Gateway Program (BC Highways) - Project Definition Report

[Stingray2004]

HOT OFF THE PRESS - All I can say for the moment - WOW!

Cursory Review:

Hwy 1:

- express/collector system between Grandview Hwy and Douglas St.;
- rebuild of most interchanges from Grandview, Willingdon through to 176th St. with a couple of additional interchanges;
- New, massive Cape Horn interchange;
- Port Mann twin is cable-stayed structure;

Mary Hill Bypass:

- interchanges along existing intersections within time frame;
- interchange at MHB/United Blvd.

Lougheed Hwy:

- interchanges at Dewdney Trunk and Harris Roads;

SFPR:

- interchanges with some minor intersections to be eventually converted to interchanges;
- split grades;

http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/gateway/reports/Gateway_PDR_013106.pdf

[Jarrod]

Looks pretty spiffy. I guess we'll have to wait and see if it will go through. Who thinks that it will? I think that it will be beneficial for the area

[hollywoodnorth]

WOW I like the 2nd Port Mann Bridge!! :)

[officedweller]

Yowsa - Thanks!!

Anyone notice that Figure 11 has the Cariboo Rd interchange connector road to New Westminster marked in (as an independent project)?

[mr.x]

wow, it looks frickin amazing. the second Port Mann does look awesome, but hopefully they come up with a more original design.........looks way too much like SkyBridge.

[Glacierfed]

The annual population growth estimates in there are interesting, I think that their forecast annual growth for the GVRD from 2001 - 2011 are going to be considerably too low with a forecast of 21700, I think its been about 33000 and will likely increase to 35000 by 2011.

For 2011 - 2021
Average growth 39500

2021 - 2031
Average growth 34700

Projected 2031 population is a bit over 3 million, but I think with the adjusted growth projection it should be 3.2. They claim that the travel times with the gateway project will be faster than they are now. Going to the livable region website and looking at the presentation Gordon Price gives to New West city council, he argues that this will just promote more automobile oriented development, ie. big box stores, etc.and thus increasing the amount of trips people take, creating more congestion and pushing it on to arterial municipal routes, which is a pretty compelling argument, but I don't think there really is very much land for more automobile oriented development to occur, because there really isn't a huge area of land in the corridor that isn't yet developed. I think both sides have thier merits, Vancouver really doesn't have that bad of traffic outside of HWY 1. Seattle's traffic is substantially worse.

[fever]

There are a few assumptions in the report that I think should be questioned.

It assumes that land use is determined by municipalities, making it too difficult or unreasonable to include as an effect. It acknowledges that without tolling the freeway would again become congested at similar levels as today in 5 to 10 years. Considering their land use assumption, they might be overestimating this.

It also assumes throughout that a region-wide tolling scheme is not possible because there is provincial legislation that requires there to be one reasonably-direct free route. However, the province can change its legislation if it chooses to do so. The report doesn't acknowledge this.

Figure 2 shows the travel volumes over the bridge (although it doesn't say in which direction - this makes a difference because one direction has three lanes while the other has two). But let's assume that the westbound half of the bridge has a capacity of just under 4000 cars/hour/direction. If this number is for two lanes, then with four lanes in each direction the Port Mann would still only have a capacity of 8000 cars/hour/direction (actually less). Given that the Port Mann Bridge is mainly used by single occupant commuters, the additional capacity is roughly equivalent to a bus lane or the low end of in-street lrt (see the report on transit systems that officedweller posted the other day Exhibit 1-7). For Highway 1 through Burnaby the additional capacity is roughly equivalent to a bus in mixed traffic.

My point is that freeway expansion amounts to placing an unreliable low-capacity transportation system in what is obviously a high demand corridor. Even a modest change in travel patterns, which should be expected from this modest addition of capacity, will swamp the system almost immediately.

The LRT provision is an improvement, and it might make a decent connection between Coquitlam and Surrey, but I bet there's no money for that. The LRT provision for the Pitt River Bridge indicates that it may be used for other purposes.

The easiest way to actually solve congestion is to use a pricing mechanism that limits demand to below the level where congestion occurs. In other words, the government should maximize revenues from the freeway system.

Building more freeways isn't going to solve any problems because they don't have enough capacity to deal with peak demand in even moderately densely populated cities. The government should be funding high capacity transportation systems (eg. LRT) instead where they are needed.

[officedweller]

The Vancouver Sun yesterday reported that distance based tolls may apply to the Hwy 1. I prefer that to tolled bridges.

I've seen a report that says that LRT across the Port Mann isn't feasible because it is too far from regional town centres, etc. Expect it to remain an HOV lane for a long time. The report suggested large easily accessible park and rides at the Skytrain stations closest to Hwy 1.

On the other hand, the convertible HOV lane (or is it just piers to support the addition of a lane?) for the Pitt River Bridge will probably accelerate extension of the Evergreen Line to Pitt Meadows faster than originally planned.

BTW Fig 2 says westbound on the vertical axis.

[fever]

I haven't heard about that report. I agree it's not the best candidate for rapid transit. A better secondary Coquitlam-Surrey line would be DMU via a new rail tunnel/bridge between Scott Road and New Westminster/Sapperton, but it's probably not viable as well.

Seeing as there is usually greater demand for bridges, I would prefer both but at variable rates.

[NightHawk]

Queue the queetz freakout in 3...2...1... ;)

[The Great Scaper]

We need a clover leaf interchange really badly at several intersection here in Victoria.

The worst on is McKenzie Ave & HWY #1 - This is the busiest intersection in the province. All traffic from Victoria Heading to the Western Communities and upisland go through here added to all traffic heading out of Esquimalt and the Navy Base and Traffic comming from HWY 17 and Saanich To be halted by a traffic light!!! / Then HWY #1 and Tilicum need to be done as well.

The other ones we need are at HWY #17 & the entrance to the Airport - totally ridiculous that this is a stop light, Also HWY #17 & Beacon - entrance to Sidney!

[Dorian G.]

We need a clover leaf interchange really badly at several intersection here in Victoria.

The worst on is McKenzie Ave & HWY #1 - This is the busiest intersection in the province. All traffic from Victoria Heading to the Western Communities and upisland go through here added to all traffic heading out of Esquimalt and the Navy Base and Traffic comming from HWY 17 and Saanich To be halted by a traffic light!!! / Then HWY #1 and Tilicum need to be done as well.

The other ones we need are at HWY #17 & the entrance to the Airport - totally ridiculous that this is a stop light, Also HWY #17 & Beacon - entrance to Sidney!
No.
Does it really matter that traffic come to a grinding halt at McKenzie rather than a kilometer later at Tillicum? Or do Tillicum also, and get another KM of free flow until Saanich rd. Most people in Victoria travel on normal city streets—why are highways always in the front of the line for upgrades?

And as for the light at the airport, Oh no! it takes you 40 min to get to the airport instead of 38… I'm sure Sidney dwellers would love to have an onramp be the tallest structure in their area. Sidney has done well making their city attractive—much more so than other areas of the same side—by de-emphasizing the car. Building a concrete temple to the supremacy of the auto would surely go counter to this.

[The Great Scaper]

It just so happens that there are more accidents at that sidney intersection than anywhere else on the highway. It's so nice that Sidney residence's hard work to create a nice community has to interfere with the safety of citizens! Plus if they don't want a tall over pass you can always dig a tunnel hence the overpass would be at the normal street elevation.

As for the overpass at Mckenzie yeah this needs to be done. Why, because Our lovely City Council refuses to build development downtown, thus spread Greater Victoria farther and farther out. Yet every parking lot in town seems to get saved from yet another abomination! while 70 percent of our 400,000 people live in the burbs!!! Have you ever tried coming from Esquimalt, even trying to make a right hand turn onto the highway to get back into town. Even a right hand turn on that single lane road at that intersection during rush hour can take 40 minutes. So yeah it needs to be done, it was promised to us by the NDP in their last mandate yet they overspent on everything they did and had to pospone it. It will get done eventually but the sooner the better. --B--

[Rye $ingh]

The annual population growth estimates in there are interesting, I think that their forecast annual growth for the GVRD from 2001 - 2011 are going to be considerably too low with a forecast of 21700, I think its been about 33000 and will likely increase to 35000 by 2011.

For 2011 - 2021
Average growth 39500

2021 - 2031
Average growth 34700

Projected 2031 population is a bit over 3 million, but I think with the adjusted growth projection it should be 3.2. They claim that the travel times with the gateway project will be faster than they are now. Going to the livable region website and looking at the presentation Gordon Price gives to New West city council, he argues that this will just promote more automobile oriented development, ie. big box stores, etc.and thus increasing the amount of trips people take, creating more congestion and pushing it on to arterial municipal routes, which is a pretty compelling argument, but I don't think there really is very much land for more automobile oriented development to occur, because there really isn't a huge area of land in the corridor that isn't yet developed. I think both sides have thier merits, Vancouver really doesn't have that bad of traffic outside of HWY 1. Seattle's traffic is substantially worse.


Considering this year the region added over 40,000 people, and the projected for next year is over 44,000, i don't see that declining with everything going full steam ahead, and if the new immigration plan is adopted of over 300,000 immigrants a year, i could see much more people coming this way.

[Glacierfed]

Considering this year the region added over 40,000 people, and the projected for next year is over 44,000, i don't see that declining with everything going full steam ahead, and if the new immigration plan is adopted of over 300,000 immigrants a year, i could see much more people coming this way.

Do you have any sources for these numbers? My information came from here:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=94506

the GVRD added about 34,000 over the previous 12 months as of July 1 last year. And has averaged 33,000 over the past 4 years. There would have had to be a big increase in growth over the past 6 months for the GVRD to have grown 40,000 in 2005.

Long term projections rely on a lot of assumptions and uncertainties though, its hard to know what the growth will be like for more than about a 3 year horizon.

[phesto]

Link doesn't work(?)

[murman]

Link doesn't work(?)

queetz probably hit them with a "denial of service" attack.

[officedweller]

The report isn't supposed to be released until tomorrow - they probably realized it was publicly available and cut the link.

[hollywoodnorth]

queetz probably hit them with a "denial of service" attack.

LOL!! or he is in court today seeking a restraining order! :jester:

[queetz@home]

Hmm...seems a lot of people have been anticipating a response from me. :D

Well, I haven't had a chance to finish reading up that 90 page report but fever already gave a response that shares my view before I had a chance to say anything. At first glance, there doesn't seem to be anything new that wasn't discussed already in the other thread other than the new bridge rendering. The LRT provisions are there but still no actual LRTs, as anticipated, this is a very single occupancy vehicle centric policy rather than a dominantly commercial driven response, and Kevin Falcon is still a Wendell Cox like jackass that needs to be dragged out of the street and be shot! Hacking the website and involving the courts on this isn't a bad idea... :hmmm:

[Mininari]

Wow,
I only got a brief glance at this report last night while I was at my girlfriend's parents' house. When I got home to read it in detail, I was horrified to find that the link had been cut, as per the likely explanation above.

All I can say is that I'm not surprised. They've identified many improvements for HWY 1 that were already objects of our speculation.
The collector-express 'mini version' in Burnaby
6-laning to McGill with interchange safety improvements within the highway right of way
(funny, I emailed the Minster of Transportation about the 1st avenue and Boundary 'safety issues' several years back, and he told me that improvements were not being considering because they'd require sizeable private property aquisitions)
8-Laning to 200th with new interchanges -- Brunette, Capehorn and 152nd are going to be interesting interchanges to see evolve.
6-Laning to 216th
The new interchange at 216th suprised me.
And the Port Mann Twin looks very nice.

I am happy to see that they are considering upgrading the Mary Hill to essentially a freeway standard, and that 6-laning between United Blvd and Shaughnessy has been identified. Furthermore, the project identies a full grade seperation of King Edward Drive over the Highway AND railway tracks -- I used to work south of those tracks, and got caught frequently by trains during the afternoon rush-hour. Bus, bike or car -- you're stuck!

Now, this is interesting because this is a project that the City of Coquitlam identified in their medium-term transportation plan. The gateway project almost apperas to be buying support from the City of Coquitlam as grade seperation at King Edward Street is something they have wanted for a long time.

In anycase, its about bloody time we got to see this thing.

Btw, don't speculate too much about the Stormont-McBridge Connector.
Its 42 years and counting -- we can't build ALL of our 'forbidden projects' in one go!
Besides, New Westminister has got enough to keep them fired up for now.

[twoNeurons]

Furthermore, the project identies a full grade seperation of King Edward Drive over the Highway AND railway tracks -- I used to work south of those tracks, and got caught frequently by trains during the afternoon rush-hour. Bus, bike or car -- you're stuck!

Here ye. I HATE THOSE TRACKS!!! I work on United and most have resorted to going south under the tracks and u-Turning it to take the quick road onto the freeway. But if you want to just cross the tracks for lunch... fogget 'bout it.

Another thing they should do is extend United Blvd. to Braid. It's ridiculous that it terminates at a one-lane wooden bridge. It would alleviate so much traffic congestion and provide another entry point to the growing area... then maybe they'd be able to develop around Braid... those tracks really get in the way as it stands now.

[officedweller]

I gather Stormont-McBridge is the Cariboo Road interchange connection?

The other good thing is that Wayburne Drive in Burnaby will get an overpass to divert local traffic away from Willingdon.

The report says that most existing overpasses will have to be reconstructed.

For King Edward Street, do the City of Coquitlam's plans call for the lowering of the Hwy 1 ROW to facilitate the construction of an overpass? Or will be be really tall and steep?

[Rye $ingh]

Do you have any sources for these numbers? My information came from here:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/showthread.php?t=94506

the GVRD added about 34,000 over the previous 12 months as of July 1 last year. And has averaged 33,000 over the past 4 years. There would have had to be a big increase in growth over the past 6 months for the GVRD to have grown 40,000 in 2005.

Long term projections rely on a lot of assumptions and uncertainties though, its hard to know what the growth will be like for more than about a 3 year horizon.


I got that information from the Vancouver sun, it was a issue in the month of January, don't remember exctly when. I think the 35 000 was just immigration from foreign countries, but they added in the people that moved here from other parts of the country, i could be wrong on that, but it definetly said over 40 000. As for the future, yeah your right its just a prediction, but thats all we have to go by, so it's the next best thing to predict the future growth.

[phesto]

The site has been updated now. Here are those renderings:

Port Mann twin:
http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/gateway/photos/gallery/Rendering_Twinned_Port_Mann_Bridge.jpg

http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/gateway/photos/gallery/Rendering_PortMann_Laning_Opening_Day.jpg

Pitt River Bridge:
http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/gateway/photos/gallery/Rendering_Pitt_River_Bridge.jpg

SFPR:
http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/gateway/photos/gallery/Rendering_SFPR-NorthDelta_Section.jpg

[Nutterbug]

I already posted this to the Transportation Crisis thread, but this looks to be the more suitable place for it.

http://www.canada.com/cityguides/vancouver/story.html?id=076ec783-29fd-411f-a64b-ac7f7d807f16&k=32247

$3-billion plan to end gridlock
Infrastructure work would include twinning the Port Mann Bridge

Miro Cernetig
Vancouver Sun

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

VICTORIA -- A $3-billion plan aimed at staving off gridlock in the Lower Mainland will be revealed today, with plans for more and bigger bridges, wider and longer highways and more green-friendly bicycle lanes for the next decade and beyond.

But the B.C. government warns that if Vancouver and its satellite cities want to avoid becoming the Los Angeles of the North, they'd better start reining in their love for cars. It wants them to fork out tolls every time they take their vehicles across that vital link over the Fraser River -- the Port Mann Bridge.

In the future, concludes a report obtained by The Vancouver Sun, drivers who cross a revitalized Port Mann Bridge should pay about $2.50 per crossing. That will be collected from credit cards through electronic tolls, or, for those who aren't registered, through cameras taking snapshots of their licence plates, with the bill being sent to them later.

"A potential toll on the Port Mann Bridge could be in the order of $2.50 each way for private vehicles," says the government's executive summary of the plan, which will be put to public hearings.

But even as it tries to control the use of cars, the government is planning some major expenditures to make it easier for those who must use them to get in and out of the city.

Premier Gordon Campbell will unveil these big-ticket items today:

- $1.5 billion: This is for the twinning of the Port Mann Bridge and the highway that leads to it.

This includes construction of an additional two lanes on Highway 1 and the Port Mann Bridge twinning, which will mean a second, new bridge supported by cables. It includes bicycle lanes and an engineering plan allowing for the future inclusion of a light-transit railway line when merited by the population and traffic.

- $800 million: This is to build a four-lane, 80 km/h highway on the south shore of the Fraser River, from Delta to the Golden Ears Bridge, with a connection to the important trade artery of Highway 1.

- $400 million. This is for the North Fraser Perimeter Road, an improved highway from New Westminster to Maple Ridge. It will include a new seven-lane bridge to replace the Pitt River swing bridges, which will ease flow into existing highways.

- $300 million. This is for a contingency fund in case the projects go over budget.

The B.C. government has not yet said if it will be using free-market partners -- the so-called private, public P-3 partnerships -- to build the new roadways and bridges. That will likely subject it to scrutiny from the New Democratic Party, which believes P3 partnerships are more costly to taxpayers in the long run.

The executive summary of the government's Gateway Program report says the Lower Mainland's new network will save the British Columbia economy anywhere from $500 million to $1.5 billion because of increased efficiency in commuter and commercial transportation costs and lost time to workers.

While there may be debate about the architecture of the new roadways and bridges, the provincial government believes there's no real challenge to the economic argument.

"The initial cost estimate of the predesign concepts is in the range of $3 billion," the government report says. "Based on quantifiable benefits and costs, the [project] has a strong business case, with benefit-to-cost ratio of 3 to 1."

But the government also is proposing some disincentives to using the car.

It will spend $50 million on bike paths to encourage people to use bicycles when possible. The expenditure will be the biggest in B.C. for a regional cycling network, setting a precedent to encourage municipalities to link bicycle networks to major highways.

The government is also hoping to get more commuters into the same car. It hopes that tolls will be weighted in favour of the conscientious commuter and mean the investment in the Port Mann Bridge would mean less congestion for decades, rather than a few years.

"The rate [toll] for trucks could, if implemented, be higher, while the rate for motorcycles could be lower...," the government proposes, suggesting that night-time users could even cross for free.

"This proposed tolling option, combined with improved transit service, HOV lanes, transit and commercial vehicle priority access facilities, would keep bridge congestion below current levels until 2031 or beyond."

Without the discipline of tolls, the government argues, the benefits of the $1.5-billion project would be mostly eliminated.

"If the improved highway is not effectively managed through tolls and/or other congestion-reduction measures, analysts show that would reach current level of congestion five to 10 years after project completion."

mcernetig@png.canwest.com

MAKING CONNECTIONS

The province's Gateway plan slated for release today includes three main components:

- $1.5 billion

For the twinning of the Port Mann Bridge (circled, above).

- $800 million

For the South Fraser Perimeter Road (brown), a proposed four-lane 80-kilometre route along the south side of the Fraser River

- $400 million

For the North Fraser Perimeter Road (green), improvements to existing roads to provide a continuous route from New Westminster to Maple Ridge.

THE GATEWAY PROGRAM:

Three main components of the provincial government's $3 billion Gateway Program to expand road capacity throughout Greater Vancouver:

1. South Fraser Perimeter Road: A proposed four-lane 80-kilometre route along the south side of the Fraser River, from Deltaport Way in Delta to the connector road leading to the proposed Golden Ears Bridge at the Langley-Surrey border. To be completed by 2012. Cost: $800 million.

2. North Fraser Perimeter Road: Improvements to existing roads to provide a continuous route from New Westminster to Maple Ridge. Cost: Includes a new seven-lane bridge to replace the existing Pitt River swing bridge and an improved interchange at Lougheed Highway and the Mary Hill Bypass. To be completed by 2009. Cost: $400 million.

3. Port Mann Bridge and Highway 1: Twinning of the bridge and adding one lane to Highway 1 in each direction between Vancouver and Langley. To be completed by 2013. The new bridge, to be built immediately west of the existing one, would accommodate transit, pedestrians, cyclists and future light rail transit. Cost: $1.5 billion.

- - -

Consquences of not twinning: Traffic backs up five km during morning rush at the Port Mann bridge to 176th Street.

by 2011 this congestion is expected to increase to 12 kilometres -- as far as 200th Street.

By 2021, traffic could back up as far as 17 kilometres, to 246th Street.

By 2011 this congestion is expected to increase to 12 km -- as far as 200th.

By 2021, traffic could back up as far as 17 km, to 216th Street.

Source: vancouver Sun

THE PRICE OF POPULARITY:

If you think the Lower Mainland's gridlock can't get any worse, consider what the newest government report says about what awaits Port Mann Bridge users if nothing is done to make the bridge bigger or reduce traffic:

2003: Back then, it was just a five-km lineup to get on the bridge at rush-hour's peak.

2011: By this date, commuters will probably face a 12-km lineup.

2021: It will be a 17-km-long wait at the Port Mann, according to planners. Yes, Dorothy, you're still in Langley though you really want to be in Burnaby or Vancouver.

Here are some other salient facts commuters might want to ponder, courtesy of the government's latest report on commuter reality:

Current cost of congestion to truckers in the Lower Mainland is $500 million a year, according to the B.C. Trucking Association.

Transport Canada estimates the total extra transportation costs from congestion passed onto commuters is $1.5 billion.

The current Port Mann Bridge is considered to be congested for 13 hours a day. Its traffic is greater than that on San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge.

The future is getting crowded: The Lower Mainland's population has grown from 750,000 to 2.1 million in the last 20 years. By 2031, it will be 3 million.

By 2031, the government's planners estimate, 25 to 40 per cent more commuters will need to be part of rush hour.

Ran with fact boxes "Making Connections", "The Price ofPopularity" and "The Gateway Program", which have been appended tothe end of the story.
© The Vancouver Sun 2006

[Stingray2004]

One problem that I see should be looked at again - that's having an 8-lane cross-section on the twinned Port Mann Bridge when the "through" lanes are also an 8-lane cross-section.

When major interchanges exist (Cape Horn and 152nd) on both sides of a bottleneck crossing, the design standard should provide for an additional auxilary lane on the bridge in each direction (10-lane cross-section) to account for that enter/exit traffic flow.

Existing crossings of the Fraser River alreasdy suffer from this deficiency.

Maybe this will be revisited at the consultation stage - just increase the new bridge structure's width by an additional 12 feet.

[queetz@home]

More proof that Kevin Falcon is just plain crazy!!! :koko:

Minister gives free alternative to possible tolled Port Mann
Jan, 31 2006 - 12:20 PM


SURREY/CKNW(AM980) - So what if you don't want to pay the toll on a twinned Port Mann Bridge?

The Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon says you would have other options to paying the $2.50 toll, including the Patullo Bridge. “The free un-tolled alternative would be the South Fraser Perimeter road, so that if you don't want to take the Port Mann all you do is turn off at 176th, and then you just zip around the South Fraser Permieter road, over to the Patullo or the Alex Fraser and there's your alternative,” said Falcon.

However the NDP's transportation critic, David Chudnovsky calls the Patullo option 'preposterous'. “We know the problems of the Patullo Bridge,” said Chudnovsky. “We know how dangerous it is, we know how congested it is."

Falcon argues very few people will take a pass on the Port Mann.


I rarely side with the BC NDP but David hit the mark on this one! :rolleyes:

[twoNeurons]

people won't do it, but it's an alternative... which means the provincial mandate of having a free route into town is met.

no way in hell am i saving a measly $2.50 and add lots of time to my trip, unless I'm going to New West or South Vancouver.

[officedweller]

I agree with Tintinium - it's just to provide compliance with the policy that a free route is available.
I wouldn't expect the free option to be the faster way to travel.

[hollywoodnorth]

Minister gives free alternative to possible tolled Port Mann
Jan, 31 2006 - 12:20 PM
SURREY/CKNW(AM980) - So what if you don't want to pay the toll on a twinned Port Mann Bridge?
The Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon says you would have other options to paying the $2.50 toll, including the Patullo Bridge. “The free un-tolled alternative would be the South Fraser Perimeter road, so that if you don't want to take the Port Mann all you do is turn off at 176th, and then you just zip around the South Fraser Permieter road, over to the Patullo or the Alex Fraser and there's your alternative,” said Falcon.

However the NDP's transportation critic, David Chudnovsky calls the Patullo option 'preposterous'. “We know the problems of the Patullo Bridge,” said Chudnovsky. “We know how dangerous it is, we know how congested it is."

Falcon argues very few people will take a pass on the Port Mann.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Gateway plan reaction
Jan, 31 2006 - 3:30 PM
VANCOUVER/CKNW(AM980) - Premier Gordon Campbell insists the $3 billion dollar gateway program is doable, despite cost overruns in countless other projects in the province.
Campbell says the program comes with a 300 million dollar extraordinary contingency.
NDP transportation critic David Chudnovsky suspects the project will end up costing at least 4.5 billion

Vancouver's mayor is not yet taking a firm position on the province's gateway program.

".....I am right now keeping an open mind"

The Port Mann twinning project would attempt to unclog the congestion on the bridge but some worry the provinces plan would unload extra traffic into parts of Vancouver.

".....so there is a lot of issues and it's very complex.....and I am right now keeping an open mind"

Former mayor Larry Campbell had been an opponent of the twinning project.

[Rye $ingh]

Well they are going to take forever to build it. I don't agree with the tolls, maybe if they were a little cheaper, but i still wouldn't like it, because i am just a cheap guy. Now lets hear all the NIMBY'S complain.

[Nutterbug]

people won't do it, but it's an alternative... which means the provincial mandate of having a free route into town is met.

no way in hell am i saving a measly $2.50 and add lots of time to my trip, unless I'm going to New West or South Vancouver.
I'd say the Port Mann users do have a cause for complaint that they have to pay the toll to cross the Fraser, but not those who take the other bridges, even though they too have had those bridges built for them at the taxpayers' expense.

Slap a toll on them all, including the new Pitt River bridge and the Burrard Inlet crossings.

[queetz@home]

I can't stand the sense of entitlement with these NIMBYs it boggles the mind. They want a new bridge but they don't want to pay for it! GOD!!!! HOWEVER! There is some symphathy for their cause. :hmmm:

The thing with the Port Mann twinning is it still does not offer an alternative to the automobile nor does it stop sprawl. If they build the LRT as part of the Gateway program NOW instead of just having "provisions", which pretty much shows the timeline of Surrey and Langley getting an LRT line is when we would have huge thriving colonies in Mars, then people would have a true alternative to the automobile lifestyle. And because LRT as a mode encourages Transit Oriented Development, instead of a sprawly type development in the Fraser Valley, it would be a compact easy to service type of system. Unfortunately, Kevin Falcon simply does not see this as the right thing to do and is more concern with his automobile lifestyle (after all, he lives in a ranch in Cloverdale and can only commute by car) rather than improving the livability of the region. :rant:

[officedweller]

The money for an LRT would be better spent running a diesel Multiple Unit on the old interurban tracks from Langley to Scott Road Station. The track locations for that are closer to population centres. The provision for LRT on the Port Mann is really just a nod to the transit folks, but I doubt it'll be implemented unless huge development goes in in Surrey near the highway.

LRT on the Pitt River Bridge, on the other hand could be accelerated since it's on the path of the Evergreen Line and lines up with Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge's population centres.

[queetz@home]

^ Unfortunately, Dianne Watts, who I believe is genuinely for smart growth, is inadvertently buying into that "nod to transit folks" and I think a lot of people too, hence why the project is meeting less resistance (for example, PoMo mayor Joe Trasolini is now adopting a "wait and see" approach). I agree with the DMU idea and it makes me wonder why its not being considered. It can't be that long, expensive and difficult to implement (maybe some retracking?).

[officedweller]

I think the DMU is on Translink's radar, not the Province's.

I'm actually surprised that Translink isn't asking for the redirection of money for the Port Mann LRT facility (not likely much anyways, just strengthening of support piers) to Translink for a Surrey-Langley project (whether bus or DMU, etc.) to feed into Skytrain.

The HOV on the new bridge will help long haul coach services, but that'll be implemented regardless of the LRT option.

[twoNeurons]

email i send to provletters@png.canwest.com

British Columbians have to get over the take, take, take attitude.

Transit Users pay as much as $4 per direction to travel from Surrey to Vancouver, and they are "trainpooling," sharing the cost with the other 300 people on the train. People who think $2.50 is costly have the option of taking a brand new (free) South Fraser Perimeter Road to the good old faithful Pattulo bridge or under-utilized Alex Fraser bridge. Tolls are not a tax. They are a user-pay system. And if you carpool, that's only $1.25. $1.25 is worth 1 hour off a return-trip across the river to me.

If we are not tolled, we will pay by an increased gas/transit tax. We will still be paying, but we will not notice the loss directly, like tolls. Tolls promote responsible use.

It's time we stopped being selfish about resources and pay for what we use. If we're responsible we'll chose a smaller house closer to work in the city, or a lower salary across the river and a lower priced house. In the end, it all works out. Those who want the best of both worlds, should be expected to pay... Or take the quick, efficient, skytrain. Besides, just think how much closer the Scott Road Park n' Ride will be when you can take the South Fraser Perimeter Road directly to it.

Save $2.50, take the train.

[Mininari]

I like your letter -- its succinct and clear.

[queetz@home]

As a frequent Letter to the Editor writer myself, that is awesome, tintinium!!!! :tup:

[twoNeurons]

I rarely write to them. But I feel this change is really monumental to the area.

[hollywoodnorth]

Transportation Minister defends plans to charge a toll on Port Mann
Feb, 01 2006 - 9:20 AM
VANCOUVER/CKNW(AM980) - B.C.'s Transportation Minister continues to defend plans to charge drivers for the privilege of crossing the Port Mann Bridge; in seven years that is.
Kevin Falcon, speaking on CKNW on the Bill Good Show, insists the $2.50 toll is necessary because our taxes can't cover the 1.5 billion dollar price tag of twinning the bridge linking Vancouver with Surrey. “There's a limit to how much the province can do,” said Falcon. “The billion and a half that would be required for twinning the Port Mann, widening the number one, that we don't have an ability to pay, so we're looking at tolling. The second is we know that, all the evidence tells us tolling acts is a traffic management tool. It extends the benefits well out past 25 years."

Falcon's explanation for putting a toll on the Port Mann and not other main arteries is commuters have the option of traveling a different route without facing tolls.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

New West mayor to give Gateway Program a chance
Feb, 01 2006 - 3:40 PM
NEW WESTMINSTER/CKNW(AM980) - The mayor of New Westminster says he's willing to give the province's Gateway Program a chance.
Wayne Wright previously was against twinning the Port Mann, but now says he's willing to look at the plan

Wright says increased traffic is still a concern, but he's suggesting the North Fraser perimeter road could be enclosed.

Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan says he's also keeping an open mind.

[Mininari]

Wow, its good to see that local Mayors aren't rushing to condemn the gateway project immediately. Its fair to hear all arguments and consider all input before taking a firm stance on something like this. It will be interesting to see how the pre-design consultation goes.

Some pretenious issues should be:
Brunette Interchange improvements
-Constrained site/environmental concerns
-Auxillary Lane to United Blvd?

Caribou-Interchange
To build or not to build the Stormont-McBride (New West -- No F----- way!!!)

Cape Horn design -- how crazy will it be?

Port Mann Auxillary add-drop 5th Lane between Capehorn and 152nd???

Bottleneck now in Langley... from 8 - 4 lanes in only a few km.

Traffic adaptation measures on local roads immediately connected to the freeway. For instance, the first signalized intersection at 1st Ave. and Grandview?

The list goes on and on...
I'm glad I'm only one voice in this project, and not responsible for managing all the 'feedback' that is sure to pour in.
Good luck to the poor saps they hire to handle this monumental task!

[G-Man]

Would this be the first toll on the Trans-Canada Highway or are there some in Eastern Canada. Might be a bone of contention for federal funding.

[Nutterbug]

Would this be the first toll on the Trans-Canada Highway or are there some in Eastern Canada. Might be a bone of contention for federal funding.
Does the toll on the Horseshoe Bay-Nanaimo ferry count?

[twoNeurons]

I'd like to see 6 lanes to the first interestion in Abbotsford, or at LEAST 264th (the extent of the GVRD)

I also think that the mayors are keeping an open mind for one reason: tolls.

I mean, they know it has to be done as well, mind you.

Also, New West will benefit from the NFPR (and indirectly the SFPR... from the Alex Fraser), Richmond from the SFPR (Crossing the Alex Fraser) Surrey will benefit the most.

Coquitlam will get a new bridge...

Even Vancouver will benefit with the Road to McBride easing the use for Truck traffic to the ports.

Almost every community is benefitting, so I don't expect much direct opposition. Falcon has done this very intelligently. Although, I do agree with od on the whole DMU to Scott Road.

[East Van]

cape horn should become one of the largest interchanges in the country

8-4 lanes in such short distance isnt too smart, might aswell take it out past 232st. but i wonder if abbotsford will sprawl closer to aldergrove and langley making that corridor busier.

any idea on translinks plans for the NFPR up to king edward steet ??? and will the NFPR be tied into the new capehorn interchange ?

[hollywoodnorth]

did any of you actually read the report? GO TO PAGE 72 ......... you will see it goes from 8 to 6 to 4.

Thats very different than 8 to 4 and this all happens over a 3 interchange period.

[Mininari]

The distance between the 200th and 216th interchange is 3.5km -- hence, a 3.5km transition zone of 6 lanes.

Its not such a big issue for westbound traffic, but it assumes much of the traffic has dispersed into Surrey and Langley. Just how many cars will continue past 216th on the 4-lane section? Eastbound through Langley could very well become a nasty bottleneck -- especially during holidays.
Of course, thats a different can of worms ... holiday traffic is infrequent, and does not require additional millions / billions of dollars to fix it.

[VanCityJ]

Just an idea on the tolls - right now the bridge has 5 lanes, if the new one also has 5 lanes then make 3 of them on each bridge free and the other two can be toll lanes. As traffic increases, more will use those two lanes. People can have their choice.
*I haven't had time to read the whole report, but this is something that was kind of talked about on the radio this morning that I thought was good.

[Stingray2004]

One thing I like about the new SFPR (future Hwy 17 extension) is that it will finally provide a direct freeway link (initially expressway standard) connecting Hwys 99, 91, and 1.

Those of us in South Vancouver, Richmond, Delta, South Surrey, etc. have always been held captive to Hwy 10 (a real frustrating goat trail) when travelling to the Fraser Valley, Okanagan Valley, interior, etc.

Likewise, those in the valley have always been held captive to using Hwy 10 when destinations include the ferry terminal, YVR, and other areas in the southwest region.

Aside from the important commercial intermodal facilities located along the corridor, I will again reiterate that it will be great to finally have proper connectivity between Hwy 1 and Hwy 99.

http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/gateway/photos/gallery/Rendering_SFPR-NorthDelta_Section.jpg

[hollywoodnorth]

The distance between the 200th and 216th interchange is 3.5km -- hence, a 3.5km transition zone of 6 lanes.

Its not such a big issue for westbound traffic, but it assumes much of the traffic has dispersed into Surrey and Langley. Just how many cars will continue past 216th on the 4-lane section? Eastbound through Langley could very well become a nasty bottleneck -- especially during holidays.
Of course, thats a different can of worms ... holiday traffic is infrequent, and does not require additional millions / billions of dollars to fix it.


Yes I FULLY agree that things need to be addressed Further East. I have driven fron Vancouver to Hope during holiday or weekend Eves....and its Horrible.

But the Gateway Project should keep its focus as is.

After we're done this plan don't be suprised is there is a "Valley Gateway Project" that Adds HOV Lanes Through Abby and expands capacity all the way through Hope. But that 20-25 Years down the road.

[The Great Scaper]

I think I am going to build a teleporter. I'll get back to you when I am done. Heck just email me and I'll teleport over and we'll have coffee!

[hollywoodnorth]

For Immediate Release

2006TRAN0001-000051

Jan. 31, 2006
Ministry of Transportation

Office of the Premier




PREMIER LAUNCHES GATEWAY TRANSPORTATION PROGRAM







VANCOUVER – Premier Gordon Campbell unveiled a comprehensive $3-billion plan to open up the province’s transportation network today in Vancouver. The plan includes a new Pitt River Bridge, the twinning of the Port Mann Bridge, including the largest investment in cycling infrastructure in the province’s history and expansion of public transit across the Port Mann Bridge for the first time since 1986, and a new South Fraser bypass route from Delta Port to Highway 1 in Surrey.



“Congestion is having an increasingly negative effect on B.C.’s economy, communities and families,” said Campbell. “The Gateway Program is a wide-ranging plan to meet the needs of our growing economy, increasing Asia-Pacific trade, and a growing population.”



Details of the new plan have been released today in a Gateway Program Definition Report. The report includes a review of current transportation conditions in the Lower Mainland, future trends, proposed improvements to the region’s transportation network, and key activities to be carried out over the next 18 months.



“Our existing bridges and highways in the Lower Mainland are well beyond their designed capacities,” said Campbell. “The Port Mann Bridge is now congested for 13 hours a day and, on a bad day, it can take two hours to get from Burnaby to Langley. Truck traffic is being forced onto residential streets in Delta and Surrey that were never designed to carry them. Volume on the Pitt River Bridge has tripled over the last 15 years. We know improvements are needed and we need to take action now.”



Key elements of the Gateway Program include:

· The North Fraser Perimeter Road, including the new six-lane Pitt River Bridge, connecting Maple Ridge and New Westminster;

· The South Fraser Perimeter Road connecting Delta Port with the Golden Ears Bridge and Highway 1 in Surrey;

· Twinning the Port Mann Bridge, allowing for the re-introduction of transit service and including the potential for future light rail transit;

· Widening Highway 1 from Vancouver to Langley, including extension of HOV lanes into the Fraser Valley; and,

· A $50-million investment in cycling infrastructure – the largest in the history of the province.





“Right now we are working with the federal government and Translink to make major improvements in the Lower Mainland’s transportation network,” said Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon, noting projects such as Richmond Airport-Vancouver Rapid Transit, Coquitlam Light Rail Transit, the Border Infrastructure Program, and the Golden Ears Bridge to connect Langley with Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows. “But we need to plan for the future and address the long-term needs of the people of the Lower Mainland. The Gateway Program will move us towards having a transportation network that meets the needs of people and the demands of the economy.”



The Gateway Program Definition Report details how economic growth, population growth and changing regional travel patterns are placing additional strain on the capacity, reliability and safety of British Columbia’s largest trade and commuter routes connecting ports, airports, rail yards, town centres and communities. At the same time, the report concludes that there has been little investment in the transportation infrastructure since the mid-1980s:

· The four-lane Port Mann Bridge was built in 1964 when the population of Greater Vancouver was 800,000. Today, the population of Greater Vancouver is 2.1 million.

· The population of the Lower Mainland is projected to grow by another 900,000 over the next 25 years – that’s the equivalent of almost the entire population of Nova Scotia.

· Daily traffic on the Port Mann Bridge is 20 per cent higher than San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, despite having fewer lanes.

· In the past five years, the number of registered vehicles in the GVRD grew by 12.5 per cent – greater than population growth during the same time period.

· There has been no significant increase in major road and goods movement capacity since the completion of the Alex Fraser Bridge in 1986.



Consultation with municipalities and Translink is ongoing and has been underway for more than two years, and has included approximately 100 meetings with local and regional government officials and representatives. With the release of this report, a detailed public consultation will begin, starting this spring. These consultations will ensure project designs consider feedback on congestion, access, safety and reliability. Technical work, environmental assessment and design refinements will progress over the next 18 months.



More information on the Gateway Program, downloadable copies of the program definition report, a schedule of public consultations, artist renderings, graphics and maps are available online at www.gatewayprogram.bc.ca.



-30-





2 backgrounder(s) attached. 1 factsheet(s) attached.





Media

contact:
Mike Morton

Press Secretary

Office of the Premier

250 213-8218
Mike Long

Communications Director

Ministry of Transportation

250 387-7787





For more information on government services or to subscribe to the Province’s news feeds using RSS, visit the Province’s website at www.gov.bc.ca.

[twoNeurons]

too confusing vancityj and you'll have queue jumpers... sounds like more hassle than its worth.

the new bridge will have four lanes, the port mann will go back to 4 lanes (with wider lanes or emergency lanes). Then they can up the speed limit with wider lanes.

[Bert]

The Liveable Region folks in queetz's signature have released an alternatives report (http://www.livableregion.ca/pdf/Transport_for_a_Sustainable_Region.pdf).

[murman]

One thing I like about the new SFPR (future Hwy 17 extension) is that it will finally provide a direct freeway link (initially expressway standard) connecting Hwys 99, 91, and 1.

Those of us in South Vancouver, Richmond, Delta, South Surrey, etc. have always been held captive to Hwy 10 (a real frustrating goat trail) when travelling to the Fraser Valley, Okanagan Valley, interior, etc.

Likewise, those in the valley have always been held captive to using Hwy 10 when destinations include the ferry terminal, YVR, and other areas in the southwest region.

Aside from the important commercial intermodal facilities located along the corridor, I will again reiterate that it will be great to finally have proper connectivity between Hwy 1 and Hwy 99.

If you really want to have a laff (or cry) some day, you have to check out the YVR website to see the directions one is given to get to the airport from Hwy 1 (and vice versa).

http://www.yvr.ca/guide/toandfrom/surrey_west.asp

They make it sound so easy, but for someone unfamiliar with the route, "goat path" is being polite!

[officedweller]

The Coquitlam - Surrey transit priority mentioned in the Alternatives Report (and provided for in Translink's 10 year plan) - looks interesting.
It provides a more direct route from Coquitlam to Surrey (Guildford and even Whalley) than the Expo Line, M-Line, Evergreen Line transfer would provide (now that that route requires so many transfers).

That could be a good candidate for Light Rail that could use the Port Mann Bridge.

BTW - is the hill on the Surrey side of the Port Mann Bridge climbable by Ligt Rail, or would a tunnel be required?

[twoNeurons]

true od... and it could be an extension of the PMC. Therefore, giving a one seat ride to Lougheed from Guildford, or a two seat Ride to SFU. I think that program fails to mention one thing though. Commercial Traffic. It focuses only personal transportation.

Also, you are unable to add HOV onto the Port Mann. I know it says that traffic is free flowing on the port mann, but I don't think so.

As for the Hill, it's probably too steep for LRT, however, a new cable stay bridge may allot LRT rail to hit the higher ground to the left of the ravine that you drive down to when coming off the port mann.

[Mininari]

One thing the alternate report does not consider is the high frequency of stalls and traffic accidents that plague any major urban highway. When you block one of only two lanes, you're screwed. At least with a 4-lane cross section for each direction, you've got 3 other lanes to let cars through. Granted, major accidents will undoubtably block 2 or even 3 of those lanes... but the frequency of single car stalls is way higher than major 8 car accidents. Furthermore, squeezing 2 extremely busy lanes into 1 usually results in MORE accidents.

I've had my fair share of jerk-offs who get fed up and dart in front of you, resulting in a subsequent 'testing' of the ABS system in my car.

I wonder if they're going to replace that ancient lightboard sign on the 152nd overpass that says CAUTION to the westbound travellers. It would be more useful if it actually told you WHY... for instance.... "centre-right lane blocked 1km ahead - use alternate."

[twoNeurons]

What smaller papers are saying...

From the Chilliwack Progress

Premier Gordon Campbell will go down in history as one of B.C.'s visionary leaders, should his government's Gateway plans come to fruition.
The BC Liberals have pledged comprehensive transportation improvements to keep goods and people moving throughout the Greater Vancouver region.
This takes more than vision. It takes political will, because of the illogical and at times emotional opposition from many people in the City of Vancouver and its near neighbours.
There is a reason for their opposition. The anti-freeway mentality in Vancouver has achieved near-cult status, with constant reminders of how neighbourhood activists stopped a freeway from going into downtown Vancouver in the late 1960s. That was then, this is now.
No one is suggesting a freeway go anywhere near downtown Vancouver. In fact, there are so many ways to get to downtown Vancouver that don't involve cars, such as the two SkyTrain lines, the new RAV line and an extensive series of bus routes, that it makes little sense to go there by car.
Gateway is all about improving traffic flows across the Fraser River and on both sides of the river. It will allow people who live in Langley and Surrey to get to work on time. It will add cycle routes. It will permit buses to be scheduled over the Port Mann Bridge - something that hasn't happened in 20 years, and can't be done because of the current congestion.
It is about moving goods efficiently between ports at Roberts Bank and along the Fraser River and shippers throughout the Lower Mainland, and enhacing the overall competitiveness of the area.
It takes vision, leadership and money. The BC Liberal government is to be commended for coming through.

http://www.theprogress.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=39&cat=48&id=584421&more=

[hollywoodnorth]

Business in Vancouver February 7-13, 2006; issue 850

$3 billion Gateway project aimed at unclogging transportation bottlenecks

Improving goods movement to and from the Lower Mainland's ports is a key objective of the massive infrastructure overhaul

Andrew Petrozzi

B.C. has rolled out a $3 billion welcome mat as Canada's doorway to the Pacific Rim with the unveiling of the province's Gateway transportation infrastructure project.

The ambitious plan envisions a widening of Highway 1 to four lanes in each direction from Vancouver to Langley and twinning the Port Mann Bridge. It also calls for the construction of a four-lane South Fraser perimeter road along the south side of the Fraser River, extending from Deltaport Way in Delta to the Golden Ears Bridge connector road and Highway 1 in Surrey/Langley.

In addition, the program outlines plans for a North Fraser perimeter road to provide a continuous route from New Westminster to Maple Ridge that includes a new seven-lane bridge to replace the existing Pitt River swing bridges and an interchange to replace the existing Lougheed Highway and Mary Hill bypass intersection.

The improvements are needed to accommodate future population growth and improve the flow of goods from Vancouver-area ports, according to B.C. premier Gordon Campbell, who unveiled the plan at the B.C. Chamber of Commerce transportation summit. The plan includes improvements to public transit and cycling infrastructure.

Transport Canada estimates that congestion in the Lower Mainland costs the local economy $1.5 billion a year.

"If we're going to be competitive, if we're going to be reliable, we have to deal with the issue of congestion," said Campbell.

Estimated increases in port and truck traffic and projected population growth of roughly 900,000 over the next 25 years require that steps to improve the Lower Mainland's transportation arteries be taken sooner rather than later, Campbell said.

The Highway 1 improvements and Port Mann twinning come with a pricetag of about $1.5 billion. The Port Mann component includes a proposed $2.50 toll each way for private vehicles. Traffic will flow in either a dedicated east or west direction over each bridge.

Without tolls, the improved highway and additional Port Mann crossing would reach current levels of congestion five to 10 years after their completion, according to the province's 90-page Gateway Program Definition Report.

The Ministry of Transportation will be conducting the first of three stages of public consultation from February to March on the proposed improvements to the Port Mann/Highway 1 (PMH1) project. PMH1 improvements are scheduled to be completed by 2013.

The PMH1 project is eligible for federal funding, but no commitment to the project has been announced.

The proposed $800 million South Fraser Perimeter Road (SFPR) will connect local communities and the Vancouver Port Authority's expanded Deltaport and proposed Terminal 2 project at Roberts Bank to Highway 1.

The SFPR is in the pre-application stage of an environmental review before the B.C. Environmental Assessment Office and is subject to a harmonized federal/provincial environmental review. Ottawa has committed up to $2 million for the environmental assessment. No tolls have been proposed for the 40-kilometre route, which is scheduled for completion by 2012.

The $400 million North Fraser Perimeter Road (NFPR) proposal is aimed at improving existing roads to provide a continuous route between the Queensborough Bridge in New Westminster and TransLink's new Golden Ears Bridge in Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows. TransLink has confirmed the Golden Ears Bridge will be tolled.

The Pitt River Bridge and Mary Hill Interchange component of the NFPR is scheduled to be completed by 2009.

[hollywoodnorth]

Business in Vancouver February 7-13, 2006; issue 850

National Affairs

Mark Milke

Gateway project go-ahead makes abundant sense for Lower Mainland businesses and their employees

Despite what opponents of the $3 billion Gateway transportation project will tell you, British Columbia is long overdue for an infrastructure overhaul.

When the Port Mann Bridge opened in 1964, Vancouver was an inexpensive smallish city that some still thought of as a lumber town, and the entire population of Greater Vancouver was 800,000.

The last major bridge built in the Lower Mainland was the Alex Fraser in 1986. The Gateway plan is opposed by the usual suspects: greens, NIMBYists and anti-poverty activists who can't make the connection between moving goods quickly and greater prosperity and more jobs, i.e., moving people out of poverty and into work and higher incomes.

But the province, the GVRD, TransLink and local city councils should politely hear the critics, amend the nuts and bolts of the plan where necessary and then stick with the broad goals and implement the transportation plan.

In particular, here are some long overdue and commendable proposals in last week's Gateway announcement by Premier Gordon Campbell and transportation minister Kevin Falcon.

Twinning the Port Mann Bridge:

There's no virtue in subjecting suburban families to the daily crawl on the existing Port Mann. Greater Vancouver housing is exorbitantly priced and the closer you get to Vancouver the pricier the white picket fences become.

Those who were lucky enough to buy homes 20 or 30 years ago in Burnaby or Vancouver, or rich enough to buy a bungalow now, shouldn't begrudge the desire for others to have a job and a house. And young families shouldn't have to spend two or three hours every day in traffic. The Gateway plan sensibly provides $50 million for pedestrian and bicycling paths, but growth in Vancouver's bedroom communities is a reality and this plan takes the necessity for expanded roads into account.

A South Fraser Perimeter Road:

When I lived in Victoria and hopped off the ferry at Tsawwassen for a drive to Abbotsford, I always thought it was odd that there was no four-lane freeway south of the Fraser River all the way to the valley. Instead, to get to my destination I either had to fight traffic through Surrey up to the No. 1 or drive on roads with two or sometimes four lanes but all with stoplights.

I'll bet every tourist who disembarks at the ferry terminal or Vancouver International Airport thinks the current highway system was designed by a vindictive Greek god. Three cheers for this proposal to unclog South Fraser arteries.

The only negative here is that the province tags this project as a four-lane. Nope. Build six lanes and do it without stoplights. Residents south of the Fraser will thank you.

In terms of how to finance the projects, the user-pay option floated for the Port Mann Bridge twinning is sensible. If infrastructure is built and paid for solely out of general revenues, B.C.'s commuters would miss a chance to spread the burden. There are plenty of tourists who use the highway system. It makes sense to charge them a user fee rather than dump the cost of highway expansion only on B.C. taxpayers.

That said, the province should reduce its income tax take (or some other tax paid solely by British Columbians) by whatever amount the Port Mann toll brings in annually. That way, the goal of reduced traffic on the Trans-Canada Highway is achieved, the burden is spread around and this doesn't become just another tax grab.

In general, the premier and transportation minister should promote the Gateway projects as being advantageous to families, i.e., it'd be nice for working parents to have dinner with their kids instead of being stuck in traffic on the Trans-Canada, Highway 10 or the approach to the Port Mann Bridge.

[fever]

It's unfortunate that most of these stories largely base their arguments in an assumption that these project will reduce congestion. The additional capacity is negligible relative to the expected future (and current really) demands on the system. Freeways just don't have a hope of providing adequate capacity for commuter traffic.

As far as I can see, only a pricing mechanism will reduce congestion for commuters. Goods movement can be separated and not have to deal with congestion, or it can co-exist with commuters in a properly tolled system where there is no congestion. It's encouraging that most of the stories are somewhat supportive of tolling, but most still see tolling as a means of collecting revenue and not as a means of reducing congestion.

I don't think much of the public is aware how low typical (commuter) freeway capacities are compared to rail systems...

And I don't think there's any real opposition to freeways, especially tolled, that are primarily intended to improve trade... it's really just the Highway 1/Port Mann corridor, mainly a commuter corridor, where there is opposition to additional capacity.

[officedweller]

The problem is that most of the rail capacity has moved away from downtown Vancouver. i.e. I think the CP intermodal yards are in Pitt Meadows now and there are other in Port Coquitlam.
There aren't enough railway sidings downtown or close to downtown (on the waterfront or dispersed throughout industrial areas) to use rail as a viable alternative. Railway sidings are being ripped up or decommissioned everywhere, from the Arbutus corridor to Coal Harbour to the Expo site to the False Creek Flats.
I think it would be very difficult to go back to a rail-based transportation system when all of the light industrial users who need to move goods are now dispersed throughout the suburbs and industrial space has disappeared from the downtown and the waterfonts.

[queetz@home]

I think it would be very difficult to go back to a rail-based transportation system when all of the light industrial users who need to move goods are now dispersed throughout the suburbs and industrial space has disappeared from the downtown and the waterfonts.

It would be difficult, but not impossible. And as far as industrial space disappearing from the downtown and the waterfront and being dispersed throughout the suburbs, we can thank Larry Beasley and his "Living First" policy for that.... :hell:

[fever]

Vancouver's land use planning is related but I don't think this is the place for it. You're right, the distribution of goods by rail has been declining for a long time. The shipment of commodities over long distances hasn't. In any case, I don't think there's that much point reviving a regional rail distribution network for goods movement (at least with public money). Trucking makes up a relatively small proportion of road use.

I was suggesting that rail is more appropriate for new commuter transportation than freeways because of the need for higher capacity systems, not for goods movement...

[queetz@home]

I was suggesting that rail is more appropriate for new commuter transportation than freeways because of the need for higher capacity systems, not for goods movement...

^ Oh we are in consensus on that but Kevin Falcon has other plans. Otherwise, he'd put that Light Rail in the Port Mann NOW instead of making it just a "provision" that will never come until we have thriving colonies in Mars.

[mr.x]

would it be better to move every single port facility in Greater Vancouver to a new $20 billion super port where Delta port is? similar to the plan to build a super port in Burns Bog.

that way, freight trucks wouldn't have to fight inter-urban traffic, e.g. Port of Vancouver and it's all centralized. more rail lines and a large railyard could be built for the port. and maybe we could have a 8-lane South Fraser Perimeter Highway (four HOV lanes, four commercial only lanes) and tolled.

BC Ferries Tsawassen Ferry Terminal would remain at its current location, mostly to move goods in and out of Vancouver Island, while a new ferry termianal at YVR would be more passenger oriented.

And with the old port facilities obselete, such as the large waterfront facility east of downtown Vancouver, those sites could be developed. imagine what we could do with the facility in Vancouver, we could virtually expand our downtown and skyline east.


is this practical? (except for the cost factor)

[queetz@home]

Tuesday » February 7 » 2006

Raising money main goal of Port Mann toll, Falcon says

Don Cayo
Vancouver Sun

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

What about other water crossings that chronically choke traffic flowing -- or trying to flow -- through the Lower Mainland? What about reconstruction on the Sea to Sky Highway? Why no tolls for these?

Intentionally or not, Victoria has provoked a spate of such questions with its proposal to toll the about-to-be-twinned Port Mann Bridge. Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon pitched the idea as a subject for consultation, but most of the reaction -- especially from people who use it daily -- seems premised on the assumption that it's a done deal.

For my part -- and, no, I don't use the Port Mann Bridge every day, or even very often -- I hope tolls win the day. And I think questions about tolling other key roads and bridges are just as deserving of serious discussion.

Falcon offers two justifications for Port Mann tolls. First, a $2.50 fee would pay half of the substantial cost of twinning the bridge. It would also encourage drivers to seek alternatives to single-occupancy cars, thus keeping future congestion at bay for up to two decades longer than would otherwise be the case.

He tells me the money was the main motivator, and the role of tolls as a tool to manage traffic is a welcome secondary benefit.

If the motivations were reversed -- if the main goal was to manage traffic to ease congestion, rather than to build our way out of it -- it would be a no-brainer to toll other choke points.

Such a policy would move the Lower Mainland down a road pioneered by cities like Singapore and London. They have variable tolls on roads into the urban centre -- the busier the road, the more it costs to be on it.

It's three years this month since London introduced its tolls, and they remain controversial. The intent of such a system, which must operate in tandem with cheap and speedy transit options, is to ease congestion with very little capital outlay.

London's experience -- although current data is hard to find and critics dispute what the proponents say they've measured -- is that non-exempt traffic seems to have declined about 30 per cent, a 15-per-cent reduction overall.

Falcon notes that implementing such tolls is part of the Lower Mainland's "Livable Regions" strategy, although the idea has few vocal supporters. And he personally opposes it.

He prefers to stick with the principles outlined on his department's website. They state, among other things, that tolls will be used only to offset costs for new or expanded highway capacity, for projects that provide users with benefits greater than the costs, and only where reasonable alternatives are available.

When I suggested it's a nose-stretcher to say a "reasonable" alternative is available to most Port Mann users, he countered that, although this is the case now, it won't be when the South Fraser Perimeter Road is built. It will provide a way to avoid city traffic and take either the Pattullo Bridge or the Alex Fraser, depending where you're headed.

The government's principles are sound and defensible as long as raising money is the major goal of a toll. But if traffic management trumps, then a whole different set of principles can come into play, and the choke points can be looked at in quite a different light.

As for the Sea to Sky, it's easy to make two arguments that would justify tolls.

The usual one is that people rich enough to ski at Whistler can afford to pay a toll to get there. That nub of this argument can be restated less pugnaciously by pointing out that taxpayers who don't ski at Whistler are being asked to pay for an upgrade made necessary in large measure by the amount of ski traffic. So it's fair to ask them and the companies that cater to them to pay their own freight. And if this rationale were accepted, it would be easy to exempt local residents from the toll.

But if traffic management is the goal, local residents should then be the main target of the tolls. You can bet that when the upgrade is finished, places like Squamish and its smaller neighbours along the road will become much more desirable bedroom communities for people who work in Vancouver. If so, congestion in North and West Vancouver is bound to worsen at the choke points where bridges span Burrard Inlet. Tolls could forestall that pressure.

There are lots of other traffic- management tools that could similarly ease the need for chronic capital spending, and they, too, are worth thinking about. More on those in Wednesday's column.

dcayo@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Sun 2006

[fever]

Much better.

Thanks. It's almost like he reads this forum..

[hollywoodnorth]

Much better.

Thanks. It's almost like he reads this forum..

I have heard from people in the know that HE DOES in fact read this board.

He's hoping that Queetz moves to Calgary also!! :notacrook:

Go Falcon Go!

[Mininari]

http://www.gatewayprogram.bc.ca/

Click on 'whats new'

Theres a whole bunch of new reports, and Port Mann /HWY 1 Consultation information posted.

Enjoy!

[queetz@home]

Highway expansion plans under fire at city hall
Last updated Feb 15 2006 11:17 AM PST
CBC News

Vancouver city councillors don't appear to be buying the provincial government's $3-billion road-expansion plan to end gridlock in the Lower Mainland.

The government wants to twin the Port Mann Bridge and add an extra lane to the freeway from East Vancouver to Langley as part of its Gateway project.

Gateway's executive director, Mike Proudfoot, was grilled for 90 minutes by city councillors from all three political parties on Tuesday.

"Can you point to one jurisdiction in North America, that by adding additional road capacity, has relieved traffic congestion," asked COPE councillor David Cadman.

"No I could not," replied Proudfoot.

Proudfoot told council the Gateway plan is about more than just roads – saying it's about managing traffic, while planning for transit and other alternatives to cars.

"There seems to be a perception that we're going to 'Los Angelise' the Lower Mainland. This isn't the case."

Proudfoot says as community consultations get underway, he hopes more people understand the benefits of Gateway.

But Vision Vancouver councillor Heather Deal wondered whether community input will mean anything at all. "My question to you is, what if all the community input overwhelming says no?"

But Proudfoot wasn't prepared to answer that question.:rolleyes:

"It will be very interesting to hear what the public has to say, and that's why we're looking," he replied.

[queetz@home]

Twinning Port Mann 'tough sell' at city council
Vancouver city councillors from all parties express doubt about bridge plan and extra lane on Hwy 1

Frances Bula
Vancouver Sun

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

The man in charge of the Gateway Project did not receive a valentine from Vancouver city council Tuesday.

In a rare show of unanimity, councillors from all parties expressed doubt and concern about the project's plan to twin the Port Mann bridge and add an extra lane to Highway 1 from Langley to the Cassiar tunnel in the northeast corner of the city.

One after another asked whether this wasn't just rewarding suburban councils for having created traffic problems by putting in business parks and residential developments far from transit.

Both Vision Vancouver Coun. Tim Stevenson and Non-Partisan Association Coun. Kim Capri told Gateway Project executive director Mike Proudfoot that he has a "very tough sell" ahead of him in Vancouver.

"This council has not proven itself to be united on tough issues, yet here we are speaking with one voice," said Capri.

Proudfoot repeated several times in his 90-minute grilling by councillors that the Highway 1 changes will not bring a flood of traffic to Vancouver streets. Expanding the highway will actually make it easier to improve bus, carpooling, cycling and future rail options along the corridor, he said, while a toll on the bridge will make people think about other options besides travelling alone in their cars.

He said the Port Mann is so jammed now that buses can't use it because it's impossible to keep to schedules. And he said the project's modelling of future traffic congestion predicts there will be a 17-kilometre rush-hour lineup by 2021, compared to the five-kilometre one now. That is costing the local economy $500 million a year, said Proudfoot.

But NPA Coun. Peter Ladner said people made the same arguments about the Lions Gate bridge a decade ago, claiming that "if we didn't build a third crossing, the world would come to an end."

In spite of pressure, the only change made was to improve, but not expand, the three-lane bridge.

"We still have some congestion there," he said, "but somehow people work around it."

Ladner also pointed out that according to the project's statistics, the congestion actually hasn't changed on the Highway 1/Port Mann bridge for the past decade, suggesting people have already adjusted.

Mayor Sam Sullivan wanted to know where the province is flexing any political muscle to demand that suburbs make some changes to "more responsible land use" in exchange for this temporary transportation fix. Both councillors Suzanne Anton of the NPA and David Cadman from the Coalition of Progressive Electors asked why the project doesn't put more effort into other ways to reduce congestion on the bridge and highway before it starts spending money there.

Proudfoot came to council to present a brief overview of the project as part of the beginning of its community consultation, which will last until May.

Capri and others asked whether what the community has to say will make any difference at all.

Proudfoot acknowledged that it's a provincial highway and the province can make whatever decision it feels necessary.

fbula@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Sun 2006

[phesto]

Next up: The 'H99' Project

Twinned tunnel part of Victoria's long-term plan

William Boei, Vancouver Sun
Published: Thursday, February 16, 2006

The provincial government's long-term road-building plans include a second mega-project on the scale of the $3-billion Gateway Program, studies done for the Gateway plan show.

The second project would include twinning the George Massey Tunnel under the south arm of the Fraser River between Richmond and Delta, expanding Highway 99 on both sides of the tunnel from four lanes to six, and building a new four-lane expressway to connect Highway 99 with the Trans-Canada Highway.

However, there are no immediate plans to build it.

The Gateway Program calls for the Port Mann Bridge over the Fraser to be twinned, widening of the Trans-Canada Highway on both sides of the bridge and building new truck routes on both shores of the river.

The longer-term plan -- dubbed "the H99 project" by British transportation consultants Steer Davies Gleave, who did the major studies for the Gateway plan -- "is still in the early stages of development for possible future long-term implementation," their report notes.

The report -- not yet public but obtained by The Vancouver Sun -- says the H99 project is similar to the Gateway plan "in that it assumes a widening of both the Fraser River crossing, in this case the new bore next to the existing George Massey (Deas) Tunnel, and widening of a length of the existing highway to both the north and south of the crossing."

The project is on the back burner in part because it would put pressure on traffic bottlenecks to the north, requiring expansion of the Oak Street and Knight Street bridges into Vancouver or a new bridge into Burnaby.

Gateway Program executive director Mike Proudfoot said Wednesday the Highway 99 plan is one of many proposals for the region.

"That would be part of our longer-term strategy," he said. "The Gateway Program corridors are the priority ones."

The Steer Davies Gleave report is one of several "companion documents" to the Gateway plan. It is the only major document not yet posted on the Gateway Program's website, Proudfoot said.

In the report, the consultants envision a much more extensive tolling system than the one announced at the end of January by Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon.

Falcon's plan calls for a $2.50 one-way toll to cross the twinned Port Mann Bridge, but no other tolls.

Most of the traffic models studied by the consultants included a lower toll on the Port Mann plus "distance tolls" on the expanded section of the Trans-Canada Highway and on the new South Fraser Perimeter Road.

The consultants' "preferred scenario" included a $1 toll on the Port Mann for cars, plus distance tolls of 10 cents per kilometre on the expanded section of the Trans-Canada and on the South Fraser road.

Light trucks would pay 11/2 times as much as cars, and heavy trucks twice as much. The tolls would be collected electronically and vehicles would not have to stop to pay. They would rise with inflation.

The consultants envisioned similar tolls on the Highway 99 project: $1 to use the Massey Tunnel and distance tolls on an expanded Highway 99 and the Highway 99-Trans-Canada connector.

The tolls could fluctuate with time of day or with the level of traffic congestion, and other "road-pricing" measures could include allowing single-occupant vehicles to use priority lanes if they pay an additional toll. The Gateway project definition report, released earlier by Falcon, says a toll on the South Fraser road was rejected because it would encourage some drivers to find alternate routes through the local road network in Delta and Surrey.

"We have no intention of tolling the South Fraser Perimeter Road, period," Proudfoot said, describing the consultants' report as "one of many pieces of technical information."

However, it is the only one of the newly posted reports that includes detailed traffic forecasts based on various tolling scenarios. But those scenarios do not include the one announced by Falcon: the $2.50 toll on the Port Mann and no distance tolls. Falcon said earlier that without tolls, the new road capacity created by the Gateway project would be filled up and current congestion levels would return in five to 10 years after the project is built.

With the Port Mann toll, Falcon said the project will serve the region's needs to 2031 "and beyond." But the documents do not include a specific study to support that claim.

"There isn't such a thing at this point, I think," NDP transportation critic David Chudnovsky said.

Chudnovsky said Falcon had assured him last fall such information would be posted. "Well, it's not there."

Falcon could not be reached Wednesday.

Chudnovsky said he also looked in vain for studies on the project's effects on air quality, workable public transit options, and a long-term strategy for regional transportation demand management.

"There's nothing on transportation demand management, there's nothing on the environment, and there's nothing on public transit except vague references to 'somewhere down the line,' " he said.

Proudfoot said the tolling plan for the Gateway Program was based on "analysis in that over-all report and additional technical work that we have done," including forecasts of traffic volumes, population and employment growth and working with municipal governments.

The government rejected tolls on the North Fraser perimeter road and on the new Pitt River bridge because TransLink's Golden Ears Bridge across the Fraser will be tolled, and provincial policy requires there be a "reasonable" free alternative before a route can be tolled. The nearest free alternative to the Trans-Canada-Port Mann route is the Pattullo Bridge between New Westminster and Surrey, but it is old, narrow and seriously congested at peak times. The consultants said that in the case of the Pattullo option, "the definition of reasonable is subjective."

The report points out the province's tolling policy is in conflict with TransLink's transportation strategy, which calls for tolls and other "road pricing" measures to manage transportation demand, while the ministry sees tolls principally as revenue generators to help pay for projects.

The consultants said an extensive system of road pricing and region-wide tolling in Greater Vancouver "is only likely in the medium to long term."

The Gateway plan does include measures the government says will help control traffic demand, such as new HOV (high occupancy vehicle) lanes that will be shared by transit buses, and "ramp metering" at interchanges to limit the number of vehicles that can enter the highway, depending on traffic conditions.

The interchanges will have "truck friendly geometry" to allow big trucks to merge with highway traffic, and queue jumpers -- bypass lanes -- that can be used to give transit, commercial vehicles and high-occupancy vehicles priority over other traffic.

The consultants advised the government that regional tolling can be sold to the public if it is clearly seen as a way to manage traffic and control congestion, rather than as just another set of taxes.

"Road pricing aims to reduce congestion, improve environmental conditions, generate revenues and provide a system of fairer taxation," they said, "whilst tolling is generally regarded as a revenue-generating tool to finance the construction and maintenance of new or enhanced infrastructure."

bboei@png.canwest.com

[Mininari]

First of all, I gotta say that I definitely do not support proceeding with the Highway 99 project anytime soon! The Alex Fraser Bridge and current George Massey Tunnel are enough capacity to ensure movement of goods and transit.

If they were to do this 'H99' project without addressing the Oak and Knight Street Bridges first, then those would quickly become the new heartache bottlenecks of the GVRD.

The Vancouver Councillors are not going to like this one either -- but then again, they probably never drive these bridges so what do I think of their opinions? (Granted I do understand the very valid argument against expanding highways for the sake of single-occupancy commuters).

Btw, the comment "People who choose to live south of the Fraser..." Do something about your goddamn $630,000 average house price and then we'll talk!
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Bridge critics don't use Port Mann much
Last updated Feb 16 2006 08:30 AM PST
CBC News
It turns out that most Vancouver city councillors who have been critical of the province's plan to twin the Port Mann Bridge have very little experience with gridlock on Highway 1.



Artist's vision of twinned Port Mann Bridge
across the Fraser River.
The project's executive director got a rough ride at Vancouver City Hall this week.

In a rare show of unanimity, councillors spoke out against the plan to twin the Port Mann, saying they're not convinced adding more traffic lanes will reduce gridlock.

* FROM FEB. 15, 2006: Highway expansion plans under fire at city hall

But nine of the 10 councillors have told CBC News they don't use the Port Mann very often, with most of them using the bridge just once or twice a month.

Others said they couldn't remember the last time they had driven over the bridge to Surrey.

COPE councillor David Cadman – one of the most vocal critics of twinning the bridge – says he used to make the crossing five or six times a year, but now rides the SkyTrain to Surrey. And he says people sitting in their cars in traffic should think about doing the same.

Other councillors agree, saying transit should have been the provincial government's first priority when it unveiled its new Gateway transportation project.

* LINK: Gateway project External site

Vision Vancouver councillor Raymond Louie blames municipalities that have allowed development to sprawl for the state of the bridge today. He says people who decide to make their homes south of the Fraser should be prepared for some inconvenience.

NPA councillor Kim Capri goes further, saying congestion on the bridge may actually be a good thing, since it may cause drivers to change their habits and lobby for alternatives.

"Well, I think we all make lifestyle choices, so maybe there needs to be some discomfort in order for people get out of their cars."

Community consultation on the province's proposed bridge twinning and highway improvment project continues this weekend with a meeting in Langley.


CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for the content of external sites. External links will open in a new window.

[Stingray2004]

You gotta remember that the key word is "long-term", ie. in the year 2030+.

That said, the Hwy 99 corridor, frankly, does need an upgrade as it stands now. Obvious morning and evening congestion at the tunnel, Oak St. and Knight Street bridges. Throw in the ferry "dumps" and, more importantly, a considerable portion of the four-fold increase in container truck traffic anticipated from Deltaport.

As the report suggests and as the Delcan report prepared for the Greater Vancouver Gateway Council also confirmed, any increase in capacity, reliability, and safety at the tunnel will have to be undertaken concurrently at the north arm bridges to provide system continuity.

The north arm bridges, particularly the Knight St. Bridge, are notorious for their accident rates mainly due to the fact that the bridgehead interchanges funnel traffic onto the existing thru lanes (without any auxilary lanes) resulting in major merge problems.

I guess that this future upgrade could be categorized as Son of Gateway in terms of scope and cost, likely also in the $3 billion range.

As for the future south freeway connector between Hwy 99 and Hwy 1, I had always assumed that the southern freeway corridor would be utilized just north of 16th Ave. between the King George Hwy interchange and Abbotsford International Airport, considering that it is also part of Surrey's Master Transportation Plan.

However, the alignment outlined in the Vancouver Sun shows what has been called the "Serpentine Freeway Corridor", which could be a better corridor from a traffic modelling and cost/benefit perspective.

Finally, from a public policy angle, HOV lanes and another toll along both freeway corridors will assist in recapture of a portion of capital expenditures and provide a degree of traffic demand management.

http://www.mcelhanney.com/images/engineering/southfreewaycorrstudy.jpg

[G-Man]

Two thoughts about this:

1. I would think that some of the current 99 congestion will be relieved by the building of the perimeter roads thereby increasing the length of time before building this.

2. Would be cheaper to twin the tunnel rather than build a bridge above it?

[Mininari]

Long term ok.

I think if anyone should be concerned with the 'Los Angelization' of the Fraser Basin, then they should acquiese to the Port Mann Bridge Twinning and focus their efforts upon landuse changes that would accompany the development of 1 or 2 east-west freeways through Langley and Surrey.
Most of the Land surrounding the proposed Gateway Improvements to HWY 1 is already suburban Sprawl.

Its tricky, because I really do support connecting Hwy 99 and Hwy 1 so that its possible to go East-West from Abbotsford to Deltaport or the Airport; however, that makes a lot more valuable farmland attractive for development.

Is it starting to feel like the GVRD is a transportation-project powderkeg about to go off.... or is this just another round of Granduous proposals that will never see the shovel hit the ground?

Edit:
I must add... its funny how despite chopping the Ministry of Transportation's budget by nearly 50% back in 2002, the Liberals sure seem to be pumping out plans for huge expensive multi-part transportation projects!

[dmuzika]

However, the alignment outlined in the Vancouver Sun shows what has been called the "Serpentine Freeway Corridor", which could be a better corridor from a traffic modelling and cost/benefit perspective.

http://www.mcelhanney.com/images/engineering/southfreewaycorrstudy.jpg

I think that TransLink and the provence should impliment the Serpentine Fwy. This freeway, if constructed from the Lougheed Hwy to Hwy 99 could serve as a "Southeast Ring Road", similar to those that are being constructed/exist in places like Edmonton (Hwy 216), Calgary (Hwy 201), Winnipeg (Hwy 100/101) and Toronto (Hwy 407). This would also be a more obvious barrier to further suberban sprawl.

This may be an over simplification, but construct suberbia inside the loop, and preserve land outside the loop.

[officedweller]

The Serpentine Freeway route is the one pictured in the Vancouver Sun today.

[fever]

mini,

Commuter freeways are inadequate in general in cities. It's not so much one freeway or the other that's being opposed, but freeways that are meant specifically for commuters.

The politics of this could get really ugly. It's not just the CoV and Burnaby, either. The rich folk in West Van have been rubbed the wrong way by the Minister. There's a good reason that freeway building destroyed vast 'slums' back in the good old days (there's also the RAV creme de la creme bs). You don't want to piss off the rich folk.

It's possible to control land use near freeways (as in East Richmond), but I think there is a lot of concern that the province is allowing for the erosion of the ALR. Typically freeways drive development. They're never barriers to development...

[Dorian G.]

This may be an over simplification, but construct suberbia [sic] inside the loop, and preserve land outside the loop.
I don't have that much faith that a high-capacity road would somehow limit development…. Atlanta is a city that has ring roads—more than one, in fact; since Atlanta sprawled outside the boundaries of the first one, they built a second one, the city sprawled more, and so it continues. If you want to stifle development, there's really nothing like a lack of services to help you.

Besides, suburban affordability largely stems from a long commute. If you made that shorter, suburban prices would rise, and affordable housing would be pushed even further out.

[Stingray2004]

is this just another round of Granduous proposals that will never see the shovel hit the ground?

I must add... its funny how despite chopping the Ministry of Transportation's budget by nearly 50% back in 2002, the Liberals sure seem to be pumping out plans for huge expensive multi-part transportation projects!

Many internal and outsourced studies were prepared throughout the 1980's, 1990's, and 2000's for future consideration by MoT.

For example, the Ironworkers Second Narrows Bridge is proposed to be doubled in width to add additional HOV lanes, provide a wider and safer median, provide wider 12-foot lanes and shoulders, as the structure is a substandard late '50's design. In that same vein, the TCH-1 in North Vancouver needs to be rebuilt along several sections of the north shore due to its substandard and unsafe cross-section (notice the lower 70/80 km/hr speed limit), although I don't think much will happen until the 2020's or 2030's at the earliest.

I do know that Delta council is on record as supporting additional capacity to the George Massey Tunnel even before an SFPR road is built, believe it or not. After the current Gateway Project is completed by 2013(?) I do believe that the future priority in the Lower Mainland should be upgrading the Hwy 99 corridor.

On the island, the Pat Bay Hwy is anticipated to be upgraded to full freeway standard in the 2015-2020 timeframe with the closure of 16 access road points and provision of interchanges/flyovers at 6 locations (Sayward, Keating Cross, Island View, Mount Newton Cross, McTavish, and Beacon).

Further north on the island along Hwy 1, MoT is currently undertaking a functional design for freeway upgrade from Millstream north to Goldstream Park with a Bear Mountain interchange, there's the Malahat study (likely expressway standard), then there's the proposed expressway standard upgrades to Hwy 1 (closure of direct access, interchanges only at major points) up to Nanaimo with a long term freeway bypass of Duncan by 2030.

In Kamloops you've got the future Hwy 1 freeway bypass of Valleyview along Juniper Ridge possibly by 2015, a possible new freeway corridor eastward along the Turtle Valley to Shuswap Lake, a freeway standard Shuswap Lake crossing, etc. by 2035(?).

In the Okanagan you've got a freeway bypass studied for Vernon possibly by 2020, a potential bridge/freeway bypass of Kelowna possibly by 2030, a Westbank freeway bypass possibly by 2020, etc.

It's called the infrastructure deficit, which requires funding commitments - it's not only major highway corridors but light rail corridors as well.

I think that some here will be collecting old age pension cheques before some of this stuff is finally constructed.:D

[dmuzika]

I don't have that much faith that a high-capacity road would somehow limit development…. Atlanta is a city that has ring roads—more than one, in fact; since Atlanta sprawled outside the boundaries of the first one, they built a second one, the city sprawled more, and so it continues. If you want to stifle development, there's really nothing like a lack of services to help you.

Besides, suburban affordability largely stems from a long commute. If you made that shorter, suburban prices would rise, and affordable housing would be pushed even further out.

It can serve as a barrier to development as well if their is a will by the municipalities. For example, most of urban Richmond is west of Hwy 99, and urban Delta is east of Hwy 91.

If there are not a lot connections between one side of the freeway and another, as well as the polticial will to note zone on the "other side" (along with servicing utilties, etc.) - it can be done.

[Rye $ingh]

When i saw the article in the Vancouver sun today, i thought, its about time. You don't think about now, you think about the future, and people need to stop getting a heart attack over the word freeway, because they are essential for any large city. If anyone can give me an example of any other city that doesn't have adequate freeway capacities, they can, but there aren't any. People talk about Los Angelas, if you actually go there its a great city, and it has a much better transportation than Vancouver anytime of the day. If Los Angelas didn't have freeways, that city would never move. As for the article, i would like to see that as soon as possible, but i know it's not coming before 2013. Another lane in each direction on highway 91 should be considered, Oak street bridge is to narrow, very dangerous, one distraction and your going to hit the side, the knight street bridge, im so sick of these two laned roads and bridges all over the place, this aint no damn village.

[Nutterbug]

When i saw the article in the Vancouver sun today, i thought, its about time. You don't think about now, you think about the future, and people need to stop getting a heart attack over the word freeway, because they are essential for any large city. If anyone can give me an example of any other city that doesn't have adequate freeway capacities, they can, but there aren't any. People talk about Los Angelas, if you actually go there its a great city, and it has a much better transportation than Vancouver anytime of the day. If Los Angelas didn't have freeways, that city would never move.
You do know about LA's much reputed air quality, right?

[fever]

There aren't examples of cities with adequate freeway capacities. The capacities required are at least an order of magnitude greater than the capacities of existing freeways (ie. capacities typical of grade separated rail). What is possible, however, is a freeway system made adequate by regulating its use with a pricing mechanism.


LA has horrible traffic. There's a thread about how it's been rated worst in the US.

[queetz@home]

^ Indeed! Los Angeles, most known for the freeway and extreme car culture, is the city with the worse transportation system there is! Its practically a curse word in any society wishing to get away from auto dependency and adhering to the principles of smart growth and new urbanism.

And no surprise, Kevin Falcon's Gateway has no intention of putting rapid transit along the corridor anyway. So clearly, and I said this numerous times, this project is built solely for the single occupancy commuter! :rant:


Friday » February 17 » 2006

Rapid transit not viable east of Port Mann Bridge
study: Report says it wouldn't run close enough to major population centres

William Boei
Vancouver Sun

Friday, February 17, 2006

LOWER MAINLAND - Rapid transit will not work in the Trans-Canada Highway corridor "for the foreseeable future" because new development east of the Port Mann Bridge will not be dense enough, says one of the studies done for the Gateway Program.

Gateway is a $3-billion provincial government proposal to widen the highway, twin the bridge and build new truck routes on both shores of the Fraser River by 2014.

A rapid transit line along the highway and into the Fraser Valley as far as Chilliwack has been suggested by some regional politicians -- including former Vancouver mayor Larry Campbell -- as an alternative to the Gateway plan.

But a study on future transit needs notes that rapid transit in the highway corridor wouldn't run close enough to the region's major population centres.

As for future growth, "Although there will be a significant growth in the population east of the river, it will be over a large area -- significantly larger than the City of Vancouver, for example -- and will tend to be less dense over the larger area," says the study report.

That means high-capacity rapid transit for the area east of Langley is not practical "for the foreseeable future."

In the long run, a rail-based commuter system might work if it runs on existing tracks to keep capital costs down. The report says regional planners should try to keep that option open.

"In the shorter term, the focus of transit planning in the corridor should be on providing fast, easy access to the existing rapid transit system by both bus and car," the report says.

Lanes designated for transit over a twinned Port Mann Bridge should be used for express bus operations, possibly shared by car pools and van pools, it says. If rail transit eventually becomes practical, that space could be converted for its use.

The report also says capital costs would be too high to extend the Millennium SkyTrain line to Langley, Cloverdale and new developments along the Fraser Highway, and buses should be used in those areas.

Another report outlines a $50-million plan for cycling infrastructure in the highway corridor. Most of the money would go to build multi-use cycling and walking paths on the new Port Mann Bridge and its approaches.

About $7 million would be used to connect the bridge paths to cycling networks in municipalities adjacent to the bridge.

The report says there is also potential for $10 million in shared-cost projects to connect municipal cycling networks on opposite sides of the highway.

There would be no bicycle paths on or along the Trans-Canada, but the North and South Fraser Perimeter Roads could accommodate cyclists on their shoulders, the report says.

Another report, on land use, counters arguments that the Gateway Program will encourage strip development and urban sprawl along the highway. It says local governments have enough planning powers to "direct land development patterns towards community objectives while maintaining the benefits of transportation improvements."

It cites several U.S. examples, including the East Portland Freeway, which was built 30 years ago and did not result in development outside designated growth boundaries.

The studies can be found on the Gateway Program's website, www.th.gov.bc.ca/gateway/.

bboei@png.canwest.com

[fever]

The report states the obvious: that a Millennium or Expo Line extension to Cloverdale and Langley doesn't make sense because Highway 1 goes through generally low density areas.

It doesn't consider commuter rail south of the Fraser or use of the existing Southern Railway tracks. Basically, it's scope is limited to the highway 1 corridor, and it doesn't make any recommendations outside of transit service for the highway 1 corridor.

[Mininari]

The RFQ was issued today for the Pitt River Bridge and Mary Hill Interchange Project
February 22, 2006
GATEWAY PROGRAM ISSUES REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS

VICTORIA – The Ministry of Transportation’s Gateway Program has issued a Request for Qualifications (RFQ) to identify companies capable of undertaking a design/build contract for the Pitt River Bridge/Mary Hill Interchange project.

www.gov.bc.ca/tran

[Rye $ingh]

There aren't examples of cities with adequate freeway capacities. The capacities required are at least an order of magnitude greater than the capacities of existing freeways (ie. capacities typical of grade separated rail). What is possible, however, is a freeway system made adequate by regulating its use with a pricing mechanism.


LA has horrible traffic. There's a thread about how it's been rated worst in the US.


Of course it has horrible traffic, it has 14 million people. New York a city that is transit friendly, still has horribly traffic. You can't change that even with a extensive transit system.

[hollywoodnorth]

http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/photo_gallery/images/2006/2006-01-31_Gateway.jpg
The Pimps laying down the law....GO FALCON GO....GO GORDO GO!

[fever]

Traffic is horrible in all large american cities because freeways are incapable of handling volumes even remotely close to what their populations demand. It doesn't really matter how many freeways there are or how wide they are (within reason). They become congested regardless. In some cities, people have a choice not to be subjected to this inefficiency on a daily basis. I think it would be best if people in Surrey had this option as well.

[queetz@home]

Driven to frustration

By Mike Howell-staff writer

Kevin Falcon has a helicopter to catch.

It's 7:15 on a Wednesday morning and the province's transportation minister is sitting behind the wheel of his black Nissan Pathfinder in the parking lot of his constituency office in Cloverdale.

The Liberal MLA has to be at the Vancouver waterfront before 9:15 to catch the Helijet to Victoria for a cabinet meeting. He, like all commuters in this area, isn't looking forward to the trip.

Falcon will drive along Highway 15 to the Trans-Canada Highway, head west to the Port Mann Bridge, through the Burnaby lakes corridor and exit the freeway at the East First Avenue off-ramp.

He will carry on past Commercial Drive to Southeast False Creek before dropping off his front seat passenger-a Courier reporter-at the newspaper's office at Sixth Avenue and Fir Street.

Falcon agreed to the ride-along to demonstrate the need for the provincial government's ambitious Gateway Program plan to ease congestion on Lower Mainland roads.

The most controversial and expensive piece of the plan is twinning the Port Mann and widening the freeway by one lane on either side of the bridge to Vancouver. The cost is $1.5 billion.

Some suburban mayors, local councillors, academics and Commercial Drive activists-who refer to the plan as Frankenstein's monster-say the money should be spent on a massive public transit network.

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More cycling routes, better carpooling options and light rail running from the Fraser Valley to Vancouver would also make for a less polluted, less vehicle dependent society, they say.

Falcon, however, doesn't buy it.

Overlooked by the critics, he says, is the need to move commercial goods on semi-trailers into and out of the Lower Mainland. He calls the portion of freeway that crosses the Port Mann the most important truck route for B.C.'s economy.

"I'm not going to lie to you," he says. "[The Gateway Program] is about the economy, it's about the movement of goods, it's about securing the economic future of our children and grandchildren. But the side beneficiary of all of that is that it will be a great benefit to commuters. There's no doubt about it."

As he drives north along Highway 15 with a coffee in hand, Falcon points out the construction on the well-travelled road. It will be doubled to four lanes to allow transport trucks to travel faster to and from the nearby Canada-U.S. border.

Same goes for Highway 10, he notes, as he passes the busy stretch that intersects with Highway 15. Both highways cut through farm land, where homes are tucked away from the rush of vehicles.

Traffic is heavy this morning as Falcon approaches the 176th Street on-ramp to the freeway. As he reaches the overpass, he looks east down the freeway at the hundreds of vehicles idling in the lanes heading to the Port Mann.

It's 7:30 and still dark.

"Holy cow, look at this," he says. "It's going way, way back. See how far the lights go. Look at that. Oh my God, that's way past 200th Street. Unbelievable. This is exactly what I'm talking about."

The queue isn't surprising, considering the number of people who reside in Cloverdale, Langley, Aldergrove and Abbotsford, where housing prices are cheaper than in Vancouver.

Provincial government statistics say the Port Mann is congested 13 hours a day. When a vehicle stalls or crashes, it can take more than two hours for a commuter to travel the 29-kilometre stretch from 200th Street in Langley to Willingdon Avenue in Burnaby.

"Most people in Vancouver who are critics of this, I guarantee you one thing-they never drive the bridge," says Falcon, inching along in traffic.

When the Port Mann was built in 1964, the population of Greater Vancouver was 800,000. It's now at 2.1 million. And in the past five years, there has been a 12.5 per cent increase in the number of registered vehicles in the Greater Vancouver Regional District.

Widening the freeway in these parts will mean adding an HOV lane and another lane on either side from Langley to the bridge. HOV lanes already run from the bridge to Vancouver.

Falcon is quick to point out the Port Mann/Trans-Canada project is not all about accommodating vehicles. The plan includes restoring public transit over the bridge, an option cancelled in 1986 because buses couldn't keep a schedule in congestion.

Designated bus lanes will be added, interchanges leading to the freeway will be upgraded and bike lanes will be built over the new bridge, allowing cyclists to link up with communities' bikeways.

"We're not just adding lanes to allow traffic to fill them," he says. "We're not morons. I mean we actually think about this kind of stuff."

The new bridge will also be engineered for future light rail transit to travel over it. Falcon balks at the suggestion of introducing rail transit now, noting it was a recommendation of former Vancouver mayor Larry Campbell.

He says Campbell's idea to run a light rail line from the Fraser Valley along the freeway to Vancouver would be "a colossal misuse of public funds."

Citing a recent Translink study, Falcon says only 27 per cent of vehicles travelling west over the Port Mann continue to Vancouver. The majority turn off in Coquitlam, New Westminster and Burnaby, he says.

If a rapid transit line were to be built now, Falcon could only see it going to New Westminster's Braid Street SkyTrain station and to a future station in centre of Coquitlam.

"Vancouver is under this incredible deception that all of the traffic is pouring into Vancouver and it's simply not the case," he says.

His argument is evident as he crosses the Port Mann. Large numbers of vehicles exit the freeway at off-ramps to Coquitlam and New Westminster.

Traffic travelling east on the freeway is heavy, which leads Falcon to rattle off another statistic. He says the growth in Vancouver residents going to work in the suburbs is nine times greater than the growth of suburban residents going to work in Vancouver.

Traffic thins out considerably for Falcon as he continues through Coquitlam, only to hit gridlock as he approaches the Burnaby lakes corridor. It's the one traffic-clogged portion of the freeway always highlighted in morning radio traffic reports, but one motorists can't avoid to get to Vancouver.

Falcon doesn't have statistics handy for the number of motorists who get on the freeway in Burnaby, and this is where critics say the transportation minister's 27 per cent argument goes off the road.

In fact, Eric Doherty, a master's candidate at University of B.C.'s school of community and regional planning, says Falcon's oft-quoted 27 per cent figure is irrelevant.

Standing at the corner of East First Avenue and Victoria Drive the day after the Courier's commute with Falcon, Doherty talks over the roar of the morning rush.

"We know the Port Mann is not the busiest part of the highway," says Doherty, the author of an alternative report to the government's Gateway Program Definition Report. "The highest traffic flow-as you saw in your commute with Falcon-is in Burnaby and the Tri-Cities area. And where do you think all those cars are going?"

Doherty pauses as a dump truck rumbles by.

"We're about to spend a whole bunch of money on a rapid transit line out to the Tri-Cities area. If you widen the freeway, you're just stealing riders from the transit system."

Doherty belongs to Citizens Concerned with Highway Expansion and the Livable Region Coalition, which includes the David Suzuki Foundation and Society Promoting Environmental Conservation (SPEC).

Despite the perception in the public and by Falcon that the fight to stop the project is solely a Commercial Drive effort, Doherty says residents from across the city feel the same way.

They fear that twinning the bridge and widening the highway will bring more traffic to the city's neighbourhoods, many of which are already overrun by motorists using side streets.

More vehicles means more pollution and an increased potential for pedestrians to be struck. A sad reminder of that danger, Doherty says, is a makeshift memorial on a light pole near the East First-Victoria Drive intersection.

David Fields, a co-founder of the concerned citizens group and a transportation campaigner for SPEC, joins Doherty at the memorial to discuss the 73-year-old woman's death in October 2004.

The woman, whose name hasn't been released for publication, was crossing Victoria Drive at Graveley Street at 7:18 p.m. when she was struck by a pick-up truck. She died after she fell back and hit her head, police said.

"She was well-known in the community, she would watch people's children for them," explains Fields, who organized hockey games on Commercial Drive to protest vehicle traffic. "This Victoria Drive corridor has become a shortcut for many people making their way back and forth to work, and is just an example of what other neighbourhoods stand to experience."

Retiring from the drone of traffic to the Continental cafe on Commercial Drive, Fields and Doherty sip coffee and tea as they offer their alternatives to Falcon's plans.

Doherty's report, "Transportation for a Sustainable Region: Transit or Freeway Expansion," outlines several recommendations to increase transportation choice.

For $300 to $500 million, Doherty says, increasing TransLink's bus fleet by 20 per cent, adding 44 SkyTrain cars and building designated bus lanes and HOV lanes on both sides of the Fraser River would alleviate congestion and pollution.

For example, he says, a designated bus lane could be built from Guildford Mall in Surrey to the Port Mann without having to put a designated bus lane on the bridge.

He points out once traffic is on the bridge it flows-as the Courier's commute with Falcon proved. Buses would then link up with more designated lanes on the other side of the bridge.

"There are two basic choices," Doherty writes in his report. "One is to go back to the 1950s vision of Vancouver as a city of freeways, following the Los Angeles model towards automobile dependent sprawl, gridlock and environmental decline. The other is a future with public transit that gives people real choice about how they get around, without choking our communities on traffic and pollution."

Fields believes Falcon's promises of bike lanes and restoring public transit over the bridge are "distractions" from the government's real plan to turn the Lower Mainland into another Los Angeles.

"He's grafted on ideas like bike lanes, ideas like possibly having light rail crossing the bridge. These are really distractions from the core issue which is when you twin bridges, when you expand highways, you're going to increase congestion. It's proven, we've seen it all over North America."

During the Courier's commute with Falcon, he picked up Doherty's report twice from this reporter's lap, shaking it to emphasize how "unrealistic" it is.

The most "glaring weakness" of the report, he says, is that it doesn't address the movement of commercial goods. Doherty's response is goods will move faster if there is better transportation choice, which would alleviate congestion.

"If we can get people out of their cars, that's opening up road space for goods movement and people like the plumber who's not going to be taking a bus because he's got 800 pounds of pipe and tools to carry."

Falcon also has detractors on the other side of the Fraser River. The Fraser Valley Conservation Coalition has 350 members from Mission to Richmond, says its transportation campaigner Donna Passmore.

The coalition, however, has never said it is opposed to the project, but is worried how it will alleviate congestion for years to come, Passmore says.

"People out here aren't thinking long- term solutions," says the former Cloverdale resident who recently moved to White Rock. "People are coming at this from a place of great impatience, great frustration. I understand that, but we need to look at alternatives."

She agrees with Doherty that a massive public transit network has to be implemented-a recommendation she believes Falcon should consider strongly over the current plan.

"Kevin is young enough and smart enough that we could expect more innovation from him. He can be the messiah here, he has the opportunity to do that."

As for Falcon's political opponents, so far Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan and Coquitlam Mayor Maxine Wilson have said publicly they oppose the project.

Surrey Mayor Diane Watts believes the project is long overdue.

And Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan, who voted against it in March 2005 when he was a councillor, appears to be waffling.

During the municipal election campaign, Sullivan told the Courier in a debate with Vision Vancouver mayoral candidate Jim Green that he opposed the twinning of the Port Mann.

In an interview last week, Sullivan recalled the comment but says it was made before the government released its report outlining transit, cycling and tolling options.

"I would certainly say that I don't support just twinning the bridge to accommodate more automobile traffic. However, my understanding is the proposal is not just that."

Sullivan says he's "keeping an open mind" on the project.

"I have to recognize [the Trans-Canada] is a provincial road but also a federal road. It is important for goods movement, and is important for connecting us to the rest of the country."

So what's Sullivan's vision?

"Transit. I'd love to see tolls, I'd love to see bike lanes, I'd love to see other transportation demand management and I'd love to see a bigger commitment by the regions for more responsible urban planning so they're not creating sprawling communities."

Paying a $2.50 toll to cross the bridges is what dominated media coverage when Falcon and Premier Gordon Campbell released the Program Definition Report last month.

"I happen to believe it's the right thing to do," says Falcon, noting tolls would pay off the $1.5 billion project in 25 to 30 years. "I don't want to say it's a done deal because I really do want to hear from the public. I think how it's done is not at all a done deal."

Arguing about tolls, however, is a debate Fields and Doherty have been cautioned not to engage in. In an email message sent Feb. 6 to members of the Livable Region Coalition by Karen Wristen, executive director of SPEC, she lays out her concerns.

"While SPEC obviously supports the use of tolls as one measure of demand management, I have to say I think it's not the time to be saying this," Wristen writes in the email obtained by the Courier. "Strategically speaking we have managed to focus attention on the tolling by leaking that report. We've got a lot of people angry about the project because of the tolls, and angry people will sometimes listen to alternatives. It sends an awfully mixed message for us to be saying, 'Oh, no, the tolls are good, it's the project that's bad', when the reverse is what people are feeling."

She concludes: "There are no marks for philosophical or academic integrity in this game. It's all about changing public opinion. If we can avoid talking about tolls, I think we should."

But does all this talk really matter?

Despite what mayors or citizen coalitions on both sides of the Fraser River think of the project, it will go ahead in one form or another.

Provincial highways are the jurisdiction of the government and the project cannot be vetoed, says Falcon, whose government begins community consultations in Langley tomorrow.

The Vancouver meetings are scheduled for March 25 at the Hastings Community Centre and at the Roundhouse Community Centre March 29.

Doherty asks why hold public consultations on the project when it already appears to be a done deal? Does the government just want to know what colour the railings on the new overpasses should be, he says facetiously.

Still, Doherty and Fields say it's important to keep pressuring the government for more details on the project and demanding better transportation choice.

"At the heart of this, and why we're doing it, is that citizens' actions will make a difference," Fields says. "With more people having their say, politicians will have to answer to the people. This isn't over yet."

Falcon wants to hear more alternatives, but they have to be realistic, he says. Doherty's report, he adds, isn't worth the paper it's written on.

"This is one minister who is not prepared to have critics have a free hand without pushing back hard. I'm going to push back very hard because I'm going to demand that they come forward with realistic alternatives."

As he drives up Fir Street to the Courier office 95 minutes and 45 kilometres after he left Cloverdale, Falcon says he guarantees there will be a significant reduction in congestion once the Port Mann/Trans-Canada project is completed by 2013.

More people will be taking transit, more people will be cycling and the economy will be booming.

So... do you believe him?


Try transit, Mr. Transportation Minister

To the editor:

Your Feb. 17 cover story ("Driven to frustration") highlights the arduous two-hour morning drive made by Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon from his constituency office in Langley to the helicopter terminal at the Vancouver waterfront. The minister, apparently "...isn't looking forward to the trip."

Perhaps the minister should get off his lazy, gas-guzzling duff, and use B.C. Transit's trip planner. By taking the No. 320, No. 502 and Expo Line SkyTrain... and walking a whole 270 metres (about one city block) he could make the trip in 1 hour and 16 minutes-during which he would not be driving, could be reading or napping, and not be clogging up the roads. The trip would cost $4.50, quite a bit less, than his parking bill... let alone his gas bill.

Speaking of which, why is he commuting in a "Black Nissan Pathfinder"? Was he expecting to have to do some off-roading on the way, or does he just like putting his SUV-sized gas bill onto his expense account?

If the minister makes such poor decisions with his personal transportation choices, what does it say about his decisions for the province's transportation choices?

Jason Brett, Vancouver

***

To the editor:

Re: "Driven to frustration," Feb. 17. Kevin Falcon has the fortitude to stand up to the politically correct jargon of the region and declare that wasting human lives in traffic is nonsense. Regional planners are all too willing to euphemize traffic congestion by saying they're encouraging transportation choices. As if a mother going grocery shopping has the choice to take roller blades.

It reminds me of one young planner who drove with me to an open house in Surrey and declared with shock, "What's this!" as we approached the southbound line-up to the Alex Fraser. It's the congestion you're encouraging, I responded, and, actually, this is a good day.

Roger Schmidt, Vancouver

***

To the editor:

Re: "Driven to frustration," Feb. 17.

If Kevin Falcon is concerned about movement of goods, how about using off-peak hours for trucking or developing rail or river routes? As [Eric] Doherty notes, better public transit would reduce congestion on the bridge. But if commerce needs transportation, perhaps commercial interests should pay to build the needed infrastructure.

As usual Falcon is pushing his project on the taxpayers without any public consultation-I'm not talking about consultation on the details but consultation on the twinning itself.

I think most of us understand that the twinning is not going to help ease traffic congestion in the long run. Nor will it help improve air quality in the Lower Mainland. Perhaps there is more to this than he is telling us. Perhaps he wants to oblige developers in Surrey and beyond.

Ann Grant, Vancouver

***

To the editor:

Re: "Driven to frustration," Feb. 17.

Please, oh please, do not buy Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon's argument about needing to twin the bridge to accommodate buses. Translink's own plans show a "queue jumper" lane is to be built by 2007. This is a lane that allows buses (or HOVs) to bypass congestion leading up to the bridge. As your reporter noted when travelling Highway 1 with Falcon the other morning, once you're on the bridge the traffic moves right along.

And please do not buy the "we're designing the new bridge to accommodate rapid transit in the future" argument, either. There was supposed to be rapid transit on the Alex Fraser Bridge "in the future" as well. I don't see any yet (it was built in 1986), although they did use the extra space to add a couple of lanes just six months after it first opened.

The main reason Falcon is so gung ho on the twinning is actually very simple: he's from the old school of community development (in the '90s former Surrey Mayor McCallum and Falcon were instrumental in taking over Surrey council for the benefit of developers).

Make no mistake, the bridge twinning has far more to do with pay back to friends and associates building office parks and subdivisions than either congestion relief or goods movement. Heavy trucks make up less than 10 per cent of the vehicles crossing the bridge, and if only a small portion of the single occupancy vehicles clogging the bridge were removed, truckers would be happy.

Pierre Rovtar, Cloverdale

published on 02/24/2006

FYI, Kevin Falcon's 15 MPG gas guzzler.... :no:

http://www.config.nissanusa.com/img/m/config/i/csx_pth_05_or_kh3_lg.jpg

[twoNeurons]

Interesting Article. I would say that if the bridge goes ahead with guarantees of Commuter Rail (not LRT) then it's a good idea. Let the tolls subsidize the Commuter Rail and then you're providing a REAL solution.

[hollywoodnorth]

http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/photo_gallery/images/2006/2006-01-31_Gateway.jpg
The Pimps laying down the law....GO FALCON GO....GO GORDO GO!

laying it down....Lib syle.....

[Dorian G.]

Geez you'd think Gordon Cambell would want to expand transit rather than car-commuting. If he did, he could drink again!
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/74/Campbellmug.jpg
That first letter to the editor is awesome. 76 minutes from surrey to downtown is no death sentence.

[Nutterbug]

Geez you'd think Gordon Cambell would want to expand transit rather than car-commuting. If he did, he could drink again!
Does riding public transit while drunk count as public intoxication? (Though surely a far less serious offense than DUI.)