9 posts tagged “transportation”
Ten lanes. Sheesh.
There's an upside to this, if you want to look at it that way. Two lanes will be dedicated bus lanes. These aren't HOV lanes these are bus lanes. I'm not sure if there's going to be an HOV lane as well. There should be.
That's the upside. The current Port Mann bridge is too narrow to provided dedicated transit. It's three lanes each way. The new bridge at five lanes each way could actually be defined as adding HOV and Transit capacity only: three lanes for all traffice, one 24 hour HOV only lane and one bus lane only. The new bridge creates the ability to finally provide mass transit with dedicated road space to the Fraser Valley.
But sheesh. 10 lanes, with a budget that's just growing and growing. I hope this goes well.
New 10-lane bridge to replace Port Mann
BY KELLY SINOSKI, VANCOUVER SUN, FEBRUARY 4, 2009_METRO VANCOUVER--_The provincial government has scrapped its plan to twin the Port Mann Bridge in favour of building a new 10-lane crossing over the Fraser River, at a cost of $3.3 billion.
Premier Gordon Campbell said the new bridge, which will be built to accommodate rapid bus service, expanded cycling and pedestrian lanes and a possible light rail line, will ease congestion clogging the crossing and commuter delays by about one-third.
It's unfortunate, I think, that this article is not written in the sarcastic spirit of Jonathan Swift. A pitch for a $25 per year cycling registration fee in Seattle seems just ridiculous.
For starters, there's not a jurisdiction in North America that funds road infrastructure purely from taxes paid by cars. Virtually every jurisdiction uses a portion of their general revenue to pay for automotive infrastructure, and in many cases various property taxes are applied as well. By extenstion cyclists--even those that don't own cars--are paying for a road infrastructure that they're not using as frequently as others.
Velonews' Bob Mionske looks at other reasons in some depth.
I hope this is just a newspaper columnist trying to stir up some noise, because if it's a serious proposal opposition needs to be built now.
Impose license fee on King County cyclists
By James F. Vesely
Times editorial page editorLocal government finances are so dire, it is time to consider -- and enact -- an annual fee on bicyclists.
A $25 annual fee for owning a bike is a natural outgrowth of the enormous amounts of trails, lanes and accommodations the region has made to cyclists. Those funds would be useful for local cities and King County. It would also make cyclists true members of the world of transportation, rather than free riders on the tax rolls.
Special licenses are not new. We license dogs, our cars, our boats, our motorcycles, our pleasures in hunting and fishing, as well as many other outdoor activities. Cyclists, known for their community spirit and exalted senses of self, should welcome this opportunity to help government support their activities.
It seems strange to hear about the Provincial Government considering a commuter rail service on Vancouver Island and not in the Lower Mainland, stretching out towards the Fraser Valley. Twinning the Port Mann is all well and good, but without an investment in transit it's just a stopgap.
In any case, one of the keys to success of mass transit if volume: you need to have enough riders to make it worthwhile. The population of the Lower Mainland is significantly higher than the Island. Of course we have the West Coast Express but it falls short of providing full service (and provides none at all south of the Fraser River.) An upgraded West Coast Express would be the equal of Ontario's GO Transit systems and could significantly reduce traffic all day long between the Valley and Vancouver.
B.C. considers southern Vancouver Island commuter rail service
Last Updated: Friday, November 28, 2008
CBC NewsThe B.C. government says it is considering upgrading the old E&N railway to create a new commuter rail service for southern Vancouver Island.
On Thursday, Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon announced he will commission a half-million-dollar study to look at the options for commuter rail and freight on the historic route.
Currently a VIA rail passenger train makes one daily run along the old north to south line between Victoria and Courtenay on the island's east coast.
The New York Times discusses the rise of bike sharing programs in Europe.
Among the most notable comments:
Copenhagen and Amsterdam have had devoted bicycling commuters for many years. But the new programs have created the greatest transportation revolution in central and southern Europe, where warmer climates allow riders to ride comfortably year-round. The shared bicycles in Barcelona, Lyon and Paris are heavily used, logging about 10 rides a day, according to officials in these cities.
I'm hopeful we'll see a program like this in Vancouver sometime in the next few years.
Missed, in my reading of the initial coverage of the toll situation on Highway 1, was Gordon Campbell's announcement that tolls on the Port Mann would be imposed for 35 years.
This is, of course, a meaningless announcement. By the time that 35 year agreement is up, the average person voting in today's election will be in their seventies, and the promise will be long forgotten. Gordon Campbell will be 95, and won't have to answer for an changes to that decision.
I recall seeing a documentary about the Lion's Gate Bridge which talked about Vancouver City Council providing a 60 year timeline for the removal of the road through Stanley Park. I wish I could find the reference, but even if I did I wouldn't fall for it.
I'm not opposed to tolls, incidentally. I think the Port Mann should be tolled. I'm not a fan of artificial promises, and I'm somewhat amazed that the news media has been letting this one slide.
Gordon Campbell today announced at the Union of B.C. Municipalities meeting tolls would be removed from the Coquihalla Highway as of 13:00hrs today. The Vancouver Sun provides sufficiently pedantic coverage.
The logic is pretty obvious here: the new Port Mann bridge is going to be tolled, which means this effectively just moves the toll farther up the highway. The route from Vancouver to the Interior will only be toll free for a short period of time. The Lougheed Highway provides an alternate, probably permanently toll free route to the Coquihalla but from Vancouver it adds quite a bit of time: for most people, it's not practical.
The obvious question though, is what happened to the 2003 plan of privatizing the Coquihalla. At the time, Transportation Minister Judith Reed explained the decision by saying that:
"As the 17-year-old highway ages, maintenance and rehabilitation costs will grow. These improvements must be made in a way that ensures the 81 per cent of users from outside the southern Interior pay the largest share, and benefits frequent travellers - especially local residents.
The government--the same government--at the time insisted that privatization was the only way to keep the Coquihalla running effectively into the future. There was just no other way.
The government press release is archived here but I've excerpted it after the break in case that URL changes.
The news that Montreal is starting a bike sharing program is welcome. Of course, Toronto tried this and it failed. the same thing has been proposed in Vancouver, and it's been very succesful in Paris.
Theft is an issue, but Paris' electronic tracking system has apparently minimized that problem. Here's hoping Montreal's experiment is a success, and encourages other Canadian cities to launch similar programs. It would be nice to see this in place by the time the Olympics arrive here.
There's more than one way to cross the Fraser. Some of those bridges should be tolled, and we might as well start with this one.
New, tolled Pattullo Bridge gets green light
Last Updated: Thursday, July 31, 2008 | 9:00 PM ET
CBC NewsMore than 79,000 vehicles travel over the Pattullo Bridge, which spans the Fraser River between New Westminster and Surrey, B.C., every day. (CBC)
TransLink has approved the construction of a new, tolled crossing to replace the 71-year-old Pattullo Bridge spanning the Fraser River between Surrey and New Westminster, B.C.
With stories of bike racks being overfull in communities around the continent, it's nice to see someone trying to do something distinctive.
Contest picks best designs for Ballard bike racks
By JENNIFER LANGSTON
P-I REPORTERLater this year, Ballard cyclists could find themselves parking their bikes between two toes of a giant concrete foot.
Or maybe inside the rusted husk of a car sculpture, meant to symbolize the decay of the automobile and fossil fuel age.
Personally, these racks have long been my favourites, combining function with good visual design. The City of Toronto's are also good, although the locking circle is affixed to the post by two bolts that can be removed which is a problem. I've never seen these ones at the ROM but I like the idea of doing something unique.
