3745 replies to this topic

[VicHockeyFan]

Arcadia?  You should just be a walking in each day!  That's a perfect 30 minute work-out.

[AllseeingEye]

Arcadia?  You should just be a walking in each day!  That's a perfect 30 minute work-out.

I could probably walk faster than transit gets me there for sure. Once the weather warms up I probably will walk. In fact I should actually cycle as we have showers at the office....

[sebberry]

http://www.cheknews....ulation-285154/

 

Clearly the solution is more bike lanes to get people out of their cars.

 

Just think, soon all these cars will be driving themselves and it'll still be gridlock!

[Coreyburger]

Car ownership != car use. People can own cars and not use them for all trips, as it fairly common in the denser parts of cities including Victoria.

[HB]

Its actually common in Cities but not little towns like Victoria

 

Vancouver Toronto New York Philadelphia they may own them (cars) and not use them but people in these real cities don't need them nor do they own cars. No place to park and they actually have great public transport systems in place and the most important point is they have a population to support these transit infrastructures not a measly 28,000 who make their way into Victoria city each weekday

[dasmo]

Its actually common in Cities but not little towns like Victoria

Vancouver Toronto New York Philadelphia they may own them (cars) and not use them but people in these real cities don't need them nor do they own cars. No place to park and they actually have great public transport systems in place and the most important point is they have a population to support these transit infrastructures not a measly 28,000 who make their way into Victoria city each weekday

If we are going to successfully densify we will also need the infrastructure. We need density in the core which means alternative transportation. Bikes, pedestrian and train. Now. So we don't all suffer decades of gridlock as we only then try to dig ourselves out. For such a tiny amount coming into town traffic sure is bad. Just wait till Royal bay is done, or how about Thetis with 60 odd homes with suites right before the pinch point, west hills, condos on Bear Mountain etc.... transportation infrastructure cannot be ignored and ESQ is not going to accept a freeway running through it. Can't nuke Thetis lake park for one. That only leaves one option....

[HB]

The problem is this.

 

In 1996 when the TCH was widened for the second time from Langford to Town and Country (first time was in 1977)

They left a very wide median from Millstream to Portage inlet. It was advertised by the Government of the day that this wide median was ready to go and planned as an addition lane for future use when traffic counts were much larger. Here we are 21 years later and the grass and spring wildflowers still grow on the median while people talk about what to do about the traffic increase and the (gasp) 15 minute commute time from Langford to McKenzie. Pave the damn median and put in a counter flow system so that the 15 minute commute is lowered to 12 minutes.

 

A second issue created by Esquimalt and View Royal was completely destroying highway 1A which is teh secondary route into Victoria. they made it 1 lane each way and wasted millions of dollars to make sure the rain water had a nice place to collect on that road. They lowered to speed limit to 40km. Same was done on Admirals road.

 

those 2 municipalities were run by jesters who made very poor decisions and wasted everyone's money and those idiotic projects.

 

And here we have people crying the blues about how we need trains here. Get real folks Victoria needs to get off its high horse and realize that it is really and insignificant blip on the map with a very small footprint a very small population and too much government filled with huge egos

 

 

I hope they tear those damn tracks up because the trains are not coming back I have been saying that since the last day the Dayliner ran.

Passenger rail wont work it doesn't make money and will be a burden on taxpayers. the ego and and the whining are all about a 15 minute commute from Langford to McKenzie (i do it every weekday) in the mornings and a 30 minute commute the opposite direction in the afternoon. the whining is not justified.

 

Of the 5 railroad systems on Vancouver Island currently operating

3 are industrial or freight

2 are tourist based

 

NONE are Passenger

Edited by HB, 07 March 2017 - 08:32 AM.

[dasmo]

My guess is you don't live in ESQ or View Royal. Langford?
Thank goodness they didn't build a freeway through there. The problem is that Langford is not developing in a person friendly way so when you want out of your car you have to leave there.... only by car.

[nagel]

It's not a coincidence that Vancouver is one of the most attractive cities in the world to live in and it does not have an urban freeway.

[HB]

Yes like over 90% of Canadian towns

[lanforod]

It's not a coincidence that Vancouver is one of the most attractive cities in the world to live in and it does not have an urban freeway.

 

This is true. However, it has many, many major arterial roads that are 4 or 6 lanes. Traffic disperses to take the quickest route. There are some bottle necks naturally, due to bridges, but in general, I think Vancouver traffic isn't too bad compared to many cities of similar size. 

I don't think Victoria traffic is really that bad either. A 45 minute commute isn't really that long.

[Mike K.]

Vancouver would have benefitted tremendously from a through-downtown freeway in 2017, that's the irony. To get from Broadway to the north shore you have to cross through downtown Vancouver and its maze of stalled traffic, then you get onto the bridge, only to face further congestion because the darned thing was built as a two-lane crossing that only managed to have a third lane squeezed in.

 

Vancouver's infrastructure is nothing to be proud of, it's a dismal failure in the eyes of international infrastructure planners. The only saving grace is the the train network, and even then it's experiencing issues as it should have been built as heavy rail instead of light rail (the forces that be were smart to avoid LRT for the Richmond line and went for heavy rail, hence why it can't share the LRT network).

 

Of course, on the flipside, if you're a raging anti-car proponent you'll consider Vancouver's (and its entire region) lack of proper highway infrastructure to be fantabulous even if it is crippling the region.

[Mike K.]

This is true. However, it has many, many major arterial roads that are 4 or 6 lanes. Traffic disperses to take the quickest route. There are some bottle necks naturally, due to bridges, but in general, I think Vancouver traffic isn't too bad compared to many cities of similar size. 

I don't think Victoria traffic is really that bad either. A 45 minute commute isn't really that long.

 

Oh it's bad. It's one of the worst on the continent. To travel between north Richmond and just across to North Van via the Lions Gate can take 1.5 hours during an average rush hour, which is insane considering the distance is only 20km.

[lanforod]

Yeah, pick two of the worst points to travel between, sure. You're going over 3 bridges there, one of which is a really bad bottle neck if you're going through rush hour. You can do that with many, many cities and get similar results. I've lived there for many years, it ain't as bad as it sounds for most people. If you're stupid enough to live in Richmond and work in North Van...

[Mike K.]

That's the thing, in many cities you're not stuck on surface roads trying to navigate between highways. I'd rather be stuck on a freeway than having to navigate streets with vehicles turning, buses rolling up, pedestrians crossing, cyclists meandering through, etc.

 

Travel from downtown Vancouver to White Rock-proper can take up to 2 hours during rush hour. Two hours! That's bewilderingly insane for a distance of less than 50km.

[nagel]

Not really insane when it happens at cities around the world.  Toronto, LA, Houston, it's not Vancouver-specific.

[On the Level]

Passenger rail wont work it doesn't make money and will be a burden on taxpayers.

Since when does public transit make money? I guess we could put a toll on the highway, another on the goose and a few on the new bike lanes?

If we want to save money, get rid of the empty bus runs. $111 mil over 3 years for capital buses purchases alone. Operating costs are ridiculous with BC Transit unable to reach the promised 30% recovery rate from ridership.

The Westcoast Express started with a recovery rate of 44% and is now at 90%. There were just as many naysayers about it as there are for the E&N.

[Mike K.]

Not really insane when it happens at cities around the world. Toronto, LA, Houston, it's not Vancouver-specific.

Distance travelled and population wise, Vancouver has an abysmal infrastructure network.

The roads were designed for a city of a million people, not 2.5-million.

We can praise Vancouver for being all eco and forward thinking, but it ended up as such by a mistake, not planning, and today in terms of infrastructure it's failing miserably, hence the multi-billion dollar rush to replace crumbling assets and increase capacity at all costs with tolled roads.

[nagel]

Distance travelled and population wise, Vancouver has an abysmal infrastructure network.

The roads were designed for a city of a million people, not 2.5-million.

We can praise Vancouver for being all eco and forward thinking, but in terms of infrastructure it's failing miserably, hence the multi-billion dollar rush to replace crumbling assets and increase capacity at all costs.

I'd say it's more about the ideological disconnect between the municipal level which can only fund a small part of the transit pie, and the provincial level which is all too happy to cater to suburban voters.

[Mike K.]

The ideological disconnect comes via a planning mistake, not the actions of municipal politicians who had alternative transportation in mind sixty years ago.

It's like the plans for Victoria's freeway network envisioned in the 50's and 60's, they didn't materialize, but they easily could have had the governments of the day had their acts together. By sheer fluke Vancouver didn't end up with a viaduct through or around downtown but they sure could use one now.