Not what he said
The Surrey Now has a letter to the editor that is just plain wrong:Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon has neglected some very basic information in defence of the province's Gateway Infrastructure program. He states, according to your article, that adding more buses would simply clog the traffic arteries even more at rush hour.
Er, sorry, that's not what he said. From the original article:
"It's a cruel hoax to think you can add buses on a corridor that has 14 hours a day rush hour congestion and think for a minute that anyone's going to take those buses," Falcon said. "They won't."
You simply cannot plan a transit system when the heart of the most-travelled route is congested for hours and hours and hours every day. That's why there hasn't been a bus on the Port Mann for two decades.
7 Comments:
I can't believe I keep reading this nonsense about congestion keeping buses off the Port Mann.
4 years ago (1 yr before Falcon became Minister of Transportation) TransLink stated in its 10 year plan that it would put queue jumper lanes at the on westbound ramps to the Port Mann *THIS YEAR*, 2007.
(for those who don't know what queue jumper lanes are, these are bus only lanes placed on the side of the on-ramp at 152nd St allowing the bus to pass by the traffic waiting to get on the freeway... thus providing reliable and predictable travel times to those crossing the bridge by bus. This would be a big incentive to use it. Traffic on the bridge is rarely stalled, and even when it is, its only ~1km till you're off, which is 2 minutes at 30km/hr)
Now I'm not a transit operations expert, I don't expect this blogger is, and I know that Minister Falcon is not. However TransLink is in the business of running buses and planning what is and what is not possible. They have clearly decided that buses are possible and worth doing. Since then Gateway's own consultants have infact confirmed that it is possible to run buses across the bridge. There is no discussion around this matter.
Gateway and plans for highway1 expansion however has killed the queue jumper lanes. To me this is the cruel hoax. People must now wait another 7 years for the privilege of paying $5/day to use a new bridge and get in the traffic queue on the other side.
Buses were taken off the Port Mann when the SkyBridge was opened up simply because the transit system was underfunded (as it is today) and it was felt that riders could take SkyTrain instead. I expect they lost a lot of ridership because of this reduction in service... but they may have gained it back somewhere else??
There is no excuse to keep using a twinned bridge as a requirement for transit. (or for anything else unless you believe sprawl, pollution and pavement is the future of the valley).
agf makes some excellent points regarding the possibility of adding buses to the existing Port Man bridge. In addition to queue jumpers, congestion pricing could also be used to facilitate the re-introduction of buses on the existing Port Mann bridge.
But, it also important to remember that we have another bridge that crosses the Fraser It is not congested, it is being utilized far below capacity and it is at times completely empty. That is of course the SkyTrain bridge.
So instead of building a new bridge why not use the existing dedicated transit bridge? Wouldn't that would be more efficient and economical?
People south of the Fraser don't use this transit option for a few reasons
- the SkyTrain is crowded during rush hour
- there aren't good connections to the TriCity areas
- there aren't good connections farther out the valley (Langley, Abbotsford, etc.)
These issues could be addressed by:
- adding more SkyTrain cars
- fast-tracking construction of the Evergreen Line (or better Rapid Bus Transit routes)
- fast-tracking construction of an extension of the SkyTrain beyond Surrey (or Rapid Bus Transit routes)
Most people don't use SkyTrain because to access it, they have to use Highway 1 which (despite agf's rose coloured glasses) is congested for 13 hours a day. Highway 1 isn't some ancilliary road--it's the main highway for the entire region.
To get to Scott Road, most Valley residents either have to drive down Highway 1 to 160th (or rat run through residential neighbourhoods). Usually, they're stuck in traffic as far back as 200th. The other option is the 18,000 traffic lights and congested Fraser Highway.
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"Most people don't use SkyTrain because to access it..."
Which is exactly why we need to extend SkyTrain further out the valley (or a BRT line). And why we need to BRT lines that feed the skytrain.
Simply adding more lanes of congestion to highway one is not going to help.
Which is exactly why we need it all! Roads and transit options.
"...why we need it all! "
This keeps getting repeated like a mantra. But we never see an good explanation of why we need “it all.”
We have a range of alternatives so why not choose alternatives that:
- are more likely to reduce congestion in the long term
- reduce pollution instead of increasing it
- are more efficient at moving large numbers of people
- are more cost effective
- reduce the health risks associated with pollution
- reduce greenhouse gas emissions
Highway expansion will do none of these, but the other options will.
And expensive highway projects take away money that could be better spent on more efficient projects.
So please explain why we “need it all.”
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