Disaggregating Gateway I

Vancouver's business community, headed up by the trucking industry, has started to rachet up the rhetoric in support of the Gateway project, as evidenced by this article from last weekend's Province.

As we mentioned in our own piece from a little more than a year ago, Minister of Transportation Kevin Falcon (MLA Surrey-Cloverdale) has cleverly packaged the entire Gateway program as a single project, thus giving its most controversial elements - the widening of the Trans Canada Highway and twinning of the Port Mann Bridge - a better chance of gaining approval.

While it's clear that Mr. Falcon's constituents might see short-term benefits from the expanded freeway, decades of experience in other cities shows that widening freeways does not reduce traffic congestion over the long term.

Even worse, it typically leads to more ugly, urban sprawl.

Consider New York City - since the 1930s, seven bridges have been built between Manhattan/the Bronx and Long Island, each with the stated aim of reducing traffic.

The net result? Traffic has only grown over the years, as Long Island suburbs have extended eastward, creating a wasteland of strip malls and endless suburbia. Traffic congestion at bridge and tunnel crossings has only expanded.

Over the long term, this is the same future that Mr. Falcon's 'vision' will deliver to his constituents.

In our next post, we'll consider how we can improve on Gateway, while still building the roads that the trucking industry needs to move freight around the Lower Mainland. 

Comments

[Bill]

Werd up!

[John Smith]

I love how opponents to building "freeways" in Vancouver always site other cities in comparison. The problem you have is there is NO city in the world you can compare Vancouver to! The reason is Vancouver is the only city of more than two million people with no major infrastructure. Most cities have a challenge of balancing public transport and roads. The problem is Vancouver has no major road infrastructure. Highway 1 doesn't even go through Vancouver -- its two lanes each way and is liek a long road, not a highway. A two lane each way SFPR is only another long road, not a freeway. In the end, those who oppose creating a real infrastructure along with public infrastructure will continue to be naive and in the long run prevent Vancouver from being a true business centre. It will force business and port operations out of the city.

[ron]

Given the following quote:

"Consider New York City - since the 1930s, seven bridges have been built between Manhattan/the Bronx and Long Island, each with the stated aim of reducing traffic.

The net result? Traffic has only grown over the years, as Long Island suburbs have extended eastward, creating a wasteland of strip malls and endless suburbia. Traffic congestion at bridge and tunnel crossings has only expanded."

The Vancouver analogy - the three bridges built since the 1930s leading to the downtown core - Burrard, Granville and Cambie - should also decried as car-fuelling sprawl-inducing highways.

Yet the (holier than thou) City of Vancouver won't narrow one of them for a couple of bike lanes....

[danny]

It's always easier to give, than to take away.

(It's easy for your employer to give you a raise, than to give you a pay cut).

Which makes the anti-gateway argument all the more compelling - once you build the bridge and allow the sprawl, you can't take it back.

[Chris]

Great article.

In response to John Smith - Vancouver doesn't have any highways - that was a concious decision in the 1950's. Interestingly enough, Vancouver doesn't suffer from congestion problems. Over the past decades we've had to build denser and invest in public transit. Amazingly, I've never had problems getting around the city. It's cities like Port Moody and Burnaby, where there are highways, that are suffering from congestion.

[Bregalad]

John. Why should we make the same mistake everyone else has? Seattle, a city very much like Vancouver, has some of the worst traffic jams in the world. They have freeways up to 10 lanes wide. Do they have bad traffic because they need 3 more freeways or because they made the decision to build freeways in the first place? After years of inaction and the canceling of projects approved by the voters, Seattle is finally getting a mass transit line from downtown to the airport. I think they've finally realized that Vancouver has been doing it right all along.

Unfortunately the suburbs are working against efficient transit by encouraging businesses to locate in "business parks" far from any services or homes.

SkyTrain should be extended sooner rather than later: Millenium line west to Broadway & Granville, Expo line should branch at Surrey Centre with the existing arm extended south east to Fleetwood with a new branch running south along King George Hwy to Newton. A B-Line bus would run between Surrey Centre and Fleetwood via Guildford, a second from Fleetwood to Langley and a third from Newton to White Rock. Surrey should also get more east-west bus services to both feed the SkyTrain extensions and provide its citizens with greater transit service for trips within the city.

A regional rail program could see a line from Marine Drive Canada Line to Port Coquitlam or Maple Ridge. This would offer additional choices for commuters in the north east and greatly improve access to YVR. Canada Line should have gone at least as far south as Granville Ave in Richmond and definitely shouldn't have been limited to one track in the Richmond Centre area. Some day there might be justification for extending the line to Ladner and it will be difficult to do with commercial development surrounding a line that needs to be widened to two tracks.

[Bill Smith]

Are you all for real? No really...are you? Why are people in Vancouver so small minded?

Typical. Another reason why Vancouver doesn't even rate on the business or economic world stage.

Instead of living in a city it seems most here wanna live in a small town.

[djmk]

for this argument, both sides can make some compelling arguments. however, if you know this bridge, you know that it is soon to be crisis. action is needed now.

i understand everybody loves skytrain or light rail until the gov't tries building it. it will never service langly, no freight can be carried, and nobody wants it in their neighbourhood.

i think the GVRD, needs to think hard about amalgamation. right now, there are too many voices and competing self interests. and when we are talking about transportation, its clear everyone of us is effected.

[martin 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.