".....................the bills mandating higher density near transit..........."; this is a myth, that you need density for transit, especially in the metro Vancouver area.
Density has little to do with transit use, except if the transit is so bad that the only way to increase ridership is to massively densify around a transit route, especially at stations.
What has attracted people to transit is user friendliness or the ease of using good transit, from where you live to where you want to go, without transfer or with one transfer with quick connections.
The density myth has been repeated so often locally, that the public and politcans have come to believe it. The sad fact is, transit ridership in the Vancouver metro area has only increased with the increase of population and there is zero evidence that transit, especially our proprietary light metro system has actually created any sort of modal shift from car to light-metro.
What the politcans do not tell the taxpayers is that our SkyTrain light-metro system has been studied to death and this pertinent fact, that the light metro system, where well over 80% of its customers first take a bus, has not created a modal shift, is the main reason no other city has copied Vancouver and its exclusive use of light metro.
The Broadway subway is testament to the power of the SkyTrain/density myth and urban planning.
Funding for the now $4 billion, 5.7 km Broadway subway which this revision of cost will be announced after the provincial election.
The North American Standard for building a subway is a transit route with traffic flows in excess of 15,000 persons per hour per direction (pphpd), yet peak traffic flows on the 99B Line, which will be replaced by the Broadway subway to Arbutus, is about 2,000 pphpd, based on 3 minute peak hour headway's.
Before Bombardier's rail division was sold to Alstom, Bombardier publicly stated on its website "that it doesn’t recommend the Skytrain technology for peak period passenger levels below 8000 passengers/hour/direction". According to Thales news release, regarding winning the $1.47 billion resignalling of the Expo and Millennium Lines; "When the programme is fully implemented, the Expo Line will be able to accommodate 17,500 passengers per hour per direction, and the Millennium Line (Broadway Subway) will be able to handle 7500 passengers per hour per direction, a 32% and 96% increase respectively.
In 1940's and early 1950's, the Toronto Transit Commission were operating coupled sets of PCC trams on select routes, offering a maximum peak hour capacity over 12,000 pphpd, yet the Millennium Line will be limited to a maximum capacity of only 7,500 pphpd!
To complete the subway to UBC, with any chance of reasonable ridership, massive densification must take place along Broadway, so much densification that the surrounding roads will become permanently congested, with gridlock being common place, while at the same time politcans will crow about the high ridership on SkyTrain, which over time the public will come to realize that those supporting SkyTrain and a subway, were selling "Snake Oil" to city rubes.
".....................the bills mandating higher density near transit..........."; this is a myth, that you need density for transit, especially in the metro Vancouver area.
Density has little to do with transit use, except if the transit is so bad that the only way to increase ridership is to massively densify around a transit route, especially at stations.
What has attracted people to transit is user friendliness or the ease of using good transit, from where you live to where you want to go, without transfer or with one transfer with quick connections.
The density myth has been repeated so often locally, that the public and politcans have come to believe it. The sad fact is, transit ridership in the Vancouver metro area has only increased with the increase of population and there is zero evidence that transit, especially our proprietary light metro system has actually created any sort of modal shift from car to light-metro.
What the politcans do not tell the taxpayers is that our SkyTrain light-metro system has been studied to death and this pertinent fact, that the light metro system, where well over 80% of its customers first take a bus, has not created a modal shift, is the main reason no other city has copied Vancouver and its exclusive use of light metro.
The Broadway subway is testament to the power of the SkyTrain/density myth and urban planning.
Funding for the now $4 billion, 5.7 km Broadway subway which this revision of cost will be announced after the provincial election.
The North American Standard for building a subway is a transit route with traffic flows in excess of 15,000 persons per hour per direction (pphpd), yet peak traffic flows on the 99B Line, which will be replaced by the Broadway subway to Arbutus, is about 2,000 pphpd, based on 3 minute peak hour headway's.
Before Bombardier's rail division was sold to Alstom, Bombardier publicly stated on its website "that it doesn’t recommend the Skytrain technology for peak period passenger levels below 8000 passengers/hour/direction". According to Thales news release, regarding winning the $1.47 billion resignalling of the Expo and Millennium Lines; "When the programme is fully implemented, the Expo Line will be able to accommodate 17,500 passengers per hour per direction, and the Millennium Line (Broadway Subway) will be able to handle 7500 passengers per hour per direction, a 32% and 96% increase respectively.
In 1940's and early 1950's, the Toronto Transit Commission were operating coupled sets of PCC trams on select routes, offering a maximum peak hour capacity over 12,000 pphpd, yet the Millennium Line will be limited to a maximum capacity of only 7,500 pphpd!
To complete the subway to UBC, with any chance of reasonable ridership, massive densification must take place along Broadway, so much densification that the surrounding roads will become permanently congested, with gridlock being common place, while at the same time politcans will crow about the high ridership on SkyTrain, which over time the public will come to realize that those supporting SkyTrain and a subway, were selling "Snake Oil" to city rubes.