Thursday, January 17, 2008
As a public transit user I was very interested to hear more about the provincial government's new transit plan announced this week.
The major points of the plan are rapid bus lines (green), the Evergreen Line (#2), and the Millennium Line extension to UBC (#3).
I am in complete support of the Evergreen Line. I've traveled to the areas the it would service and the bus that it would replace is always full. People in that area take the bus and I think they deserve the Evergreen Line.
I am less keen on the extension to UBC. While I am not an economist (I've completed 100-level micro and macroeconomics courses), I am trying to figure out a cost-benefit analysis:
The 99B-line, which the extension would replace, is always full a peak hours. The experience is a bit like being herded into a cattle car. However, as it is an express bus it comes frequently so you never have to wait, and it only makes a few stops so you don't usually have to stand for too long. The trip from the university to Granville Street, where half the bus gets off to make connections, takes twenty minutes tops -- not too long to stand if necessary. I think it'd be rare where you would have to stand the whole way from the university to the last stop at Commercial Drive. The bus is always full because it is an efficient route and it works.
If a SkyTrain line were built, assuming it had the same number of stops West of Granville Street, I don't think the time saved would be that significant. To the end to Commercial Drive the trip is 40 minutes by bus, so SkyTrain would likely cut the trip time in half. However, this particular project is not the most pressing transit need. Moreover, if the motivation for this project is the inability to find a seat on the bus, I would definitely consider it unnecessary. It is my understanding that once the Canada Line is completed the 98B-line will be cancelled. These are the same types of buses as the 99B-line so they could just add buses. Although as Darren Peets argues, it is true that "for the 99 route, we’re going to get to a point when we just can’t add any more buses to Broadway."
My final point of resistance to the project would be a repeat of Cambie Street, as Stephen Rees explains. I would hope that businesses and residents of West Broadway oppose this expansion vociferously. I would hate to see my favourite coffee nook close down; it was closed for a long time after an oven fire last winter so I don't think it could survive the effects of SkyTrain construction.
The one real merit of the UBC extension would be the environmental benefits. As SkyTrain is electric, it is cleaner than buses. However, buses are greener than cars.
Finally, I'm glad to see that I'm not the only one who noticed that the transit plan ends the need for immediate highway expansion. Besides, didn't Mike Harcourt advise the Minister of Transportation to provide citizens who would otherwise use this new highway with viable transportation options first? Can unnecessary, irreversible highway expansion be stopped?Labels: January 2008, photos
posted by Vanessa at 10:06 PM
