Vancouver council approves guiding principles for Broadway rapid transit planning
A SkyTrain line is one option on the table for Broadway.
Vancouver city council has unanimously approved a revised set of principles that it hopes will guide the development of rapid transit along the Broadway corridor.
Council wants a Broadway rapid transit project to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, be “cost-effective”, and minimize the impact of construction.
“I do think it’s a strengthened set of principles,” Vision Vancouver councillor Andrea Reimer, chair of the city’s planning and environment committee, said in council chambers.
Reimer, along with Vision council colleagues Raymond Louie, Geoff Meggs, Kerry Jang, Heather Deal, and Mayor Gregor Robertson, were in favour, along with COPE councillors David Cadman and Ellen Woodsworth, and NPA councillor Suzanne Anton. (Vision councillors Tim Stevenson and George Chow were absent for the vote.)
City planners Jerry Dobrovolny and Ronda Howard penned the staff report, which asked that its recommendations be used “to guide staff involvement in the planning and future implementation of a rapid transit solution for the Broadway Corridor”.
Reimer said she hoped this will aid discussions between TransLink, the community, and the provincial government regarding the TransLink-led UBC Line Rapid Transit Study.
TransLink has unveiled six rapid transit options for the Broadway corridor.
Rapid rail transit (SkyTrain) would extend along Broadway (and 10th Avenue) between Main Street and UBC. According to TransLink’s Web site, two options have been identified for the section between Broadway and Main Street and Commercial-Broadway station.
Two light rail transit options are on the table. The first would go along Broadway and 10th Avenue between Main Street and UBC. The second LRT option would incorporate elements of the first, but in addition would travel from Arbutus Street to Main Street-Science World Station along the south side of False Creek.
A rapid bus option from Commercial-Broadway Station to UBC mirrors the existing 99 B-Line service.
A “combination” option would see a mixture of SkyTrain and LRT.
Finally, a best bus alternative would improve and optimize “east-west bus service in the Broadway corridor to UBC on multiple routes between 49th Avenue and False Creek through changes such as frequent service or transit signal priority”, according to TransLink’s site.
Ned Jacobs of Neighbourhoods for a Sustainable Vancouver—a coalition of 30 groups that includes residents’ associations—was the lone speaker at the council meeting.
He called Broadway a “complex, layered, nuanced corridor” that was different from the Cambie Corridor, which is also being studied. In general, Jacobs told council he was in favour of the principles set out to guide debate over Broadway rapid transit.
Cadman and Meggs both peppered Jacobs with questions, asking him why, if he favours the principles that formed the major recommendation of the staff report, he still had so many concerns.
“I think that there are principles that, as we have gone through them, that are missing, that are not full enough in their explanation,” Jacobs responded.
Jacobs also called for more community consultation in the area, including UBC.
“UBC may not technically be part of the city of Vancouver, but they sure do affect it,” Jacobs said.
Earlier this year, activist Mel Lehan, a member of Business and Residents for Sustainable Transit Alternatives, spoke out against building a SkyTrain along Broadway. Lehan didn’t attend the meeting.
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Comments
http://www.facebook.com/groups/group.php?gid=169753053447
http://railforthevalley.wordpress.com/2009/10/10/to-ubc-from-bcit-and-pi...
- express/non-stop, varied stops, change stops and frequency as required, not limited by prebuilt stations as there are non.
- your taxes won't go up, more likely to go down as this system as cheap as 1/10th the cost of SkyTrain.
- LRT runs on the same tracks as heavy rail, infrastructure can be dual use, another savings for the taxpayer.
- LRT Vehicles outlast rubber tired buses 4-1 (if you still thought rubber was still a real option).
- 7 LRT lines to UBC for the price of one SkyTrain(out of date). 1) along 4th, 2) along Broadway, 3) along 16th, 4) along 33rd, 5)along 41st, 6)along 57th, 7)along Marine. Whatever, its not rocket science, but it cost less than SkyTrain and LRT's have easy access! Did I say that already? LRT's have easy access!
http://railforthevalley.wordpress.com/2009/07/07/how-green-is-my-rapid-t...
Another one of multi-millionair Cadman's "UNANIMOUS" votes. And one (1) member of the public attending. To express "concerns" about a policy he agrees with. Only to be "peppered" with questions demanding an explanation.
No one want's to be even one millimetre offside, do they? Can't afford that kind of risk, wouldn't be prudent.
Rod Smelser
thxs
Link to facebook above should be:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=169753053447
I see you've drunk Zwei's koolade.
Rod Smelser
I'm seeing a huge investment along the RAV Line now in Richmond. Richmond is in a geologically unstable area which will fluidize in an earthquake. We are earthquake prone. Richmond is below sea level protected by dykes. New Orleans was nothing compared to what TransLink has created.
Are TransLink and our Premier going to take credit when a few hundred thousand people end up under the Pacific Ocean? Nope, it's an act of God. Greed and corrupt politicians encouraging development in Richmond have nothing to do with it. Alberta will bail us out in the end with its tar sands cash to rebuild Richmond. Let's party it up and take a toke.
Are we just being hoodwinked again?
Keep the public arguing over what type of "rapid" transit without ever producing one of those phoney estimates for the various 'options', nor letting the public know that there is no money in the budget for years to come to even conduct engineering studies.
Perhaps we should be dealing with poor land use planning and consider correcting past mistakes.
The university should be moved!
The land where the present facilities exist could be sold for housing and proceeds from the sale of expensive Point Grey land could offset the cost of constructing a new university... after all isn't that what the UBC officials are busy with these days anyway, selling real estate? If governments are prepared to spend $3 billion on yet another overpriced rail transit option or even so called rapid bus then why don't they consider the far greater positive economic impacts that moving the university would provide by investing a smaller amount moving and constructing a 21st century university located closer to the city core?
The university should be moved to an area where $5 billion worth of rail transit infrastructure already exists rather than spending almost $3 billion for further rail transit.
The Main Street-Terminal Avenue area has sufficient land for a newly designed university. The area is ripe for redevelopment and is close to the city's core.
The cost of serving both Ivory Towers by transit has literally taxed public resources and diverted these resources when they could have been better used elsewhere in the region.
After a capital investment of $5 billion in 'rapid' rail transit infrastructure we still have over 1/2 billion vehicles on the road during the morning rush hour.
Don't continue to be hoodwinked by the rail lobby and its cohorts the engineering fraternity that has been loading their coffers from the public trough through Olympic and rail infrastructure projects. Just look at the portion of money for these expensive infrastructure projects that go to administration, management and engineering.
Do we really need more expensive rail transit in Vancouver at the expense of more needed transit in other parts of the region?
Guiding principles indeed...Visionless Party, big on buff, small on principles.
There are lots of streetcar transit systems sharing road space or light rail serving suburbs or in the centre of wide boulevards. Ottawa is looking at a system but it appears to be tied in with one way streets. Light rail is the best alternative in terms of cost and capacity, but only if can be shown to work, and only if Skytrain is optimized to deliver users to were they want to go quickly meaning the Millennium line expanded east to Port Moody and west to Burrard.
Translink has to be able to point to an existing rapid light rail system that meets the conditions present in the Broadway corridor or else choose between the flexible but limited rapid bus alternative which is expensive to operate or the costly to build Skytrain which has the most capacity but least flexibility
Someone at Translink show us a existing light rail system that can be easily modified to suit the Broadway corridor. I would like to see Light rail running from Burrard out to UBC with a spur along False Creek to Science Centre and spur running down Burrard from Broadway to Georgia.
The idea of building something on 16th is not that great considering it will disturb pacific spirit park.
I think that Sky train or a tunnel is the best option considering that it's faster, and can be connected to one of the already existing lines.