TransLink’s second quarter results. Good news for SkyTrain, bad news for bus service.

TransLink recently released its quarterly financial and performance results for the first half of this year. During the first quarter of this year, fare revenue was flat. With the second quarter now accounted for, fare revenue has increased by 4.4% compared to the same period in 2015.

Transit revenue during the first six months of 2015 and 2016. Programs include U-Pass and BC Bus Pass. Select table to enlarge.

This isn’t surprising as ridership is also 3.7% higher in the first six months of 2016 compared to the same period in 2015. Though according to TransLink, this higher number is likely due to the fact that the agency is now using Compass Card usage data. They believe that ridership has actually increased about 2% year-to-date compared to 2015.

According to TransLink's numbers, ridership is up on the SkyTrain network, but slightly down on the rest of the transit network.

Ridership and on-time performance during the first six months of 2015 and 2016. Select table to enlarge.

While on-time performance has improved for the West Coast Express, it has decreased on other modes of transit in the first six months of 2016 compared to the same period in 2015.

The largest drop in on-time performance has been on the bus network. There are several reasons for this drop. As the road network becomes more congested or buses become overcrowded, the reliability of bus service decreases.

TransLink has also gone through a series of service optimizations over the last several years. This has resulted in bus recovery times being reduced. This means that a delay on one section of a route can have a cascading impact throughout the day on on-time performance.

Year-to-date, the revenue that TransLink receives from gas tax has increased by 7.6% in 2016 compared to the same period in 2015. This is likely due to the lower price of fuel causing more people to gas up in BC.

TransLink taxation revenue during the first six months of 2015 and 2016. Select table to enlarge.

While TransLink has seen an increase in revenue and ridership on the SkyTrain network, transit service hours have remained flat and on-time performance has decreased on the bus network. The bus network needs more service hours which is why having the mayors approve the proposed TransLink 10-Yaer Transportation Vision is critically important.

Should Langley City invest in bringing positive activity to Downtown? Take my 30 second survey.

The City of Langley has the highest per capita police officer to resident ratio in the region though some people still do not feel safe in some parts of our community, and at certain times of the day.

For example, people who were part of our recent community survey said that they didn’t feel safe in Downtown during some parts of the day.

One of the reasons why I ran for City Council was to improve our Downtown, make it a destination, and further reinforcing its role as the heart of Langley. To do this, we need to do things differently.

By investing in more public events, especially in the evening, we could bring more positive activity to Downtown Langley. This will not only encourage more people that visit Downtown Langley and support local business, but it will also drive away negative activity; making Downtown Langley feel safer. Of course, this will require resources.

With budget discussions about to begin, I wanted to get feedback from people who call Langley City home. Should we be investing in more public event and/or a preforming art centre?

Please take the 30-second survey that I’ve posted online, and let me know your thought!

City of Langley’s old Social Plan still relevant today; time for continual monitoring of plans

Over the years, the City of Langley has adopted a number of social plans and strategies. While it is good to develop plans and strategies, taking action on them is equally important. For a plan or strategy to be effective, it has to be continually reviewed with progress tracked.

The City of Langley is home to a diverse population with people from all walks and stages of life. Back in 2008, the City adopted a Social Plan in collaboration with SPARC BC. I was reviewing the plan over the last few days as I recently rediscovered it. While the plan is over eight years old, it is still relevant today.

The plan identified the following broad recommendations:

• Improve access to green space and recreational opportunities
• Reduce homelessness in the community
• Ensure the City has a mix of safe, affordable housing options
• Support building transitional/support housing facilities to help get people out of homelessness
• Support building a detox and residential treatment facility
• Support the provisioning of more community based health services
• Support programs that connect our diverse population to combat issues such as isolation
• Work to provide awareness of community safety issues
• Raise awareness about social issues in the community, and work with other agencies to address these issues
• Coordinate and build social agency capacity in the community to address the needs of Langley City residents

Each of these recommendations have specific short-term and long-term action items associated with them. Some of the long-term recommendations included exploring tax and development cost charge breaks for affordable housing; and, creating City staff capacity to support agencies with needs assessments and coordination, and to respond to emerging issues.

Action has been taken on some of the recommendations in this plan, but other recommendations have not be actioned. Plans without provisions for on-going monitoring have a tendency to “collect dust” on a shelf. I have to wonder if this sometimes happens with City of Langley plans too.

Over the years, the City of Langley has developed a lot of great plans and strategies to address social issues in our community such as around reducing homelessness, creating affordable housing, and reducing crime. I have to wonder if these plans and their recommendations should be consolidated into a living document which has a requirement for progress monitoring and continual updating. This would ensure that we are moving forward with addressing some of the complex issues in our community.

Making the Langley Bypass greener and walkable, a lesson from Tsawwassen Mills

This weekend, I took a trip down to the Tsawwassen Mills area on Tsawwassen First Nation lands. As I posted about last week, the land use plan for the area talked about creating green streets, and a safe walking and cycling environment. Can you building an auto-orient shopping mall and support green streets, best-practice stormwater management, and safe walking and cycling? The answer is yes.

The Tsawwassen Mills area is interesting to me because it is similar to the Langley Bypass area in the City of Langley. The TFN is building a community with a variety of housing types within a 10 minute walk of this area. As shown in the following pictures, they have worked hard to make sure that walking and cycling to the Tsawwassen Mills area is safe, and even inviting in some cases.

A multi-use trail along the border of Tsawwassen Mills. Select image to enlarge.

Pedestrian access to Tsawwassen Mills from the street. Select image to enlarge.

Another example of pedestrian access to Tsawwassen Mills from the street. Select image to enlarge.

A bike sharrow on an internal road in Tsawwassen Mills. Select image to enlarge.

In fact, it looked like more bike parking was required at Tsawwassen Mills.

A bike locked to a light pole. Select image to enlarge.

A bike locked to a bench. Select image to enlarge.

Both the streets around Tsawwassen Mills and the mall itself used bioswales and pervious strips to manage stormwater in an environmental sensitive way.

Stormwater management at Tsawwassen Mills. Select image to enlarge.

Pervious strip in Tsawwassen Mills parking lot. Select image to enlarge.

So how does this apply to the City of Langley? Langley City has a large amount of high-density housing within a 10 minute walk of the Langley Bypass. Sadly, the Langley Bypass layout is actively hostel to people who walk or cycle to the area. People walk and cycle to businesses along the bypass in spite of this.

There is a lot of impervious asphalt around the Langley Bypass. Going forward, the City needs to seriously consider adopting the same stormwater management practices that are being used on TFN lands.

While the City of Langley has little control over the Langley Bypass right-of-way, we can work with land-owners to create safer cycling and walking access in the bypass area.

After walking around the Tsawwassen Mills area, it is apparent to me that providing safe walking and cycling access in auto-oriented areas is possible. It is also possible to reduce the amount of asphalt.

While pedestrian-oriented land-use is what I would prefer to see throughout all of the City of Langley, because the Ministry of Transportation manages the Langley Bypass right-of-way, this is next to impossible do to in that area. What was done in the Tsawwassen Mills area is likely the best way to provide safe walking and cycling access in auto-oriented areas.