Metro Vancouver Transit Discussion

[racc]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

well than we have to put up with heavier traffic by people who will not get out of their cars for a bus

No. We will just build more rail that will get more people out of their cars instead of wasting money on park and rides.

[vanman]

I would take cohesive, dense neighborhoods over park and rides anyday. Just look at Calgary's Ctrain stations on google maps. They all pretty much look like Scott Rd station in Surrey surrounded by vast parking lots and disjointed neighborhoods with underutilized land. Park and rides have their place but I would never want to see our transit system focus solely on them for increased ridership.

[Metro-One]

No one is asking for our system to revolve around them, but a single Park & Ride near the eastern extension north of the Fraser River is not asking much. Also, they do not need to be sprawling (which i agree is a waste of land) Hence they invented multistory structures.

For example, if Translink was smart, they could build a multilevel parking structure at Scott Road that would take up much lass land than the current ground level parking lot does. Then, the selling off of the remaining land could cover large amounts of the cost to build the multilevel paring structure (if not all of it).

I honestly think that we only need to add 1 more Park and Ridge along our skytrain system, and that is currently Braid station (again, there is not a single par and ride structure along the M-line).

Or, with the Evergreen Line coming along, build a multilevel Park & Ride at Coquitlam, that would serve skytrain, the WCE and possibly, if large enough and located close enough, Coquitlam Centre. Then the excess land around the Coquitlam transit hub that is currently a surface park and ride could be developed, again, off setting the cost and eventually making money.

But we all know some on this forum are 100% dead set against anything to do with vehicles. I find those who are 100% against vehicles or 100% against transit equally wrong. The two can work together and do need to interact at some points.

[racc]

Originally Posted by jlousa

I share your dislike for park and rides, but there is no need to exaggerate the costs. It does not cost $40K for an above ground spot, it doesn't even cost that much for an underground spot. Regardless they are a waste of money from an economic point of view. Ideally they are created where there is a need for parking at different times of the day. The River Rock park and ride is a perfect example, commuters in the day but still useful at night. There are limited options like that though, perhaps the pacific coliseum and the coquitlam casino, but neither are tied into the skytrain.

The construction costs for the River Rock parkade were $33 million in 2006 dollars for 1,200 spaces or $27,500 per space. Add 3% per year for construction cost escalation and that would be around $30,000 per space not including land costs. So, not quite sure that would bring it to $40,000 per stall but it is getting close and still pretty expensive.
http://www.greatcanadiancasinos.com/files/GCGC-PDF/prinvestor/GCD_PRESS_12-18-06.pdf

Underground, in Richmond at least, would be much more expensive due to the high water level, which is why all parking structures are above ground.

Now agreed, if there is another reason to build the parkade, such as a destination casino, it kinda makes sense, but there won't be too many such opportunities.

[vanman]

But we all know some on this forum are 100% dead set against anything to do with vehicles. I find those who are 100% against vehicles or 100% against transit equally wrong. The two can work together and do need to interact at some points.

Completely agree with this point.

[SpongeG]

Originally Posted by racc

No. We will just build more rail that will get more people out of their cars instead of wasting money on park and rides.

not set to happen in our lifetimes though

[squeezied]

Can someone verify the 210,000 figure with a link?

[racc]

Originally Posted by squeezied

Can someone verify the 210,000 figure with a link?

http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local..._100215/20100215?hub=BritishColumbiaHome

[GeeCee]

Originally Posted by squeezied

Can someone verify the 210,000 figure with a link?

http://twitter.com/KenHardie/status/9155381195

[Zassk]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

Only a few of the stations are 50 meters now (Waterfront, Vancouver City Centre, Yaletown, Olympic Village and YVR I believe, but I could be wrong about 1 or 2 stations, so please feel free to correct me) the rest are all currently 40m

Brighouse is 50m and I think Bridgeport may be as well (it would make sense). So almost half of the stations are already 50m.

[SpongeG]

global tv reported that all of transit saw 1,000,000 users on sunday alone

[Unregistered]

Originally Posted by Zassk

Brighouse is 50m and I think Bridgeport may be as well (it would make sense). So almost half of the stations are already 50m.

Bridgeport is 40m.

[SpongeG]

I think this video is from someone from Seattle he seemed surprised how busy it was

• Video Link

[Metro-One]

Great find!

It really shows how amazingly frequent our system is, an amazing feather in its cap.

For such a relatively small system (compared to huge hub station in London or Osaka) it still amazes me how often there is a train arriving at Broadway Station. It must be around every 30 seconds, maybe less during peak times (when considering both platforms)

[Pennywise604]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

what event is happenning tomorrow?

The first time we see our Men's hockey team play. I am not sure if the report was on CKNW or News 1130, but tuesday night is the big test for transit. It will probably be fine, just longer waits at stations.
Are there any big lineups at the Richmond-Brighouse Station during the day? If I catch the C-Line that'd be the station I depart from. I just want to be sure since I decided to drive downtown today... big mistake obviously. It took 15 minutes to drive from the Cambie Bridge to Cambie @ Hastings. I was stranded in the middle of Cambie @ Robson, and at Cambie @ Dunsmuir.
(I know wrong thread) ==> I am very certain that Hastings lights are synchronized right now though. From Hastings @ Main to Hastings @ Victoria, every single light was green... I travelled from Main to Victoria in 3 minutes at 6pm at night, and I was not speeding at all... I actually whatched the lights, since I was turning left onto Victoria, if I had kept going straight I would of got past Nanaimo before they changed. If someone else has noticed this please confirm it lol. Even with the Olympic lanes on Hastings, traffic was flying EB during rush hour.

[NetMapel]

Actually, for a lot of suburban cities such as Richmond (south), Delta, South Surrey, Cloverdale, White Rock... etc, park and ride makes a lot of sense. There are many roads there that just make no sense to have a bus route so those households will definitely have cars. What you want is to incentivize those people to go to more urban areas using transit instead of cars so there is no traffic jam. The best way to do that as far as I can tell is to have a nearby park and ride that have excellent bus route connections. There is a reason why park and rides in those cities are extremely successful because the people are willing to park their cars there to go downtown instead of driving there themselves. This way, they will most likely just do driving within their local areas to do grocery runs and daily life stuff like that. This save a lot of traffic jams in more urban areas like downtown Vancouver, Burnaby and Richmond.

Ultimately, I am hoping that they will be able to connect at least some of those major park and ride areas with a rail so they can then be turn into a rail station, making those park and rides a true transit hub for the people living there.

[cabotp]

I happened to be heading downtown on sunday night. So I get to the oakridge station. And according to the train times board. There was a train coming every 2 mins. Most frequent I've ever seen it.

I have noticed the bus system on certain routes as been a problem. Sunday had major delays for the 20 and 22. I was waiting for the 20 on sunday around 3:40. Next bus didn't come till 30 mins latter and it was full and drove right on by. It was also a short bus.

Walked over to knight to catch the 22. My neighbour was on board and he said the bus was 30 mins behind schedule and it was full.

Not sure exactly where the delays are happening. But I'm wondering if maybe VANOC should have seriously considered expanding there No Stopping zones / Transit only routes to a lot more streets. Especially in the downtown core. Basically ban all street parking downtown and in the DTES for the olympics.

[Hot Rod]

I think Vancouver should build park n rides in suburban areas. You only need to look at successful metros in America to see that they all have park n rides in the lower density suburbs and transit centers with parking structures in more dense suburbs and urban areas.

Yes, transit and auto do go hand in hand as long as you don't have heavy TOD. Vancouver has some TODs but not much in most of the stations and one shouldn't expect TODs at EVERY stop either.

In fact, Park N Rides could be a HUGE catalyst for SkyTrain - parking now TOD later. No one says a parking lot around a metro stop needs to remain a parking lot forever. .....

One thing I noticed in Washington DC area is they have Kiss N Rides, where people would drop off their husband or wife (hence the Kiss) and the spouce would board the metro. The Kiss N Ride only had a small parking lot, but the emphasis was on dropping off and picking up - and mostly it was HUGELY marketed.

I think this could be an excellent idea for most of the non-downtown/inner city Expo and Canada line stations. Build Kiss N Rides, where people could drop off or be dropped off. Some of the outer Expo and most/all suburban Millennium line stations could have Park N Rides lots or Transit Center garages. As stations turn into TOD's, the lots would go away and be replaced by highrises and maybe more garages.

to me - this is simple. If done right, busses could feed off of metro stops much better than they do now and with a bit more 'local' auto parking, we would have much better metro usage than the 49% we currently see for downtown trips. Again, it's better to have cars in local hoods (especially since most suburbs are built to require a car) than having them all driving into downtown. .... that's the way DC (and Chicago) works, I don't see why it couldn't for vancouver.

[cabotp]

Here are some other numbers according to the buzzer blog.

Seabus had 133,000 people over the weekend
Trip planner handled 48,000 sessions from 82 countries on Friday.

[cabotp]

Christiana Johns is the media person from Chicago who posted a blog about her thoughts on our skytrain.

http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/the_view...cagos-el-versus-vancouvers-skytrain.html

Some one with the name Vxla had the folllowing Comments

You're comparing two completely different systems. You left out one major concern: human beings are available on each moving Chicago 'L' train. Skytrain is automated and there are gaps of 1-2 miles where no one is available for any assistance, between stations.

Try making a valid comparison next time instead of vying for media attention through the Concern of the Day.

Oh yes, honor fare systems are in many places throughout the world. Auditors spot-check fares while onboard vehicles (usually in motion) and violators are fined if they've evaded payment. I'm guessing the reporter here probably has never ridden transit anywhere outside 2-3 cities.

Christiana countered with this

You make a good point that not having an attendant on the trains or at the stations is a concern, but the CTA does not have a person on every car either.

I think it's a valid comparison because they are both public transit rails in large cities. I am speaking on my experience of riding both trains for extended periods of time, and I've found that the SkyTrain runs more efficiently in terms of service.

I rode public transit in Chicago, Seattle, Vancouver, London, Edinburgh and Paris.