With all the touring I've done of rapid transit systems internationally (particularly in Asia) I've come to the conclusion that any notion that SkyTrain's elevated guideways "don't integrate with the community" is either a complete myth or a completely subjective viewpoint that really doesn't reflect any sort of planning or desirability reality in urban cities. They want you to think that it doesn't but there's really no objective way to come to that conclusion.
For one, most people in the anti-SkyTrain crowd I have heard don't seem to consider that there's something you can do with that land underneath the guideway to keep it productive. In Japan, where elevated guideways (for trains, but even elevated expressways) are a part of life due to scarcity of land among other issues, the space underneath guideways is often used for shops, bicycle parking or roadways (communities in Japan actually
celebrate the closure of at-grade train lines when they are moved into viaducts/tunnels, and see it as a liberation for the local community). Similarly, Melbourne, Australia is moving one of its at-grade suburban train lines onto a viaduct, turning it into a regional rapid transit spine, and plans to
use the space underneath for community recreation. You don't build train lines on a guideway and get nothing underneath - even our own SkyTrain lines have multi-use paths running underneath.
Concerns of a visual impact with SkyTrain can be understandable, but you can dampen a lot of the visual impact and surrounding attitude with something as simple as a
change in perspective. The naysayers keep saying it can't be done and I say they are wrong.
If all this is happening on Monday I might consider attending the meeting just to observe the process. I wanna see what PCI's people's attitudes are surrounding this - I would say that what the City report outlines is an understatement of the impact. PCI has already had detailed plans for their 2nd building that will need to be thrown out with the relocation of the roadway. That's potentially tens of thousands of dollars, and hours of work thrown out the window - along with new dollars and hours required to redesign everything - all due to the lack of planning foresight by the City. Most developers have been lukewarm to the idea of LRT in Surrey, but now that reality is settling in, earlier plans are being thrown out, and the land acquisition bill is getting larger and larger, I am interested in seeing how attitudes on LRT shift throughout the year.
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