Transportation infrastructure is always about land use – in particular how access adds value to land. Most of the last half of the 20th century was the story of how highway expansion opened vast tracts of cheap land for low-density and car-dependent urban form. In Metro Vancouver, as far as the Province is concerned, that era has never ended – as this Business in Vancouver story illustrates:
Fraser Valley real estate sales are now growing faster than elsewhere in the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver’s (REBGV) jurisdiction …
Tsur Somerville, an associate professor for the University of British Columbia’s Centre for Urban Economics and Real Estate, said the Fraser Valley over the past decade has had a growth rate about half that of Vancouver, but that has changed as valley land beckons buyers seeking lower prices. …
For which they can thank this – the highway expansion paid for disproportionately by the taxpayers of Metro Vancouver, who will also revert increasingly to their vehicles as more resources go into roads and less into transit.
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Now the signal is to start expanding south as the Massey Bridge and a widened Highway 99 are developed, making vehicle access easier and transit less necessary.
Not everyone likes a condo. Some people prefer houses with a yard. The rapid transit system in Metrovan is decades behind, and car use is far too cheap.
We need a more pro-business attitude in MetroVan so we can generate more tax revenue and invest it into subways, LRTs or better magnetic high-speed green levitation gondolas bullt far cheaper than subways along / above existing transportation corridors as depicted here: http://www.skytran.us
To do that we need to lower or eliminate our provincial income taxes, increase PST, introduce road tolls and double or triple our property taxes to monetize the new 21st century worker that lives where he/she likes it and makes money / declares income where she/he likes it. Like Texas, or like Singapore, or like Monaco !
Poor taxation and poor transportation options is a choice.
Pro-union, anti-Uber, anti-propertyy-tax-hike anti-business city councils and anti-road-toll anti-debt anti-PST-hike provincial government have to work together.
Until then: status quo.
Rapid rail transit down the 99 to Delta, South Surrey and the exploding-with-growth Morgan Crossing area, as well as over into Langley, either down the King George corridor or as an extension from the 99 corridor, are distant destinations that would need an investment of over $5 billion. With Surrey’s plan and Vancouver’s wish for Broadway plus TransLink’s ideas about buses you’re talking well over $10 billion.
Vancouver wants the Broadway run first, Surrey has been planning for a few years too. Neither has the funding yet locked up.
Funding for rapid rail for the Fraser Valley fast-growing communities isn’t even remotely discussed by the Mayors of Metro or TransLink and they produced hundreds of detailed pages leading up to when they started firing their top people, including their planning staff, earlier this year.
Until something gets straightened out in those two bureaucracies the only thing than can happen is to see what happens with the Surrey rail plan, the new Patullo Bridge and an efficient and modern road network.
Or a game changer through new technology: magnetic levitation gondolas/pods, mounted 6m above arterial roads, very fast, light weight, green AND affordable as the investment per km of track is 1/100 of a subway .. coupled with self-driving vehicles, shared. All coming to a city near you, as all cities are struggling with the same limited $s, lack of space, expensive build costs for subways, yet desire to have individual cars.
See http://www.skytran.us
Nothing much will happen around here for a few years. Surrey will move ahead with surface rail.
Vancouver is stuck with a failed tax increase and too close ties to TransLink, which the public has little sympathy for. Now they are both hoping vehicle drivers will pick up even more of their tab than they do now. The current fixation on road-pricing will be even less liked and even a greater challenge to gain support for.
Vancouver will soon be preoccupied with property valuations and property taxes, and the viaducts.