Spending $14 billion to improve public transit in BC, particularly in the Lower Mainland, is a good idea. Unfortunately, good ideas, let alone new ones, are few and far between in the Provincial Transit Plan. First of all, Victoria is only putting up $4.75 billion of that $14 billion, the rest of it comes from Ottawa, Municipalities (most in the Lower Mainland) and Translink (which used to be run by Lower Mainland Municipalities until Kevin Falcon stripped control and handed it to an unelected 'technical' board). At least Falcon won't have to threaten holding his breath and turning blue like he did when the old Translink Board kept rejecting the RAV (now Canada) line.
The Canada Line is actually included in this 'new' plan, despite the fact it's only a few months away from completion. So is the Evergreen Line, which is projected to serve the Northeast Corridor and would have been built years ago had the Canada Line not jumped the queue in a fit of pre-Olympic hysteria. The province will spend $1.4 billion on the Evergreen Line, which uses cost-effective LRT technology. By contrast, they're willing to shell out twice as much for a SkyTrain line to UBC, which this page guesses is to impress the NIMBYs in Point Grey so they'll bitch a little less - they have a thing for big ticket items. In addition, a handful of rapid bus services are featured, which will be serviced by 1,500 new buses - something of a surprise, given that transit activists have been lobbying for 500 new buses for the past couple of years to deaf ears at Translink and the Ministry of Transportation.
If this plan actually does come together, it will mean that there will be a lot fewer single-occupancy vehicles on the road. That would also mean a lot more room for commercial truck traffic on routes like, just for the sake of argument, Highway 1 across the Port Mann Bridge. That being the case, why do Kevin Falcon and Gordon Campbell still feel compelled to impose the Gateway Project on Metro Vancouver, which will only increase traffic congestion and increase greenhouse gas emissions? Is $14 billion the price tag for hypocrisy these days?
1 comment:
most ammusing to listen to the falcon and the snowjob! were`nt these the same two barf-bags the put on a sickening display of shovelling phunny munny out the back of a truck, pre 2001 landslide. sometimes i take an informal pole out in langley where i spend a fair amount of time and i`ve yet to meet a local that does`nt like the current regime,i just have to shake my head and look forward to the day i no longer have to spend any time in langley.
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