Tsawwassen: Spirit of Delta Rally
This gets top billing in today’s Province news section, although it concentrates on the power lines issue. There is also no coverage of anything that was actually said at the rally itself. However a turnout of 2,000 people is not to be disregarded lightly.
The big feature in that paper today is on housing affordability.
The thing that caught my eye in the Delta Optimist was the design charrette for the Southlands run by Andres Duany and an opinion piece on the development that is not against Smart Growth so much as the removal of the land from the ALR twenty years ago.
Of course people who live next to open land are against its development. That is always true in the suburbs. Not so much “after me, no more” but “don’t spoil the view I now have”. If you are lucky enough to own a home that had all the advantages of an urban area but you can kid yourself you live in the country, naturally you do not want that illusion spoiled. And much of the opposition to growth or density in the suburbs is fear of the growth of traffic, although traffic has been growing rapidly in areas which have seen very little development. More trips are being made, and those trips are getting longer – so the VKT increases would happen anyway even if the population wasn’t growing. And of course those terribly expensive large single family homes often have stay at home kids, or grannies in the basement, if not mortgage helpers in “secondary suites” (see Province article cited above). And those big houses have multiple car garages, and plenty of parking spaces too.
But what get people really out of sorts is that not only is transit in this area poor but it is going to get worse, not better, as a result of Translink’s expansion program.
It seems to me that all this is the inevitable result of allowing the region to be developed not in accordance with a well organised, up to date regional strategy that is designed to create a sustainable region (in other words what should have grown out of the LRSP long ago but still hasn’t) but rather in reaction to all kinds of business interests – ports, developers, private sector power providers, private sector transportation companies – who are more concerned about making money than anything else. The people of Delta are upset because no-one is listening to their concerns, and all that is happening in their community seems to be for the benefit of someone else. The consultation and environmental assessment processes are now a very obvious sham – merely a PR exercise to make it look as though someone is consulting and listening, when actually it’s always a Done Deal.
Actually, the comments in the letter are just what I have been saying (and the Optimist has been printing) for years.
For about $2.4 billion invest met in RAV, Ladner residents will save 1 whole minute in journey time! Tsawwassen residents will have an additional 20 minutes for journeys to Vancouver.
I see more and more of those wee “Metro” cars on the streets of Tsawwassen and I think transit customers are already voting with their “Metros”, not to take transit.
http://www.canada.com/deltaoptimist/news/letters/story.html?id=11e55fa3-957b-4739-bfd9-8f810334c5d0
Malcolm J.
May 11, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Call me Pollyanna, but I am convinced that Canada Line ridership will ramp up a lot more quickly than people think, and accordingly, the South Delta and White Rock services will return to travelling all the way into Vancouver.
Sungsu
May 11, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Who is going to take it?
Airport workers? Most cleaners shifts ends after 1 am, when transit doesn’t operate and most who work at the airport live nowhere near a RAV station.
Airline travellers? Other transit systems that service airports, do not do a brisk service and with a premium fare, many will find alternate ways to get to the airport.
If the journey is longer via a forced transfer from a bus, people will look to the car for their transit needs.
If someone in Richmond, who doesn’t like to take a bus to Vancouver, why would he take a bus to RAV?
Cambie St. will see reduced bus service and the RAV stations are so wide apart, all are ingredients for people to take alternative transport.
Part of RAV’s ridership projections come from the Oak and Main St. bus services and who from Oak or Main St. are going to trudge to Cambie?
The transit experts I have talked to, just laugh about RAV because it has been built contrary to modern public transport practise. As I live in Tsawwassen, I am staggered by the growing amount of these wee “Metro” cars and the owners I have talked to are very happy with them.
Remember, in the 21st century, public transit is a product and if the public don’t like the product, they go elsewhere. Despite well over $5 billion spent on SkyTrain, ridership, as a percentage of population, has stagnated for at least 15 years. According to TransLink, 80% of SkyTrain’s riders come by bus, put two and two together, and a very ugly picture emerges.
As an aside, I know that TransLink will loose at least 400 customers when the forced transfers come into effect, the students who use the 300, 400, 600 series bus services, to go to the private schools along the route. What once was a direct service, will now be a minimum 2 transfer service (Casino Junction & 25th or 41 Ave.) to the the private schools and no caring family would allow their children to undertake such a journey.
Malcolm J.
May 11, 2008 at 10:40 pm
“no caring family would allow their children to undertake such a journey”
Caring parents without a car, perhaps.
jakking
May 12, 2008 at 10:22 am
Hello people –canada line was built for campbell to show off to olympic visitors –canada line will run a multi million dollar deficit for at least a decade!
The canada line is also a billion dollars over budget!
The evergreen line will not have even a shovel in the ground in 2008–The line will be delayed til after the next election.
When are bcers going to wake up to the fact that the only projects this liberal( totalitarian) goverment has accomplished is their olympic projects–convention center(600 million over budget) –sea to sky (880 million construction cost -3.6 billion total cost for that road when the lucrative service contract is thrown in )–canada line (1 billion over budget)
Childrens hospital (no funding-charity)–surrey memorial hospital (delayed for another 2 years )—-5000 long term senior beds (7 years and still 4000 short)–minimun wage frozen for 7 years under campbell(6 dollar starter wage)–fish farms destroying wild salmon stocks—bc forestry destroyed by campbell do to allowing big usa firms to monopolize the forest!
ruined health care –seniors care–childrens care–highest tuition in canada–downloading millions onto local goverment–I could go on but
Gordon(lushwell )campbell has never done anything to really help bcers!
He`s nothing but a corporate goon!—Anyone who votes for campbell dictatership deseves what they get!————————————————-signed……………………….Gordo( king of liars)
grant g
May 12, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Isn’t it interesting Grant that RAV was to whisk airport passengers from the airport to downtown Vancouver, yet the hotels now seem to be wanting a bus service to provide doorstep to doorstep service.
Will it or won’t it; will be the real (RAV)ing mad question when the metro opens in 2010. By 2011, we will see if the metro will get the 100,000 cars off the road predicted by Falcon.
Malcolm J.
May 12, 2008 at 8:50 pm
don`t hold your breath! Ridership will probably be protected from freedom of imformation!
evergreen line in coquitlam won`t happen under this goverment ,campbell just wants to lie his way through one more election!
NOT IF i CAN HELP IT—CUTTING LEDGE ON FRIDAYS cknw (bill good likes me bashing gordo)
grant g
May 12, 2008 at 9:48 pm