Gateway Primer

I like the message that anyone who buys imported goods — in Canada — is contributing to the demand for BC’s Gateway sector of the economy.

On top of our choices as consumers, thousands of people in the lower mainland have jobs connected directly or indirectly to the import and export of goods. This includes (but is not limited to) some high paying union jobs — what is big labor’s position?

The other missing key issue is that Translink currently cannot offer any kind of bus service over the Port Man Bridge because of the congestion and unpredictability in terms of scheduling. With a new bridge and new commercial / transit only lanes, they could do this.

In the great discussion of the automobile attachment that most people have, a discussion of “toll roads” never came up. Curious.

I hate the fact that the Lower Mainland region needs highway expansion, but it does. Lets just hope they can do it right — anything new should have a toll so drivers pay the real cost of having that option. And they need to keep commuters from the eastern Suburbs out of East Vancouver side streets and neighbourhoods.

The Lower Mainland needs both Transit and unfortunately expanded highway 1 capacity (and a couple other routes). Transit won’t help move containers-and the estimate is that the number of containers processed annually will double or triple by 2020. And with population expansion south of the Fraser, road demand from private vehicles will not ease up. Even if every new resident ops for transit, perhaps a million people by 2025, we don’t have enough road capacity for the existing users plus the need to service the communities south of the Fraser with buses as well as their daily goods: groceries, clothes, etc.by commercial vehicle.

Part of the argument I’m trying to make goes along the lines of what the Green Party’s Adrianne Carr said a few years ago, something to the effect that expanding highways to combat congestion is a lot like loosening your belt to combat obesity. It’s short sighted as all hell, and while it may look like ‘progress’ to have new roads and the perception of greater capacity, it’s promoting the unsustainable option of car orientation. The idea of commuting using single occupancy vehicles becomes naturalized even further within our minds, and we collectively take two steps back in the plan to build a compact, complete, livable urban region.

I completely agree that something does need to happen, but a massive expansion of highway capacity so people in Langley can haul ass to downtown Vancouver in record time is not the answer. Gordon Campbell said it himself (albeit several years ago), “you can’t build your way out of congestion”. It has never worked, in any urban region I’ve heard of (and I did try to find an exception to this rule). The SFPR may be effective in terms of cargo, although it’s a matter of planning a route that has the least destructive effect on the ecosystem and surrounding communities. But it also begs the question of why we’re pumping money into our system so we can be a link in the supply chain for a fledgling US economy. White elephant? Perhaps in a few years.

As for the toll idea not being addressed, it did occur to me although my goal was to keep it under 10 minutes so I could put it on Youtube. It was excruciating trying to decide what to address and what to leave, as there are so many issues at play here.

Thanks for the feedback!