better transit...not freeways?

This past Friday, walking home from my son's school we passed a sign on a neighbour's lawn that read "better transit... not freeways". Anyone that's followed this blog for a while knows where I personally sit on the issue, still when my son asked me what it meant I was a bit stumped. The only thing that I could think to say immediately was that the person who put it up obviously doesn't commute outside of the city.

"Better transit...not freeways"? I challenge anyone (that hasn't done this already) to take a day trip out into the valley and back again, on any given day of the week. It doesn't matter which crossing you choose: Port Mann; Pattullo; George Massey; Alex Fraser; etc., the result will be the same. You will be stopped almost completely at some point due to traffic.

"Better Transit" obviously means more light rail, car-pools, bicycles and anything else that reduces the number of single-occupant vehicles on the road. While all of these are great ideas (we have been a one vehicle, car-pooling family for over a year now), none solve the immediate problem of outdated bridge and freeway infrastructure and none will really work until our freeway's are made bigger. (There have been no significant improvements to lower mainland freeway's since the 1980's, but the population has grown by about 750,000 during this period) Transit outside of the City of Vancouver and off of the Skytrain lines is close to pathetic! As long as it takes someone like me an hour and a half by bus to travel what takes fifteen minutes by car no one will be jumping to change their transportation habits. So what is the solution? 20% more buses and 44 more Skytrain cars? Probably a great idea in the long run but immediately (without significant infrastructure upgrades) all that more buses are going to do is create more congestion.

"...not highways!" I can't help but think that those opposing the Gateway Program (like my neighbour) are missing what is probably the biggest and most important part of the puzzle. Gateway is not about building bigger freeways, but freeway upgrades are a critical part of Gateway. Our current systems will not allow more buses, more light rail or more use of bicycles. In other words, our current freeways can not accommodate "better transit."

"Better transit..." means a lot of things for sure and it appears to me (especially after reading the Vancouver Sun on Saturday 28 Oct 06) that Premier Gordon Campbell, Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon (whom I know personally as a passionate cyclist) and the BC Liberals have begun taking some very significant steps in the right direction. Of course we all have certain responsibilities toward the success of better transit and for starters, opponents need to look beyond the notion of bigger freeways. For starters, take a look at the provinces "Green Cities Project" that includes $40 million over 4 years in matched funding for, among other things "better transit" like improved bike paths and walkways. This is over and above the $2 million promised earlier this summer specifically for bicycle infrastructure in various communities throughout the province.

Unfortunately, at the moment it seems as though those against Gateway are stuck in their own ideological "traffic-jam" and they can't see beyond the roadblocks that they have constructed. If they could they would see what most of us do already and that is a multi-faceted plan for..."better transit."