Quote:
Originally Posted by PaperTiger
People are literally just driving less. Vehicle miles traveled per capita peaked in 2007 and has been declining ever since in North America. Among Gen Y and Millennials there are fewer people getting their license than ever before and those that do get one are getting them much later.
It’s not just the Iron Workers that is seeing falling numbers. It is in and out of downtown. It is across the Massey tunnel. It is across the new Port Mann. Golden Ears is a disaster.
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Really, that is news to me... Instead I see a bridge that was built with the future in mind as our region grows (and the north east and south or the river are growing fast).
6 lanes has made it future proof. And if traffic counts do not warrent 6 lanes in the future then there are 2 rapid bus lanes already built for futur mass transit between these two areas of our metro.
Even so the traffic count has been pretty healthy considering it is a toll bridge that opened just after the largest economic recession in decades and connects two regions that had no true connection before (new business / economic ties do take time to build).
The only mistake was counting on the tolls to pay off the capitol debt. That is akin to thinking that bus and skytrain fares will pay off the capital to build new lines. Idiotic.
In any for of transit (buses, trains, bridges, roads, etc...) tolls should not be used largely for capital costs, but instead for operating costs.
The funny thing is the anti highway people in Vancouver would have called the GEB a failure either way. Under projections = failure because no one is driving! On or over projections - failure because new roads only encourage people to drive!
That is the joke. I think it is good that traffic counts are going down, but metro-Vancouver is still far underbuilt in areas for its current traffic loads. Also, many arteries have hit their saturation points and it is common for such infrastructure to have slight reductions after doing so. Keeping your main arteries (rapid transit and roads) at their saturation points is not good for the regions economy. This is why I support the idea of the Provincial Government providing the capital for both the M-line extension and the new Massey Tunnel / Highway 99 rebuild (with a true rapid bus system). They should also be supplying the capital for the new Patullo Bridge as well.
Then the tolls on this bridges (and the train / bus fares) should be used to help cover operation and maintenance.
Even with driving going down per capita, our region is still growing fast, and there will still be a huge demand for roads and transit, and investing in both and opening up new connections between sub regions is a win win.
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