So, I visited Vancouver for the first time this weekend. My impressions:
-It's great how you can get downtown via skytrain in 25 minutes for only ~$8.
-The stations are tiny, it must be crowded during rush hour. Especially city hall station, so I wonder how that's going to deal with being a transfer station once the millenium line broadway extension happens.
-The driverless trains are pretty great. I love being able to look through the front of the train.
-The network of trolleybuses is great, much better than choking on diesel fumes.
-It's a good idea that they close off Granville street (their entertainment district) to vehicles (except EMS) at night.
-The B-line branding is embarassingly corny, and actually makes me appreciate the ridiculous amount of marketing that goes into GTHA transit agencies. Maybe now that the UPX team has finished designing the Waffen-SS uniforms for the ticket attendants they can find jobs in Vancouver
-I don't understand how the B line to UBC doesn't have reserved lanes, not that it was necessary for a long weekend.
And I also found th
is Neptus report comparing urban development in Metro Vancouver to the GTHA. The basic narrative is that between 2001 and 2011:
-Metro Vancouver directed development to existing urban areas while the GTHA sprawled. 69% of Vancouver net population growth was in urban areas, whereas 86%(?!!!) of GTHA population growth was in greenfield sites. In fact, many GTHA urban centres experienced population loss to greenfield development.
-Within urban areas, Vancouver was able to achieve Transit Oriented Development. 50% of new population was accommodated near a frequent transit route, and 23% within 800 meters of a skytrain station. Compare to Toronto, where 18% was accommodated near a frequent transit route and 10% within a kilometer of a GO station.
-Even though Ontario has been constructing an impressive amount of transit, transit is ultimately a transport solution to a land-use problem. Spending tens of billions of debt-funded dollars on subway lines in sprawling subdivisions can make no difference in mode share, whereas you can not spend a dime and achieve a mode shift just by directing growth to existing infrastructure. What Ontario is doing is what they call "running hard to stand still".
-Vancouver's evergreen line opens soon, and when that opens Vancouver will have Canada's
longest grade-separated rapid transit network, longer than Toronto's and Montreal's, which is impressive considering Vancouver's first line opened only less than 30 years ago!
-Vancouver has achieved an effective mix of housing types, whereas in the GTHA we are still polarized between single-family detached and massive condo towers. Vancouver is achieving density more smartly.