Vancouver Gets a Freeway

It looks like Vancouver is about to join the big time with our first real freeway, which if approved, would be completed by 2013.

On the positive side, the twinning of the Port Mann Bridge should help ease the congestion problems on highway #1. On the negative side, there will of course be tolls, but even worse, the freeway means that more traffic will be headed Vancouver's way.

Among other projects, the BC government's proposed Gateway Program will see Highway #1 expanded from the current 6 lanes to 8, between 200th street in Surrey to the Grandview interchange. From Grandview on in to McGill, the highway will be expanded to 6 lanes from its current 4.

The big question though, is whether all of this will really help to alleviate congestion. Experience in other cities shows that when you build more highways, the benefits are typically short lived - more cars eventually wind up on the wider roads, and you're back to where you started.

Even Transport Minister Kevin Falcon appears to admit this, according to the following article from the Vancouver Sun:

Academics and environmentalists say -- and Falcon has agreed in the past -- that you can't build your way out of congestion. But, he suggested Tuesday, you can keep it at arm's length for a time.

The official Gateway Project report says that its models don't indicate that the expansion of highway #1 will "substantially" increase traffic along First Avenue into the city, but it doesn't say much about traffic flows along the Grandview Highway/12th Avenue route, nor along Hastings or McGill streets.

Might we one day hear people calling for these routes to be turned into highways? (After all, these roads will themselves become congested.)

Proponents of the freeway would say that the combination of tolls and public transit should help to reduce the number of cars on the road. But let's not kid ourselves either, a $2.50 toll isn't going to get people out of their cars and onto transit - New York City charges USD $6.00 per car to enter Manhattan, and $36 for vehicles with six axles...we'll be seeing higher tolls in the long run too.

Got an opinion on this or other aspects of the Gateway Program? Have your say below.

For more information, click here (pdf) for the full 90-page Gateway Program report, and here (pdf) for a one page map that highlights all the changes. The main website for the program can be found at www.gatewayprogram.bc.ca

Comments

[Chris]

Gateway Sucks. Building more highway capacity will just result in more people driving and using up that capacity. I find it laughable that the BC government is trying to pass this off as an attempt to reduce congestion thereby reducing idling which will magically reduce C02 emissions. What a joke.
Want to reduce emissions, expand public transit! Take cars of the roads.

[J.]

Indeed, freeways will not reduce congestion in the long run but come on: the region is growing and a more suitable road into the city is necessary. You could add all the commuter rail you want, but take a look at the Port Mann - it is jammed 16 hours a day and on weekends. Transit will not reduce this.

[eddie]

What we need is a combination of new transit and tolls.

Slap a $5 to $10 fee on Port Mann crossings heading into the city - that way people will think twice about driving into town. The same should go for the Lions Gate Bridge.

(Before people freak out, think of this - it costs USD $8.00 to enter Manhattan from New Jersey).

But you also have to build better transit, to give people a lower-cost, and more convenient alternative.

Why not extend Skytrain out to the Fraser Valley (or West Coast Express), and add better Park & Ride systems, where people can leave their cars before hopping a train?

[mr. wright]

I think you all live in a "magical land". I live in surrey and i take the bus and skytrain to work everyday. It takes me 1.5 hrs to get downtown in a overcrowded , stinky bus and train. Even if you improve the transit system with more buses and WAY more trains,i rather be in my own car driving home , than in a train that smells like BO without ac and squished like a can of sardines.

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[Mark]

Expanding the freeways will certainly not reduce congestion in the long run, but isn't it about time for Metro Vancouver to improve it's major routes? Just like other major cities in North America. We must admit Metro Vancouver is growing, more people meaning more cars,especially in the suburbs.To those people who oppose the expansion, try driving from Vancouver to Surrey during rush hour for a week and see for yourself. Not all of us can afford to live and work in Vancouver. I support this expansion 100%, because we certainly needed it. I have relatives from Toronto and Montreal that visits, and they just laughed at our current so called express freeways, the HWY 1,,91,99. Hopefully all of our freeways will eventually be connected for faster travel. It's about time people!

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