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Photos: Taking the 99 B-Line in Vancouver
This is how long the lineup for the 99 B-Line is on a good day.
Miranda Nelson
Every morning when I get off the SkyTrain at the Broadway-Commercial Drive station, this is the sight that greets me: a ridiculously long lineup of commuters waiting for the 99 B-Line headed west.
Today's wait was mercifully short; I managed to catch the third bus that showed up. To Translink's credit, they were running the B-Lines just about back-to-back this morning.
But this isn't even the worst lineup I've seen. Sometimes they wrap all the way out the Commercial Drive exit and/or down the hallway that leads to the Millennium Line.
How was your commute this morning, Vancouver?
Keep in mind, this is only the back of the lineup.
I'm not good with estimating but there are a lot of folks waiting, easily 50-60 in this line alone (and there are three lines, one for each door on the bus) when this photo was snapped.
But yes, during peak hours, and even running buses back to back, there are queues.
It's difficult to see how currently planned levels of investment in transit will work over the next 30 years across Metro Van. The system is far from adequate now, and will become more and more strained as rising oil prices drive people away from single-car commuting.
I guess the problem is viewing the investment in strictly capitalist terms - what will pay off - rather than in terms of overall benefit to society.
That's a problem not only for transit in North America, essentially any and all Government service are treated like it's a business that only has this one revenue source instead of looking at the bigger picture.
Until 30 years of Thatchernomics and Reagonomics are being undone nothing will change and we will cripple ourselves for a long time to come.
There is / was / should be enough money in the "Federal Stimulus Fund" to have invested in transit, instead they build bridges and other things that, although nice to have, will be less important in the long run.
But as it goes with us humans: We're only doing the right thing when we have no other choice, until then we try everything else.
Just out of curiosity, once these thousands of Surrey people have left Surrey and are at Broadway & Commerical, how will they get to their destination?
Expansion is nice (and necessary), but not if you cannot even handle the current capacity requirements.
That wouldn't change anything. The problem isn't capitalism, we essentially have socialism already, but it's upside down and forcibly feeds wealth from the poor to the elite.
Capitalism and socialism are both promising ideas in theory, but neither will work in the long term if combined with debt based money and private money creation!
Arguing about whether capitalism or socialism is better without addressing money creation is a waste of time. It's like arguing over what color bandaid to put on a wound that needs stitches and antibiotics.
An economy based on fractional reserve money creation NEEDS exponential growth in order to survive. It takes away the ability of a nation to plateau, which creates the requirement for bubbles, derivatives, lies and theft to create false growth.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional-reserve_banking
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full-reserve_banking
Peak oil is coming, and we have to invest NOW in public transit so that we can make a smooth transition to an electric based economy. The Broadway corridor is the busiest in the lower mainland, and ridership on the buses is growing exponentially - a Skytrain solution is needed urgently.
What fool citizenry wouldn't get a reasonable solution in place?
Alas me thinks that money is the hold up. This reason could be debated until the end of the earth but that is the ultimate reality, as complex as it is... what to do? What to do?
I might suggest the city of Vancouver ammend bylaws so a certain Arbutus corridor property owner could profit and therefore contribute to such an endeavour. The Canada Line is built. Done. Fin. Arbutus? I doubt the original intent when the rail line was built back even before the first was not about green space or yoga pants. It was about transport plain and simple. Translate that transport resource to where it's needed now, for the better of the overall community at large.
We can give the busses to Surrey.
A subway bored under Broadway (non of this cut and cover RAV line nonsense) is the only viable solution. Yes, it will cost money but if there's a will there's a way.
Ah well, maybe in twenty years or so after millions of dollars are spent "consulting" and sending politicians to Europe to see how real mass transit works. Again.
The skanky B-Lines move 15,000 people daily and boring to UBC is going to cost $3 billion. Skanky B-Lines carry mostly students who pay $200 for eight months at UBC.
Estimated B-Line revenue with half paying $1000/yr and half paying $200/yr is $0.009 billion/yr. Good investment. Payback is only 333 years. Stick with the ferries which we can afford at $300 million and a 33 year payback.