Get Moving BC

Getting from A to B

Great to see the Gateway coverage in today's Province. First we got more on David Emerson's $365 million announcement and Kevin Falcon's speech to the Vancouver Board of Trade, including some project details.

Then there is this piece, which looks at the need for more roads and more transit--music to Get Moving BC's ears:

But what might surprise some is that even Landry says that more roads and bridges aren't the only things that are needed.

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result," he says. "We really need to think differently, and to my mind, thinking differently includes expanding [road] capacity."

But for roads to work, other things need to be done, he says.

"We need alternatives in terms of a transit system," Landry says. "We also need to look at a bundle of public-policy initiatives that will complement those investments so that we preserve the capacity that is introduced."

In that bundle he suggests initiatives like trucks and warehouses operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to make better use of the roads at night.

Landry said consideration has to be given also to eliminating street parking on major transportation routes like Knight Street.

He also suggested better incident management -- dealing with stalls and accidents so that they don't cause immediate traffic jams.

We need it all--transit, better roads and bridges, out-of-the-box ideas like Landry's trucking schedule--all of it. This is why the vast majority of residents support things like Gateway. It simply makes sense. Greater Vancouver is terribly underserved by both roads and transit and needs sustained, massive investments in both.

posted by Jordan Bateman @ 9:04 PM