Finally, some sanity in mass transit
A transit agency has decided to introduce a bus service with toilets, wifi and air conditioning. And there has been an outcry from other transit agencies and the unions about how inequitable this is.
The Gazette sees this as an excuse to get into the need for competition – between transit agencies. Piffle. The competition is from the private car which offers a level of service quality that no transit service can match. The car is always there when you need it. It takes you from where you are now to where you want to be. It is comfortable and can be customised to meet even the most unusual requirements. You set the temperature, sound system, put what you like in the cup holders and the CD. You can even smoke!
I had to sit through a lot of this the other week when I had to listen to a rant from the Bus Riders’ Union about how wrong it was to try to win over “the choice rider”. The only people who matter, according to the BRU are people of colour (presumably the idea that some can be wealthy and brown has never occurred to them) and single mothers on welfare. The same kind of mentality affects a segment of the general public. One PNE I had to play host aboard a new series of buses just bought for the soon to be introduced #98 B Line. Somehow my insistence on service quality had actually survived and these buses had cloth seats. No one would believe me that the type of cloth would be easier to clean and hardier in service than hard shiny plastic. (I was appalled to see that BC Transit had specified plastic “park bench” type seating for the former Hannover LRT car.)
The key to improving the transportation mess in this region is to get the transit mode share from around 11% where is has been for the last ten years up to 17 to 20%. And that means getting those willing to change out of their cars. NOTE not all of them. Just enough to double transit mode share. That means 80% are still going to be in cars. This is called realism – and it is only the first step. But we do have to finally make a serious effort to achieve that.
West Coast Express is a favourite target – for transit lovers and haters alike. Because it is seen to be “elitist” and expensive, and can be said to have contributed to the growth of longer distance commuting. But what it really represents is an acknowledgment that, since we are seemingly incapable of producing housing that is both desirable and affordable close to workplaces, long distance commuting is not going to disappear if we ignore it.
What puts people off transit is the long wait at the bus stop (or station) – often in conditions of discomfort and uncertainty. Even if you can get the schedule information, that is of no use of the bus is missing or ran early – both far too frequent occurrences. When you get on board, can you get a seat? (In Vancouver at peak periods probably not) Will it have adequate leg room? (No if the bus is yellow, seems to be Translink’s answer.) And all this gets repeated with every transfer – with the added joy of watching your connection disappear into the distance as your bus has you locked inside while it waits at the traffic lights “for safety reasons”.
Almost anything that can be done to make buses more comfortable, reliable and convenient will help. I think one of the more significantly innovations made in this part of the world are the shuttle buses put on by Microsoft to help its employers get from the bus exchange to their building on the Redmond campus. I do not see any equivalent services in this region.
The Canada Line has repeated the mistake made by Edmonton thirty years ago – grade separated stations with only one escalator – and that usually going up. It cannot be of any surprise at all to learn that many stations have effectively no escalator service at all at any one time due to breakdowns and the need for maintenance. This tells you that the designers of the Canada Line do not use transit themselves – or can only see the command “get the initial capital cost as low as possible”. In other words they are irredeemably stupid.
So hats off to the bright people at the MTA, and let us all hope that someone at Translink can learn something from another city.
What converts a car commuter into a transit commuter? In my case (and I suspect many cases), it boils down to the almighty dollar. I converted once downtown parking became more expensive than transit, and living in Kits, I had several choices in buses to take and no worries about schedules or transfers…and when it came time to leave the Kits rental after 20 years, the #1 priority was proximitry to SkyTrain, 25 minutes by train,even with the transfer at Broadway, at $99/month is preferable to driving 25 minutes to downtown and paying over $200/month just for parking in the heart of the business district.
David Banks
August 23, 2008 at 11:47 pm
Are you crazy? Those cloth seats are TERRIBLE.
Mildly more comfortable, sure, but they’re sponges for liquid AND you cant tell in the slightest if they’re soaking bloody wet from some jerk’s spilt coke bottle or bone dry.
Having sat on those supposed ‘comfortable’ cloth seats and gotten up with a wet backside more than once, I’m strongly in favour of the plastic seating thank you.
Patrick Meehan
August 24, 2008 at 12:45 am
Great post, but you should really cut the designers of the Canada Line some slack. SNC Lavalin is simply building what the customer ordered, no more no less.
John
August 24, 2008 at 4:01 pm
No, I don’t think so. There was a design prior to the contract award that had some significant differences – bored tube beneath Cambie Street for one. After the contract was awarded the successful bidders persuaded the project office to change the specification to reduce the costs – so what we have now is a project built down to a price not up to a standard. Yes, the Project Office agreed to these cuts and no, it shouldn’t have. We will be paying for these shortcomings – and for retrofitting the line as demand increases. And escalators at the stations is going to be one of the cheaper items!
Stephen Rees
August 24, 2008 at 5:11 pm
Given that all the pertinent documents are under lock and key, the public will likely never know exactly who agreed to what in the various critical junctures of this project. We need to keep in mind that SNC Lavalin has only one duty, that is to the shareholders. TransLink and the Province are the ones with the duty to the general public. If the line does not make SNC any money or even loses money, the company will have to answer to shareholders. If the line turns out to be less than what the public expected, then it is the Province who must ultimately bear the burden for that. The project was built to a price because that is how the private sector builds projects like these. If the Province wanted things built to a different standard, then they should have had the project built in a more conventional matter. If the Province finds that doing a proper job underground costs too much, they should have taken a harder look at doing it above ground. Sure, technically TransLink were the ones in charge, but one can safely say that the Province interfered enough that they should bear the main burden of public dissatisfaction should any arise in the future with regards to this line. If the public seems unwilling to hold the government to account for their actions and would rather blindly pretend all is well and take what they are told at face value, then the public ultimately gets what they deserve. Democracy is something each generation must earn for itself. If they don’t they will find it is all to easily taken from them.
John
August 24, 2008 at 9:31 pm
John –Some of what you say is true but here`s the problem,P3s –You can`t look at the books,BC ferries same thing ,Translink same thing,freedom of imformation department has been gutted,we have a one-horse town when it comes to media,everyone is afraid of losing their Canwest Global job.
The only real news journalism,the only questions and real investigative research is coming from small local magazines and web blogs,which leaves a whole generation and half another in the dark!
Gordon Campbell campaigned as the most open,the most transparent goverment in history(lol)well his goverment has done the opposite,the most dishonest,the most deceitful,the most hidden goverment in the history of Canada!
The price tag of the Canada line will not be known for years,the price tag of many items won`t be known until well after the next election,in the mean time Falcon and Campbell continue to deliberately lie about everything,on time-on budget bullshit!
John you sound alot like JOE JUST JOE(goverment trolls,media monitors) you put your head down and ignore the crimes,the lies,the attacks on all the vulnerable people of this province by Campbell,you ignore Campbells record,you repeat goverment press releases,you faithfully accept goverment spin that says that is as good as it gets.
Alberta premiers KLEIN and STELMACH are not miracle workers, if oil fell to 20 dollars a barrel they would be tarred and feathered,high commodity prices have made them look good,the same with Campbell,now that the BC economy is going down the tubes campbells and his cabinet say well –We can`t help what happened with the USA housing market,we can`t help with in flation,we can`t do anything about tourism,or house prices,or exports,or flat wages or anything.
John you blame people for being unimformed,you blame people for believing the lies and you know your being lied to and you don`t care!
Grant G
August 25, 2008 at 9:37 am
[...] je m’en tiens à un signet, mais ce billet de Stephen Rees, à propos d’un article dans The Montreal Gazette, m’a marqué avec ce passage: The key [...]
Nicolas Marchildon » Blog Archive » Une dose de changement
August 25, 2008 at 11:48 am
I’m flattered that you’re thinking of me, but sorry to disappoint John is not me.
I don’t think the escalators will be a big issue, look at the expo and millenium lines, there are many stations with only one escalator and some with none and they are all doing fairly well. There are still elevators for those that need them.
Besides a little exercise will help most of us.
Joe Just Joe
August 25, 2008 at 8:15 pm
No, Joe, that is just not good enough! The population is aging – and there are many people for whom escalators are necessary but who do not need to add to the load on elevators, which should be reserved for those with wheels. It is not up to the transit system to dictate exercise regimes to its customers. Indeed you may already notice how closely spaced Vancouver bus stops are compared to the rest of the region. That is simply responding to what people in that City need. For the same reason low floor buses – and buses with bike racks – were dismissed by critics as pandering to the unfit – but the system is much better for their introduction, anmd mobility for all has been increased significantly.
The critical problem – which I continue to reiterate – is to increase transit mode share. And you do not do that by having grade separated stations which require most passengers to use a lot of stairs.
I do not understand why the transit system always has to accept substandard provision of facilities. Until we treat the people who use transit as valued customers – and not a bunch of whiners, scroungers and lazy bums – we will never ever get away from our current miserable 11% mode share.
Continuing to do what you always have done, and expecting a different outcome, is a useful working definition of madness.
Stephen Rees
August 25, 2008 at 8:27 pm
A note on escalators:
Joe, after 30 years playing rugby, my knees are shot and I’m not alone with this problem. On bad days, climbing up or down stairs is very painful. Now, if I’m a transit user and all of the Canada Lines stations are either elevated or subterranean, using the transit system will be associated with pain.
This will certainly make using transit unpleasant and looking for an alternative, imperative.
The RAV/Canada Line is a ‘FastFerry’ scandal, just waiting to happen and the lack of escalators is just but one of the many ills associated with this project.
I note in today’s news that htere is a vibration problem with the new Geerman built Ferries in Naniamo; it seems the low vibration noises they make is literally cracking walls and foundations of local houses.
http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=1fe0003a-c963-401b-af27-f382ae885ce1
Malcolm J.
August 26, 2008 at 7:09 am
wrt the ferries:
Wow, talk about the diminishing returns of technology…
Corey
August 26, 2008 at 4:10 pm