Metro Vancouver Transit Discussion

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

It's still pretty common especially on the shuttle buses and probably the suburban routes.

I just heard someone say thank-you on the 130 Metrotown.

Startled me as I never once heard anyone say thank-you to a driver in my years in Toronto.

[Tetsuo]

Originally Posted by Sheba

Also:


I got a chuckle out of this:

Reminds me of the Shaughnessy residents back in the day fighting the skytrain

"we are the creme of the creme"

[ilikeredheads]

ahh, West Van, Nimby Central of Lower Mainland.
XD

[MIPS]

that the buses would be empty most of the time and merely add to carbon emissions.

Ah, so you are an Electric Trolley Bus kind of person are ya!

[jollyburger]

Make a C299-B community shuttle and run it from Park Royal to Dundarave every 30 minutes.

[Sheba]

Originally Posted by Tetsuo

Reminds me of the Shaughnessy residents back in the day fighting the skytrain

"we are the creme of the creme"

Exactly what came to mind. Some things never die...

Originally Posted by jollyburger

Make a C299-B community shuttle and run it from Park Royal to Dundarave every 30 minutes.

Only during rush hour - otherwise it's every 90 mins and the last one is at 9pm

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by Sheba

Only during rush hour - otherwise it's every 90 mins and the last one is at 9pm

(gasps) A public bus, two whole hours past bedtime? What kind of wild shenanigans are those miscreants up to these days???

[retro_orange]

Originally Posted by Sheba

I generally ride the bus midday and it's not unusual for people to say thanks when leaving by the rear doors (and this would mostly be the 106 and 119, so not empty buses).

Knowing me, my voice would croak and I'd feel like the guy asking for Jelly:
• Video Link

[fredinno]

https://www.nsnews.com/opinion/columnist...a-magic-marker-to-a-gun-fight-1.23649504

The real fun begins if you look outside the "Shangri-La" comment. (which is dumb, Shangri-La is 8 minutes away from Skytrain. Would you be for Skytrain, but not B-lines?)

But of course that won’t happen. When has Translink ever done anything to make things worse?
As for the quality of life along the North Van side of Marine Drive, there isn’t any, so that shouldn’t be a problem. Ambleside and Dundarave have their sunny, laid-back sidewalk cafes to preserve; North Van has Destination Chrysler. No slight intended.

To be fair, there has been an attempt to humanize Marine Drive through North Vancouver with increased residential density, but saving this vital artery for anything other than the flow of traffic between bottlenecks will require a much grander effort than anything tried to date.
So now West Van council is looking for an avenue of retreat, preferably one without a bus stop. Council is scheduled to consider the results of the “consultation” round that ended Feb. 28, although most of it will be in the “Consider This!” vein. Council is supposed to consider the feedback in April, although at that point, the game may have changed. Coun. Peter Lambur has filed a motion to consider a different route ending at Park Royal. Now that’s what we need at Park Royal … a massive, complicated bus exchange!

No larger than the parking lots already on Park Royal. Bus exchanges are complicated... if you're a 6-year-old.

West Van is a lovely place to visit, even if only a lucky few can afford to live there. We should all join the effort to help preserve its Shangri La-like state. The B-Line bus is a rude intruder with GHGs and muddy boots. There are no B-Line buses in Shangri-La.
Really, adding buses is like the proverbial new SeaBus. Translink keeps pretending to offer another SeaBus as if it’s a solution to something, when the real solution requires courage and money, both rare commodities.
Seriously, we need a) to add more than the existing nine lanes connecting the North Shore and the rest of the lower mainland or b) a third bridge.

I agree. Too bad there's scant room to build new road connections to and inside the North Shore without going Hogan's Alley and using eminent domain to expand the road network to accommodate it. (N-S roads in West Van are ridiculously narrow and often are spaghetti and thus a nightmare to navigate.)

If only there was another solution that didn't require so much room...

[Migrant_Coconut]

Remove some parking for a bus lane: "there's no room, it's too disruptive, West Van will be 'too busy' afterward." Tear up half of West Van and downtown for a new superhighway and tunnel/bridge: "IF THERE'S A WILL THERE'S A WAY!"

I don't care how rich and important you or your car are - you can't have your argument both ways.

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

Remove some parking for a bus lane: "there's no room, it's too disruptive, West Van will be 'too busy' afterward." Tear up half of West Van and downtown for a new superhighway and tunnel/bridge: "IF THERE'S A WILL THERE'S A WAY!"

I don't care how rich and important you or your car are - you can't have your argument both ways.

West Vancouver's the one place where there should be both a freeway and dedicated bus lanes, the former for ferry traffic and the latter for everyone else.

=========

On a completely different note, has anyone noticed that the new bus routes (since the opening of Canada Line) don't announce the route numbers but only destinations (or that existing routes, if their destination's one of the stations on the Canada Line, won't announce them either)?

Examples:
*New routes*
Whenever I boarded a 595 before or after it got truncated at Maple Meadows Station, never once have I heard the number "Five hundred ninety-five". When the door opened, I only heard "Haney Place, via, Maple Meadows... Station", "Haney Place", or "Maple Meadows... Station". (It was the same deal going the other direction.) The same happens to 531 as well (before Translink started using community shuttle buses for that route): *front door opens* "Willowbrook". 96 B-Line seems to be the only exception to the rule (for good reasons).

I wonder if the same happens with 119, 406 and 408, because that really bothers me.

* Old routes*
If you get on a 3 MAIN MARINE DR STN, when the door opens, you only hear "Main, Marine Drive Canada Line Station". On the other hand, if it's 3 MAIN, it will say "Three: Main".

Does this bother anybody else?

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

West Vancouver's the one place where there should be both a freeway and dedicated bus lanes, the former for ferry traffic and the latter for everyone else.

What I would support is a direct route from the Trans-Canada to the Lions Gate interchange (really, who's the idiot who thought Taylor Way was a good idea?!?). At least then the old farts would be fighting each other instead of the planners.

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

What I would support is a direct route from the Trans-Canada to the Lions Gate interchange (really, who's the idiot who thought Taylor Way was a good idea?!?). At least then the old farts would be fighting each other instead of the planners.

That, and a twinned Lions Gate Bridge with HOV lanes.

=====

Also, is anyone gonna answer my question/complaint/concern about bus announcements?

[aberdeen5698]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

What I would support is a direct route from the Trans-Canada to the Lions Gate interchange (really, who's the idiot who thought Taylor Way was a good idea?!?). At least then the old farts would be fighting each other instead of the planners.

When I hiked up the Capilano River trail I was quite surprised when I got to the "Upper Levels" highway bridge and discovered how close it is to sea level. I had this mental image of the highway keeping to the upper reaches of the north shore, but that's not at all true in that location.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

That, and a twinned Lions Gate Bridge with HOV lanes.

Treehuggers would burn City Hall to the ground. Besides, the problem is getting on/off the bridge, not the bridge per se.

Originally Posted by Dengler Avenue

Also, is anyone gonna answer my question/complaint/concern about bus announcements?

Honestly, I've never noticed. I mean if you're blind, it might be a problem, but you'd still be able to hear the destination and figure it out from there.

Originally Posted by aberdeen5698

When I hiked up the Capilano River trail I was quite surprised when I got to the "Upper Levels" highway bridge and discovered how close it is to sea level. I had this mental image of the highway keeping to the upper reaches of the north shore, but that's not at all true in that location.

The name definitely applies to some areas, but yeah, there's nothing "Upper" about that part of the highway.

[MIPS]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

Remove some parking for a bus lane: "there's no room, it's too disruptive, West Van will be 'too busy' afterward."

Legit question here.
I know that Vancouver in general has a large network of laneways and at one point just about every single-family home had a car park or a garage. Are most people now parking on the street due to these designated parking areas being repurposed (EG: toolsheds and laneway homes) or are there just more cars per household than the properties can handle?

[Galaxy]

I can't speak for others but I do live in Vancouver and my family doesn't own a car. The house has a rental and the renters do have a car and they have enough space in the regular parking space for there car. There is a Garage as well which is used to store a lot of stuff. I imagine with the number of people that take transit in Vancouver proper that a lot of people have just 1 vehicle if that and use transit for most of there other transport needs. I walk around my neighborhood a lot and see tons of homes where there are never ever any cars and just open back yard spaces so I imagine the laneway house addition is not having to much effect on increased parking issues at least in my area of Vancouver.

[SFUVancouver]

Originally Posted by MIPS

Legit question here.
I know that Vancouver in general has a large network of laneways and at one point just about every single-family home had a car park or a garage. Are most people now parking on the street due to these designated parking areas being repurposed (EG: toolsheds and laneway homes) or are there just more cars per household than the properties can handle?

I would suspect that it's a variety of factors at play: infill resulting in more dwellings per block, multiple households living in a physical dwelling, multiple vehicles for some households, re-prioritization of garages for storage, and the fair number of houses without lanes that don't have garages/car parks at all. On the last point, many houses without lanes historically still had driveways and enclosed garages, but my hunch is that a lot of these have been converted into basements and people either park in the driveway or on the street.

Something interesting, too, is that the City's research into the status of laneway housing program found that nearly all (95%) of occupants of laneway houses no not have access to on-site parking. Granted, the overall response rate to the survey was fairly low (n=600) and the parking question even lower (n=348) but it's still relevant data for consideration. There aren't a whole lot of laneway houses yet, but on average a new laneway housing permit is approved every 15 hours (591 approved in 2008) leading to a steady increase in supply (3,126 approved from 2007-17).

[aberdeen5698]

Originally Posted by SFUVancouver

There aren't a whole lot of laneway houses yet, but on average a new laneway housing permit is approved every 15 hours (591 approved in 2008) leading to a steady increase in supply (3,126 approved from 2007-17).

I live in the Killarney district of Vancouver and since the zoning bylaws were changed to allow laneway housing I haven't seen a single new house under construction without one.

[Migrant_Coconut]

In addition, I seriously doubt that anybody east of Main owns two cars.