Category: Transportation

Urban suburbanites

Two interesting quotes from this excellent article about urban suburbanites in Metro Vancouver from the Globe and Mail.

The first pisses me off:

They want to know, if the Evergreen line comes here, what will I do about the problems that come with it, like crime. They are asking about homelessness and social housing,” says Conservative MP James Moore, first elected in Port Moody-Westwood-Coquitlam in 2000

Public transportation brings crime (and is crime-filled) in one of the biggest media-created piles of crap in recent memory. Observe recent efforts such as the “bus” streaker or the victims that happen to be shot while on/near/by the Sky Train. Of course a Conservative MP would spout the line again, but I really doubt the urban suburbanites described in the story actually describe this as their biggest concern with the Evergreen Line; most probably just want to know when it is going to get built.

More revealing is this quote from the pollster near the end:

“What I run into is people who are exhausted. They don’t get enough down time or sleep time. They’re driven to the suburbs in the first place because they think it’s more affordable and they don’t realize the time and driving it’s going to cost them,” says Mr. Lyle. “They have no time to watch The National or read a newspaper. So when they do hear about an issue, they’re angry. They become populists.”

This isn’t exactly news, but it is interesting to see it stated in this way. After all, all those urban hipsters with their smart phones riding the bus/rail are can read the news a lot better than some poor shmuck driving hours to and from work each day.

Anyway, read the whole story. From my perspective the change bodes well for our future. Less big-C conservatives and more NDP/Liberal/Green voters only means a better Canada.

Followup from BC Transit’s UVic future plans

BC Transit has posted the followup to their open house at UVic regarding future transit options for the university. Their findings were interesting:

  • A bus loop close to the Student Union Building (SUB) and bookstore (and planned Village Centre) is preferred, “as students consider the SUB the centre of the campus”.
  • There was support to keep major bus routes off Ring Road because of delays experienced at pedestrian crosswalks – instead, shuttle service should be operated around the campus
  • Preferred bus routes to and from UVic and on campus: route options 1 and 7 received the most support; option 5 is the least desirable (check out page 5 and 6 of the presentation boards to see the route options.)
  • Longer walking distances on campus would be acceptable if they are offset by faster transit service, more express buses and a campus shuttle
  • Reliability of service and pass-ups off campus are more of an issue than the frequency of service or walking distances on campus
  • There is a strong support for staggering class start times as a way to alleviate pass-ups and other service issues
  • Personal security is a concern at the bus loop at night, and for people walking across campus at night to the bus loop or a bus stop

This list does include some fascinating contradictions and unanswered questions:

  1. People don’t mind walk across campus but are also worried about personal security while doing so. Huh?
  2. What exchange options did people prefer?
  3. Do people realize what a walk across campus would actually mean in terms of time?
  4. Where are people actually clustered during the day? UVic has class times and enrollment for the entire campus. I would love to see a map of that.
  5. What is this “Village Centre” that they mention? Does it have to do with the discussions about putting in a traffic circle at the corner of Finnerty and Sinclair?
  6. Is UVic even willing to discuss changing class times? This has some pretty serious knock-on effects on instructor and classroom scheduling.

Canadian Urbanism releases 10 points for sustainable cities

Cities in Canada get a rough ride. They get less than their other OECD-brethren and are expected to do more. Toronto even pays for welfare cases, courtesy of Mike Harris and his “Common Sense” revolution. Given we have an election campaign running, the Council for Canadian Urbanism (Conseil d’ Urbanisme Canadien en francais) released their 10 point “call-to-action” today:

1) A progressive and influential National Urban Policy, that recognizes the critical role of the success of cities in Canada’s future.

2) A National Housing Policy that addresses the acute and growing need for affordable housing.

3) A National Transportation Policy that particularly addresses the need to expand active, cost-effective and sustainable forms of transportation, such as transit, rail, walking, and biking.

4) Effective Federal programs that will make us a world leader in combating climate change. There is a need to align the above three national policies in achieving this goal.

5) A national dialogue involving the Federal Government, Provinces and Cities on the development of new sustainable, long-term funding and legislative tools for urban resiliency.

6) Future Federal funding and stimulus programs focused on spending that supports urban resiliency and “smart growth” (i.e. complete and compact communities, expanded transit and rail, renewing aging urban infrastructure, enhancing cultural and civic amenities, etc), rather than on “shovel-ready projects”. A corresponding de-prioritization of, or halt to, stimulus funding that promotes auto-dependency and urban sprawl.

7) Tax reforms that support full-cost accounting of housing choices (which would reveal the well-researched and well-understood economic advantages of compact, walkable communities and sustainable transportation modes that require less infrastructure and lower public expense).

8 ) Federal tax incentives to promote the construction of purpose-built rental housing.

9) Reinstatement of the long-form census to enable reliable planning to better understand, and meet, future needs.

10) Electoral district reform that addresses democratic and fair representation of the population in urban areas, and recognizes the increasing urbanization of Canada.

(h/t to Price Tags)

BC Transit talks UVic options

Tis the season for new plans at BC Transit and UVic isn’t being left out. With the Victoria Regional Rapid Transit and 25-year Transit Future plans well in the works, some of the smaller parts of the system are getting attention, such as James Bay earlier this year.

BC Transit has more than a few challenges up at UVic, space being one of them. The reason why the 15X doesn’t stop in the exchange is lack of space and although the planners in 1994 did a good job with the then-new transit exchange, the truth is that they couldn’t anticipate something like the U-Pass driving ridership through the roof.

Although the need for space started the process and it isn’t clear from the boards (PDF), BC Transit is planning on more than just a potential new exchange or exchanges at some point down the road. In the near future they are looking not only to re-jig where buses stop, possibly taking over more space in the old exchange or in front of the old counselling building, but also a fundamental re-routing of buses.

Spurred by the recent budget crisis, there is also talk of a fundamental re-think of bus routes could affect nearly every rider today, changing major routes such as the 11, 6, or the new 10. This would be the first major change of routes within my lifetime if it does come to pass.

BC Transit is early in this process with UVic, so they are still looking for comments, wehich can be emailed to uvicplan@bctransit.com, taking the online survey, or one of likely several upcoming open houses in June and September of this year. More information can be found at the Get Involved page.

Johnson St. Bridge closes to rail

Although the City of Victoria hasn’t yet released the press release, John Luton announced this morning via Facebook update that the recent inspection of the bridge revealed that it is no longer safe to carry rail traffic. Given the recent pictures John posted on his flickr stream (one of which you can see below), this doesn’t surprise me.

Steel peeling like a flower on the Johnson St. Bridge. Photo credit: John Luton
Steel peeling like a flower on the Johnson St. Bridge. Photo credit John Luton

John’s full Facebook update:

It’s official. The Johnson Street Bridge is no longer safe to carry rail. Until the Island Corridor Foundation took over the railway, the bridge was maintained (or not), by CP Rail. It will remain open for cyclists and pedestrians but other arrangements will have to be made for rail until January when the structure comes down. The city’s road bridge has been better maintained and remains safe, for the time being.

Random links o’ the morning

Help plan the future of UVic

Come help plan the future of UVic over the next two weeks at two different weeks. First up, on March 17th, is BC Transit’s open house on a new campus plan. It runs in the Michele Pujol room of the SUB between 11am-2pm and 4pm-6pm. See the poster (PDF) for the full details.

On the 21st UVic will be Oak Bay Council meeting for a presentation of the new UVic strategic plan, currently in the planning stages. This is part of a committee of the whole meeting so it will fairly informal as these things go. Join UVic and Oak Bay Council at 7:30pm in the council chambers of the municipal hall. See the ad for the full details.

Do we need a new chamber of commerce in Victoria?

Three years ago the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce was instrumental in killing one of the best transit projects this city has seen: the Douglas St. busway. They had this to say:

The Greater Victoria Chamber does not support the proposed plan for the bus rapid transit system on the Douglas Street corridor. While in support of bus rapid transit, the chamber is concerned that all the transportation modes included in this plan cannot be accommodated in the available space on Douglas Street. (from the GVCC’s policy page)

Worst of all, it was already paid for. After years of unfunded projects, they had to go and kill one of the few that was. Now, I fear they are going to do it again. The Victoria Regional Rapid Transit project is nearing completion and they have again selected Douglas St. as the corridor, as they should given it is the most logical route. Just like last time, the Douglas St. merchants are complaining

What the Chamber of Commerce should be doing is working on behalf of all their members, not just the blinkered ones on Douglas St. A new transitway will speed people into downtown, people who will spend money at chamber members. They are a business lobby group after all.

But all is not lost. The GVCC’s stubbornness isn’t unique; the US Chamber of Commerce is shedding members because of its opposition to climate change but an alternative has recently appeared: the US Green Chamber. An out-growth of the San Diego Green Chamber, this new group promises to be a forward-thinking business group, exactly what the US (and Canada, given our proximity) needs. Maybe what Victoria needs is something similar, something like the Values-Based Business Network — who are currently rethinking their mandate — but in a wider scope.

Toronto asks Ontario for TTC subsidy

A few days after I pointed that Toronto doesn’t get a cent from Ontario to run the TTC, “fiscal conservative” Mayor Rob Ford has gone cap in hand, like his predecessors, to ask for Ontario to restore the 50% operating subsidy, but by the “fiscal conservative” Premier Mike Harris. Like his predecessors, Ford failed. Ouch.

http://www.coreyburger.ca/2011/02/surviving-public-transportation/

“Surviving” public transportation

Ugh, yet another article on “Surviving Public Transportation“, as if it is something to be endured. One of the books they mention is My Kind of Public Transportation, which Jarrett over at Human Transit elegantly rips apart in his post about the Disneyland Theory of Transit.

However, given we are about to cut a few thousand hours from buses run here in Victoria, the federal NDP’s public transportation strategy cannot come soon enough. Now if only the newspaper could get the story right about BC Transit. The issue isn’t so much that the number of riders fell, it is that this is the first year in a decade that ridership hasn’t risen. That little fact, despite being easily seen in any slide-show from BC Transit, isn’t mentioned in either editorial or the main article about bus lanes.

Also, we are not the only region that got a higher than expected bill for buses. At least one Nelson councillor is publicly ruminating about “sending the buses back to the province” and “what about a Nelson-run transit system?” Lovely ideas, but they fail to realize two key points:

  1. BC Transit has a fairly good (by North American standards) deal with regards to sharing of operating costs on an even basis with the province and local authority. Pity the poor systems in Alberta, which much go cap in hand system-by-system, or the TTC, which gets no help from Ontario.
  2. BC Transit offers local communities centralized planning and purchasing, one of the reasons why BC has some of the best rural and small community transit in North America.

Lastly, the group that killed the last round of transit improvements on Douglas St, the Association of Douglas Street Businesses, is out to do it again, claiming we need to “rethink rapid transit.” Actually, they don’t want any rapid transit. Their spokesman, Bev Highton, said this:

Bev Highton commented that he felt that the committee did not include representation of people who use the roads every day, and there should be discussion on whether there is actually a need for Rapid Transit. He also had concerns about the guiding principles of securing a dedicated right of way.

(from the [download id=”7″ format=”1″] – CLC mandate and other minutes can be seen here). Take anything this group says with a giant grain of salt.

So in sum: The sky is not falling, buses are not horrible, the world will not end if we get a bus-only lane somewhere in the city, and the universe will not end if we get light rail.