UBC dorms a less costly alternative to SkyTrain

The $3-billion SkyTrain to UBC is a waste of money [“Why a Christy Clark victory might just rule out rapid transit to UBC”, web-only].

Both the City of Vancouver and the B.C. Ministry of Transportation are missing the point regarding the transportation plan to UBC. Both do not address the root cause of the problem, which is not resolvable by spending so much money.

The problem is the geographic location of UBC and its continuous expansion without consideration of the ability of the infrastructure to handle its exponential growth.

An ideal solution that will cost the city or the province very little money is to require that UBC address the expansion problem. It either must expand in other locations within the province or increase the number of students on its campus after providing them with dormitories at affordable prices. This approach will take the load off the transportation system and other utilities within the city.

I urge both the City of Vancouver and the Ministry of Transportation to consider this solution.

> Hamdy El-Rayes / Vancouver

Comments

3 Comments

Michael

Jun 13, 2013 at 11:34am

Indeed but that would eat into the profits and egos of self-interested groups in and around UBC including those deciding these things at UBC.

Hazlit

Jun 14, 2013 at 7:34am

I am an avid subway to UBC supporter but I concur with the idea that UBC wants to push subway building costs onto the rest of the province. The economics of the whole thing are complicated, to say the least.

alby

Jun 14, 2013 at 12:57pm

You know UBC a) is largely funded by tax payers, b) has students from all over the Lower Mainland attending, and c) is on an already epic building spree to house students? You act as if UBC is a for profit enterprise with purely west side students. Something tells me you just might be a "Surrey First" transit supporter....