South Fraser communities on board to start a Community Rail Taskforce to lobby TransLink, the province, and the feds to get a demonstration line started. I’ve obtained a letter from Tom Prendergast, CEO of TransLink outlining the authorities interest in the project. Prendergast states that basically TransLink could support the demonstration line if a.) the province, the federal government, and all municipalities affected by the demonstration project are 100% onboard, and b.) TransLink doesn’t have to pay for it. To me that doesn’t seem like much support.

Given all of these considerations, while TransLink can agree in principle that a Rail Demonstration project could be of value, we are not in a position to endorse the proposal without confirmed regional, provincial and federal government support and funding.

At the end of the day, I think it is going to take some extreme pressure from South Fraser communities to get a demonstration line built. It is also going to take municipal money. Right now the Township of Langley is the only municipality on the Community Rail Taskforce, let’s hope that others join.

On a side note, Prendergast stated that TransLink priorities are as follows:

Working with the Mayor's Council and the Province to gain approval of the $130M "Funding Stabilization" supplement. The sequence of priority at this level of funding being to:
-Maintain existing service
-Maintain assets in a state of good repair
-Find or generate revenue for TransLink's share of the Evergreen Line
-Work with provincial, federal and local governments and rail partners to keep the Roberts Bank Rail corridor projects moving forward in a timely manner so as not to loss available federal funding
-Completing the South of Fraser Rail Network Study

What this means is that the South Fraser will continue to get the short end of the transit stick for the next little while.

You can read the full letter in our document archive. You can also read the reply letter from Mayor Green.

Meeting Tonight

Tonight we will be having our monthly South Fraser OnTrax meeting. We have received grant money from the Township of Langley for an event about sustainability and transportation. We are currently looking at getting an expert from Portland to speak at the event and also engage Township staff. There is still much planning to be done, so tonight will focus planning for this event.

We will also have a discussion about the future of a possible light rail demonstration project in the South Fraser.

Details:
Wednesday, October 14 from 7pm - 9pm
Yorkson Creek Meeting Room
Township of Langley Civic Facility
4th Floor 20338-65 Avenue

Light Rail Demonstration Line

So, I was reading in one of the transit newspapers today that Vancouver will be getting a streetcar for the first quarter of 2010 running on the tracks between the Canada Line station at 2nd Ave and Granville Island. The 1.8km section of track cost $8.5 million or $4.7 million/km. Bombardier Transportation will be loaning Vancouver two Flexity Outlook streetcars from Brussels. Bombardier will also be operating the system.

I bring this up because last Monday, Peter Holt, on behalf of Mayor Rick Green, Lee Lockwood, Roy Mufford, and Terry Lyster, made a presentation to Township Council about setting up a task force of councillors from South Fraser communities to lobby senior levels of government to fund a light rail demonstration on the Interurban route. Township Council appointed Councillor Jordan Bateman and Councillor Steve Ferguson to the task force. I was doing some digging online at the Township of Langley’s website and found that an Interurban demonstration line has been supported by the Township of Langley since 1997. In fact Terry Lyster (who was the Director of Planning and Development in the Township at the time) had his name attached to the Interurban Initiative.

I hope it won’t take another 11 years for the South Fraser to get its fair share of transit. If Vancouver can get a demonstration line, why can’t the South Fraser?