Empty seats and stores a sign of the times on Cambie
Good bit by Pete McMartin – he is getting good at transit – which is actually more about Broadway than Cambie.
And just in case you are from out of town, or haven’t been keeping up, here is the quick backgrounder (local and regular readers needn’t bother with this.) The province is trying to show that it has learned its lesson from the Canada Line fiasco on Cambie Street (which, being in Vancouver is the only place that matters: Richmond lost long established businesses too but they got a lot less ink). Originally Ken Dobell and his personally appointed Canada Line boss Jane Bird said very firmly that a line on Cambie was the only way to go (ignoring the existing tracks on Arbutus) and it had to be in bored tunnel. Indeed they both insisted that surface LRT on Cambie was impossible due to the grade at 12th. I have had a wonderful time since collecting images of aged street cars climbing steep hills but one of my colleagues did some quick math using the maps on the city’s web site and showed that the track from Broadway to 16th could easily be constructed at an average grade of 6%.
Because the Canada Line is being built by a P3, Bird and Dobell listened very carefully to a pitch to confine the boring to downtown and use cut and cover on Cambie. This would save money, they were told. And by then all the tiresome details like assessments and consultations were over. Not that Ken is averse to pushing ahead with a fait accompli when it suits him – which it does, mostly.
And, of course, Clive Rock pointed out that if it was in bored tube it did not have to follow the road right of way – but no-one was listening to him either.
All of the upset was entirely predictable, and could have been very greatly reduced if someone had stepped up and accepted responsibility for the impact on businesses. You would have thought that a party of shop keepers would have had some sympathy. But the BC Liberals would rather pay off the provincial debt than spend money, even on small businesses that tend to make donations to Liberal Party funds.
So the opposition now from the businesses on Broadway to the proposed bored tube out to UBC is also entirely predictable and serves them right. Because it is not that they object to tube trains. They just do not trust the Government of BC to do the right thing – and I cannot say I blame them.
I really enjoy your blog. I was eagerly awaiting your thoughts on the new transit plan.
Vanessa
January 17, 2008 at 11:47 pm
Vanessa – glad you like the blog
It is not new and it is not a plan. It is simply a list of projects that were supposed to have been built by now. The only change that I can see is that instead of getting them by 2030 we should now get them by 2020 if the rest of the funding is found – after the freeways have been widened. I did publish a summary of reactions to the announcement.
What we should have seen is
- cancellation of the Gateway
- commitment of the funds released by that cancellation of the Gateway program to transit expansion
- increases in the current bus and SkyTrain orders – “run ons” – so that we start seeing more buses on the street sooner – and begin to utilise the existing capacity of the SkyBridge to move more people
- in the interval while we wait for new buses, extend the life of buses otherwise being retired by a heavy overhaul and keep them in service longer: also look for good quality used buses (Everett would be a good place to start)
- use of exclusive bus lanes on freeways with cameras in the bus nose to catch offenders – convert existing HOV lanes to bus lanes – this can be done very quickly
- immediate start on the Evergreen Line and the purchase of European diesel multiple units for the SRY line
- rapid bus from Surrey to Coquitlam over the Port Mann using the hard shoulder as a queue jumper lane this year
- commitments to on-street light rail for all future rail rapid transit extensions
- a program to reduce the amount of space devoted to cars in this region (see Copenhagen for example) small reductions each year at a steady rate build up to significant amounts
- as transit expansion proceeds raise the gas tax, abolish the “transit levy” on hydro bills, and reduce the reliance on property taxes (we cannot expect anyone to leave their car and take the bus until service levels have been raised across the region)
- replace the current definition of frequent service (15 minutes 15 hours a day) to 5 minutes initially at peak periods but spreading throughout the day as demand surges
- all day off peak and weekend bi-directional bus service for West Coast Express with a new station in Burnaby
- Paul Hillsdon’s SoF plan in three years
- extend electric streetcar operation on the Science World – Granville Island route along Arbutus to Fraser Arms and then to Marine at Cambie Street station (Vancouver can stand the loss of one branch of Starbucks)
- restore trolleybuses to Cambie Street
- buy hybrid buses with trolley poles to extend existing trolley routes to useful destinations e.g. #41 to UBC (now operated by diesels under the wire for most of the way) #9 to Brentwood Mall etc
- tie future bus service expansions to the suburbs to real commitments to Smart Growth, but recognise that transit service has to be in place before the development not afterwards even if it means running empty for a while
- double the size of the handyDART fleet as soon as vehicles and drivers can be found then commit to a rate of expansion tied to the demography of the region
- and while we are at it Smart Card ticketing with ability to use for other small purchases
That will do for starters anyway
Stephen Rees
January 18, 2008 at 9:38 am
Stephen, I remember your insights during Transit Camp, and I think this list should really be implemented over what Campbell and Falcon announced. I did post a cautiously positive reaction, but after reading other people’s reactions, from Paul Hillsdon’s analysis to your summary (including the piece you quoted from Vaughan Palmer), I’ve gone back to my usual cynical self. It’s unfortunate that transit enthusiasts/supporters have such an uphill battle (steeper than Cambie) to convince anyone willing to listen that more roads and more SOVs only exacerbate the situation.
Rickie
January 18, 2008 at 10:30 pm