So how does New York City’s success with transit compare to Metro Vancouver?

To compare, TransLink provided me with a document called Transport 2040, released in October of 2007, and containing “key information, statistics and forecasts related to Translink’s 30-year strategy.”

It doesn’t provide an exact comparison with the Big Apple findings. But it does give a good glimpse into the kind of transportation trends seen in the Lower Mainland this decade.

Among the highlights:

But there’s also this:

So the question then is, did the growth of car ownership lead to higher traffic volumes? And in Metro Vancouver, which mode of transport is actually winning: transit or traffic?

The biggest challenge will be finding youths who are willing to do manual labor and live a harsh rural life. Unless recruited in China or SE Asia, our guess is that the recruitees will have to be those given a choice of either remand school or rehabilitation through rural work…! We’re not sure how Japan’s elderly
farmers will take to such rookie employees.

Here in North America, this concept has already played itself out in a Paris Hilton reality TV program.

22 December 2008

John Baird, Canada’s Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, was in the Lower Mainland last week to collect funding wish lists from regional government leaders.

He and his boss, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, want to breathe some life into the national economy with major stimulus projects that will create jobs and bolster consumer confidence.

Not surprisingly, Baird’s appearance on the West Coast attracted plenty of fanfare. And like toddlers at the mall lining up for their two minutes with Santa Claus, politicians and lobbyists were quick to make their respective cases for the loot presumably coming out of Ottawa.

It’s hard to blame them. They are wise to the fact that amidst the bleeding from this financial crisis, there is unprecedented opportunity — opportunity to address Canada’s “infrastructure deficit.”

Previous economic disasters have given way to visionary enterprises. Local historian Chuck Davis points to the iconic Lions Gate Bridge, which was approved and built during the Great Depression, as an example.

While funding for Vancouver’s most famous crossing came from the private sector — specifically the Guinness family of Irish beer fame — the need for jobs at the time overcame any objections to building a road through Stanley Park, and a bridge across Burrard Inlet.

Fast-forward to 2008, and bridges and roads are once again front-and-centre in the stimulus debate.

But while it’s appropriate for transportation to be a spending priority — look no further than the stimulus plans being drafted up by U.S. president-elect Barack Obama — the focus here needs to be on rail-based public transit above all else.

In Metro Vancouver, three key rail projects — the Evergreen Line in the northeast, the SkyTrain extension to UBC, and rail expansion in Surrey — are all in need of federal government support.

There are also smaller but still-significant ventures being planned, such as the modernized False Creek streetcar known as the Olympic Line.

The return on investment for these plans has the potential to be huge, given this region’s ongoing commuting crunch.

Vancouver can look to New York City for leadership in this regard.

A new report shows that during the Big Apple’s population boom between 2003 and 2008, more new residents opted for public transit rather than an automobile when getting around.
Transit — especially well-funded, sprawling, rail-intensive transit — always trumps traffic. It also makes the most economic and environmental sense.

Are you listening, Minister Baird?

This includes Get Moving BC, an organization that has made some waves for its aggressive support of the B.C. government’s Gateway program — and the controversial bridge-building that goes with it.

Here’s what they had to say in a news release issued this week:

Get Moving BC spokesperson Michael McBratney says he’s pleased to hear that Minister Baird is talking about accelerating the Evergreen Line and says Get Moving BC fully supports such stimulus spending on transportation projects – not only for the immediate social and economic benefits they bring but also for the long term benefits.

“The province has made a great start modernizing our transportation infrastructure with projects like the Pitt River Bridge, the Canada Line and theGolden Ears Bridge,” McBratney says. “But now we have the opportunity to stimulate the economy and catch up on some of our other badly-needed transportation projects at the same time.”

McBratney says several economists have recently indicated that public dollars spent on infrastructure like roads, bridges and transit systems, among other forms of public infrastructure, provide the best return on investment when it comes to stimulating the economy during a recession.

Get Moving BC, you’ll recall, released a study in September which predicted “total gridlock” in Metro Vancouver if “steps are not taken to correct the bridge infrastructure gap due to a rapidly expanding population south of the Fraser River.”

Needless to say, it’s a sentiment that is not universally embraced on either side of the Port Mann Bridge.

Last week, while TransLink was talking up expansion plans and funding needs for the future, it was also taking some heat on a very different issue, and from an unlikely source.

An upstart ferry service is crying foul over the way it claims it is being treated by Metro Vancouver’s transit authority.

Coastal Link Ferries, which operates a walk-on service daily between Bowen Island and Coal Harbour in downtown Vancouver, wants to pick up and drop off passengers at an unused dock at the Waterfront Station SeaBus terminal.

The prime location would allow its customers to link up with SkyTrain and buses, not to mention the popular SeaBus service.

The problem is, despite its persistence in trying to iron out a deal with TransLink for the space, Coastal Link — which plans on expanding its service to the Sunshine Coast and Port Moody — has so far heard nothing.

And that leaves Peter Green, Coastal Link’s director of marketing and communications, feeling frustrated and perplexed.

“We want to pay them to use the dock,” he says. “Can’t we find a way to make this work now?”

He and Coastal Link owner Ihab Shaker appeared before the TransLink board earlier this month to find out why they were, as Green puts it, “being ignored.”

He maintains that Coastal Link received no explanation as to why it was getting the cold shoulder.

So I asked TransLink’s Ken Hardie about Green’s concerns. According to Hardie, the company has not provided the transit authority with enough information to date.

So is this saga less David and Goliath, and more the old story of small enterprise sailing into the fog of government bureaucracy?

It’s too early to tell.

But at least one thing is certain: Given its maritime setting, Metro Vancouver is woefully under-served by passenger ferry transit.

That’s especially clear when the region is stacked up against a port city like Sydney, Australia, where a flourishing ferry network moves millions of commuters around annually.

TransLink is aware of the role passenger ferries can play in undoing our region’s transportation crunch. Its 2004 Vancouver Harbour Passenger Marine study made the case for improved ferry service — which would reduce the need for peak hour buses.

So a deal for the dock in 2008 would be, as Shaker puts it, “a win-win situation” — not only for his company and TransLink, but for coastal commuters as well.

A report released this week by Bruce Schaller, New York’s deputy transportation commissioner for planning and sustainability, shows that the influx of residents embraced mass transit, as opposed to cars, trucks and SUVs.

According to the New York Times, the study is the first of its kind to analyze the city’s mid-2000s era, which saw New York adding more than 200,000 jobs and 130,000 new residents.

As the Times article points out:

…virtually the entire increase in New Yorkers’ means of transportation during those robust years occurred in mass transit, with a surge in subway, bus and commuter rail riders.

The city’s sprawling public transportation system was able to handle such a surge because of vast improvements in service in recent years, Mr. Schaller said, as well as the advent of the MetroCard, which made using the system more efficient. A steep drop in crime made people more willing to use the system, and the construction of housing in areas well served by subways also brought in many more riders.

Gregor Robertson is on quite a roll these days. The mayor-elect in the city of Vancouver, who takes office today, has parlayed a successful entrepreneurial background into high-profile political stints at the provincial and municipal levels.

Already, some of his biggest fans are touting the photogenic Robertson as a future leader for the provincial NDP.

But while Robertson’s career is firing on all cylinders, he would be wise to back away from the partisan sniping and political points-scoring that was part of last month’s municipal election campaign — no matter how tempting.

Rather, he needs to find a way to work with old adversaries from the B.C. Liberal government on critical issues like the 2010 Olympics, the homelessness crisis, and Vancouver’s transit woes.

Already, Robertson has had productive discussions with B.C. Housing Minister Rich Coleman on the homelessness front.

But making progress on transit could be more challenging, since there is no love lost between Robertson and B.C. Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon.

Last month, Falcon jumped all over Robertson for his admission of getting busted on SkyTrain travelling two zones on a one-zone fare -— lumping him in with “cheaters and freeloaders.”
Mind you, Robertson, as an MLA for Vancouver-Fairview, hounded Falcon about the plight of Cambie Street merchants because of Canada Line construction.

Bottom line: Best-friends-forever these two are not. But they’ll have to learn to play nice.
At stake is everything from enhanced transit security to moving forward with the much-needed SkyTrain line to UBC.

The good news is that Robertson and Falcon are both big proponents of improving public transit and cycling infrastructure. So once they sort out their political differences, they can make some much-needed headway on Vancouver’s commuting crunch.

This time, it seems, a plan is in the works to close down one lane of traffic for bikes; while a second would serve as an alternating lane, much like the middle lane of the Stanley Park Causeway.

So, will this fly? Perhaps I’m being pessimistic, but in my opinion probably not. The battle for the bridge has been going on for years, and in the end, the status quo almost always reigns supreme. That’s because the issue is so politically contentious — especially with commuters who claim the bridge is already congested with traffic. Some argue that the bridge controversy was the issue that put Sam Sullivan over the top in his mayoral contest against Jim Green earlier this decade (Sullivan was against a plan to dedicate two lanes of the bridge to bike traffic).

As a cyclist who travels over the bridge regular, I question the need for more capacity for bikes at that location, or an expensive refit of the bridge for that matter. The supposedly unsafe bike lanes, are, in my opinion, perfectly safe. The problem lies with those cyclists who treat this stretch of sidewalk like it’s the Tour de France (especially a handful of cyclists who, sadly, tailgate and pass dangerously).

What I do support — and what SFU City Program Director Gordon Price has been championing for ages, including this week at his Price Tags blog — is a low-level passerelle, essentially a bridge for bike and pedestrian traffic only. Not only would the passerelle make more economic sense that an overhaul of the Burrard Bridge, it could also make an iconic architectural statement. It might also create some new cycling patterns in downtown and around False Creek.

Montreal, for reasons that are still somewhat unclear, has been removed (or removed itself, depending on who you believe) from the bidding, and that opens the door for the Vancouver and Ottawa bids — at least if you believe that the MLS wants to award at least one franchise to a Canadian city.

But given the current economic climate, it seems that all bets are off. Not only is Montreal out of the running, but Miami is making new demands in its bid.

None of this is helping Vancouver, however.

According to Wagman, MLS commissioner Don Garber “indicated that Vancouver had made a solid presentation.”

“Still, Garber also issued a warning that needs to be understood. He cautioned that as much as the league would like a Canadian rival for Toronto, further expansion in Canada was not a sure thing because it might jeopardize the growth of soccer in the United States.”

“We don’t have a lot of commercial businesses in Canada today,” Garber said of league sponsorships. “The more teams we add there, the more it takes away out from growing our footprint and our television ratings in the United States.”

In other words, show us some love — and the money – if Canadian business interests and media companies want MLS to further embrace their country. Left unsaid was an impetus to act quickly or the 2011 expansion opportunity will pass.”

Of course, all of this comes on top of pre-existing concerns related to what kind of stadium an MLS version of the Whitecaps would actually play in — a renovated B.C. Place Stadium, or the long-awaited (but still in limbo) soccer-specific waterfront stadium?