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Victoria Rapid Transit Project - CRD/BC Transit - Light Rail (LRT) has been recommended


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#41 G-Man

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Posted 22 June 2009 - 08:05 AM

We need RT from downtown to Town and Country along Douglas Street.

Oh wait was planned and approved by transit but kybashed by car oriented restaurant owners.

#42 Mike K.

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Posted 21 July 2009 - 08:30 AM

BCT has updated the Victoria Regional Rapid Transit website with materials presented to the public at open houses in June. These documents can be accessed through this page.

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#43 Bernard

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Posted 21 July 2009 - 10:53 AM

We need RT from downtown to Town and Country along Douglas Street.

Oh wait was planned and approved by transit but kybashed by car oriented restaurant owners.


Bus lanes would help dramatically during peak hours, but I noticed that there would be even more benefit if there were bus lanes from Town and Country (aka Uptown Centre) through to the Mackenzie/Hwy #1 lights.

There is enough space on the shoulder for most of it to allow for a quick addition of bus lanes. The one bottle neck is at the bridge over Burnside/Interurban. Just adding these bus lanes should speed up the buses by enough to be noticeable. It should reduced this stretch from 20-22 minutes to 12 minutes.

They should also drop most of the buses that exit at Helmelcken and then go back onto the the highway. This would shave off another 2-3 minutes.

Also think it is time to have a separate bus coming in from Millstream and the highway into town. Accessing Langford that way would with the other changes above would allow a downtown to Langford bus at peak times in 40 minutes as opposed to close to an hour at the moment.

The biggest complaint I hear from people on the Westshore is that the buses take too long. Reducing the transit time by 1/3 in peak times will encourage a lot more people to ride the bus. It will also allow for more usage of the existing buses. There would be about 25-30% more capacity on the existing buses.

#44 G-Man

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Posted 21 July 2009 - 02:36 PM

I agree we need buslanes down the middle as previously envisioned by transit.

#45 Ginger Snap

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Posted 21 July 2009 - 06:21 PM

Is the idea of bus rapid transit being considered in this new round of open houses? Or LRT? Please say LRT!
Anyone actually go to the open house?

#46 G-Man

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Posted 21 July 2009 - 06:46 PM

Both

#47 askls

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Posted 08 December 2009 - 09:52 AM

As a new member to Vibrant Victoria Forum, I find it hard to believe that there have been so few postings about the pending plans by BC Transit for the Langford-Uptown-Downtown rapid transit corridor!

A major question must be answered soon about what type of vehicle is the right choice for CRD on this route and on future extensions of commuter services all the way from Duncan, Sooke and Swartz Bay to Victoria and within Victoria.

To orient most users of this forum, I suggest that you have a look at the web site for IslandTransformations.org where you will also have a convenient link back to Vibrant Victoria.

#48 Caramia

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Posted 08 December 2009 - 10:16 AM

Welcome to the forum askls!
And it is great to see that Island Transformations links back to here!
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#49 Bernard

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Posted 08 December 2009 - 10:57 AM

As a new member to Vibrant Victoria Forum, I find it hard to believe that there have been so few postings about the pending plans by BC Transit for the Langford-Uptown-Downtown rapid transit corridor!

A major question must be answered soon about what type of vehicle is the right choice for CRD on this route and on future extensions of commuter services all the way from Duncan, Sooke and Swartz Bay to Victoria and within Victoria.

To orient most users of this forum, I suggest that you have a look at the web site for IslandTransformations.org where you will also have a convenient link back to Vibrant Victoria.


I think the issue has been debated on here in full and complete detail over the last few years.

I was not surprised at the alignment they chose, the committee was stacked to come up with that conclusion. People from the Westshore were close to 1/3 of the committee. Meanwhile there was no one there from BC Ferries and very little representation from UVic.

I wish that there had been some discussion with the media release, some sort of report indicating why a route to the Westshore was the one that made sense over other routes that already have more transit users.

At the moment UVic is the terminus of 4 of the 7 busiest routes in the region. The existing highest density of transit use are on Douglas, Fort, Hillside, Quadra and Mackenzie. So I can not understand why they chose the alignment they did other than they were unwilling to consider the facts on the ground.

The current state of the investigation process has started. The page talks about considering three different options

# Status Quo – do nothing
# Preferred Alignment – technology A
# Preferred Alignment – Technology B

I assume one technology will be bus rapid transit and the other will be rail based.

I am happy to see that this time around there will be a proper consideration of different options and I assume a proper business case (or not) for each option. I can not see a business case for Westshore rapid transit that makes sense other than some aspects of Bus Rapid Transit, but we saw how that went over with the businesses on Douglas when it was proposed before.

What I find interesting about this process is the low number of people that have come out to the Open houses - 219 in June and 167 in October. This is less than came to the open houses about the Douglas Bus Rapid Transit plans.

The process had no open houses in Sidney or at UVic. I am not sure what was going on with the thinking by excluding these locations.

I wish they were evaluating rapid transit to UVic from downtown as this strikes me as much more obvious route if one were to start rapid transit here, but as I suspected from when they announced the committee that the recommendation was going to be a Langford to Downtown route.

I am not happy that the committee did not focus on linking the regional growth centres that are closest to the centre. Linking UVic, Shelbourne/Mackenzie, and Shelbourne/Hillside with downtown.

#50 G-Man

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Posted 08 December 2009 - 11:02 AM

^ My thoughts exactly Bernard. They set-up a committee with the decision already made. In fact the decision had been made years ago despite all of the evidence that other routes would have higher usage and would impact a larger portion of the travelling public.

#51 Bernard

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Posted 08 December 2009 - 11:08 AM

There are several more points to raise:

1) Work is changing, as more people work from their homes, regular commuting will drop off. Allowing staff to work at their homes would be a quick way for the government to reduce BC's CO2 emissions.

2) A rail line the Westshore would mean an encouragement of more people living on the Westshore. Do we really want to build a rail to encourage more sprawl? Would it not make more sense to put a lot more emphasis on having people living within 4 km of UVic and/or of downtown?

#52 VicHockeyFan

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Posted 08 December 2009 - 11:15 AM

There are several more points to raise:

1) Work is changing, as more people work from their homes, regular commuting will drop off. Allowing staff to work at their homes would be a quick way for the government to reduce BC's CO2 emissions.

2) A rail line the Westshore would mean an encouragement of more people living on the Westshore. Do we really want to build a rail to encourage more sprawl? Would it not make more sense to put a lot more emphasis on having people living within 4 km of UVic and/or of downtown?


Yes, but who says sense come into this discussion. I do like the fact that one option is status quo. I honestly do not see the need to continually grow the system to outlying areas. If you want frequent transit to downtown, then you should choose not to live in Sooke, Metchosin, Dean Park or Deep Cove.

#53 Bernard

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Posted 08 December 2009 - 11:23 AM

My fear is that an LRT will be recommended and we will be saddled with a half billion dollar capital cost and huge operating costs to move fewer people than take the existing #14 or #6 buses.

All the LRT systems that have gone in that have been useful in North America are ones that replaced bus routes that were operating at above capacity. The many examples of LRTs that have gone without the demand existing and that line then bleeding money from the rest of the transit system.

#54 Baro

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Posted 08 December 2009 - 11:28 AM

Replace the #14 from downtown to uvic with a tram with it's own lane where possible. Expand as needed from some sort of "tram hub" downtown (centenial square? land freed up from new JSB?). Ignore exurbs.
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#55 Bernard

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Posted 08 December 2009 - 11:38 AM

I think the #4 would be a better fit, especially if it were to run up Shelbourne to Mackenzie and then to UVic.

I would prefer a grade separated system if one were to go rail because otherwise the efficiencies are simply not there.

#56 G-Man

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Posted 08 December 2009 - 11:41 AM

I agree grade seperated would be nice. Hillside - Shellbourne - Mackenzie is probably the best place for that sort of system too.

Of course we are talking about an impossibility compounded by idiocy so it will never happen.

#57 piltdownman

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Posted 08 December 2009 - 01:12 PM

What I think makes the Downtown to Uvic route even more appealing is that that all day you have traffic going both ways and there is a large amount of things inbetween. If you build a line to the westshore you will get people headed into the city in the morning and people leaving downtown in the evening and very little in between. The only reason I can see people going to the westshore from the city is to go shopping at the big box stores, and you can't really do that on transit. Sure there is Town and Country as well as Mayfair Mall in between, but thats really not much. Between Uvic and Downtown you have Hillside Mall,the Hospital, Camosun college, University Heights and two high schools.

I really don't know what would be the best route. Perhaps a hybrid of the 14, and 4. So from downtown until Camosun it would be the on 14 route and then it turn and go down the hill and turn onto Shelborn until it hit McKenzie where it would turn right until it hit Uvic.

#58 UrbanRail

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Posted 08 December 2009 - 07:43 PM

There are several more points to raise:

1) Work is changing, as more people work from their homes, regular commuting will drop off. Allowing staff to work at their homes would be a quick way for the government to reduce BC's CO2 emissions.

2) A rail line the Westshore would mean an encouragement of more people living on the Westshore. Do we really want to build a rail to encourage more sprawl? Would it not make more sense to put a lot more emphasis on having people living within 4 km of UVic and/or of downtown?



People will still move to the Westshore regardless if rail is built or not. Many people can't afford to live in Victoria, so they move out to the Cowichan Valley or Sooke. So until house prices go down, I doubt that will change.

I do agree that rapid transit (rail) makes more sense on the busiest routes to and from UVic. Commuter rail on the E&N would make more sense in the peak commuting hours between the Cowichan Valley, Westshore and Victoria. There are plans in the works to upgrade service.

I also agree with what you said;

I am not happy that the committee did not focus on linking the regional growth centres that are closest to the centre. Linking UVic, Shelbourne/Mackenzie, and Shelbourne/Hillside with downtown.


I think that this process of choosing what mode works best is BS, because it was already decided that it would be Rapid Bus. But lets hope I am wrong.

#59 UrbanRail

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Posted 08 December 2009 - 07:45 PM

As a new member to Vibrant Victoria Forum, I find it hard to believe that there have been so few postings about the pending plans by BC Transit for the Langford-Uptown-Downtown rapid transit corridor!

A major question must be answered soon about what type of vehicle is the right choice for CRD on this route and on future extensions of commuter services all the way from Duncan, Sooke and Swartz Bay to Victoria and within Victoria.

To orient most users of this forum, I suggest that you have a look at the web site for IslandTransformations.org where you will also have a convenient link back to Vibrant Victoria.


Hi Askls, you should check out my website as well. www.urban21.ca

#60 phx

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Posted 08 December 2009 - 08:02 PM

What I think makes the Downtown to Uvic route even more appealing is that that all day you have traffic going both ways and there is a large amount of things inbetween.


What is wrong with the existing bus service between downtown and UVic?

Delays due to congestion are not the problem; there just isn't that much traffic congestion.

If the problem is insufficient capacity, then more buses are the easy solution.

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