Vancouver transportation director Jerry Dobrovolny flags rising oil prices
On the day he unveiled the Transportation 2040 public-consultation process, city transportation director Jerry Dobrovolny said oil prices are driving part of his thinking in trying to reduce dependence on fossil fuels in Vancouver.
“We used to talk about it off in the future, when oil hits $100 a barrel, or when oil hits $150, $200, or more,” Dobrovolny told reporters at City Hall on May 25. “Well, the future is pretty much here now, if you look at the gas pumps, the fuel pumps. We see the impact that it’s having on people in different parts of the region. The less people are reliant and dependent on their automobile certainly makes a big difference to the pocketbook and frees up resources that would be spent on other things.”
Dobrovolny said Transportation 2040 will update what the city began formulating in 1997 with the cementing of its transportation plan, which he said reflected in policy terms public input demanding a city that is more livable and less car dependent. He said the population and jobs increased by 18 and 16 percent, respectively, between 1996 and 2011, but car trips into the downtown core fell by five percent.
On Thursday (May 26), the Kitsilano Community Centre will host a public meeting from 7 to 8:30 p.m. In all, there will be 10 meetings up to July 13.
Dobrovolny said staff will report to council in September on this first input-gathering phase. The second phase of consultation will begin in early 2012, he added.
Comments
5 Comments
Raif
May 26, 2011 at 10:57am
The costs of energy to Crown Corporations or their quasi affiliates can be managed by a Crown Corporation called Red Stars Fuels. This was an agency set up by the Socreds when they announced the Peace and Columbia River Hydro Electric Projects. This agency provided all the fuel needs for these project removing all the taxing infrastrutures to allow these projects that were initiated for the benifit of all British Columbians to evolve at the lowest cost price. The most current elligiblr benifactor of this consideration would be BC Ferries as they would be insulated from the spirlling cost of fuels and the consumer would obtain the service at reduced cost.
Fan'o Truth
May 26, 2011 at 1:06pm
From the figures presented, a 16 percent rise in jobs across the city but a drop in the number of vehicles entering the downtown core, that there was a loss of jobs in the core and an increase in jobs outside that area.
The 1997 plan seeks to do what banks and gas stations and supermarkets have done, that is, download costs onto the consumer. People who walk or bicycle will, it is hoped, not demand expensive new capital infrastructure projects, at least not as expensive as freeways or transit. This allows the city to avoid hated tax increases.
Taxpayers R Us
May 26, 2011 at 9:32pm
Is he a Vision member? Sure sounds like it.
Kim Collins
May 27, 2011 at 1:20pm
I don't completely agree with Dobrovolny's assessment that "... the future is pretty much here now, if you look at the gas pumps, the fuel pumps..." From what I've read recently (e.g. http://www.energybulletin.net/node/52460; http://www.businessinsider.com/why-time-is-short-now-that-were-past-peak... http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2011/0429/1224295673147.html; http://www.businessinsider.com/the-impending-world-energy-mess-2010-11) we're going to see much higher and more volatile oil prices in the near and medium terms than we are seeing right now.
That aside, I feel very fortunate to live in a city that is facing up to the immense challenges presented by peak oil through pragmatic strategies like building a safe cycling network, increasing access to community garden plots and focusing development on transit corridors.
Kim Collins
May 27, 2011 at 3:04pm
Note: For some reason the articles I linked to above have semi-colons attached to them so when clicking on them I arrived at a attached to the links after clicking on them I received an error message. So, if you want to access the articles make sure to drop the semi-colons when pasting the link into your web browser. My apologies.