Month: July 2015

Transit, Transportation, Vancouver

2014 TransLink Bus Performance Review – Cost per Boarded Passenger by Sub-Region.

A lot of the local media has been featuring the 5 most overcrowded bus routes in Metro Vancouver. That’s a nice and easy headline that people can latch onto. However, that data is actual part of a bigger document that TransLink has released. This document is the 2014 TransLink Bus Performance Review [PDF].

cost per boarding 2014

There’s one graph in particular that highlights how TransLink has made buses more cost-efficient over the past 5 years.

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History, Overseas Chinese, Vancouver, Video

Covered Roots: The History of Vancouver’s Chinese Farms – Video

Here’s a neat video I came across while reading about East Van Market Gardens tour done by the Vancouver Heritage Foundation. It’s a 22-minute video that talks about the history of how Chinese immigrants farmed much of the area. This agricultural history all used to take place right in the middle of the city. Continue reading Covered Roots: The History of Vancouver’s Chinese Farms – Video

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Transit, Vancouver

What YouTube commenters and Plebiscite commentary had in common?

After the No vote has trumped the Transportation and Transit Sales Tax that would have raised $250 million annually for transit service in Metro Vancouver, I got to thinking. Yes, I know it can kill brain cells. Especially thinking about such negative things as the fallout from the No vote to the plebiscite.

Throughout the debate before the votes were all tallied up. I just felt a lot of comments were like YouTube comments. It’s what they call “haters”.

hater definition

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Transit, Vancouver

Service cuts to TransLink will affect the ones who need it the most

So the No side had a resounding victory in the Transportation and Transit Plebiscite. It is,I think, an extremely disappointing, but unsurprising result. So where does that leave us as a region. Without stable funding for transit in Metro Vancouver, where do we go from here.

Well, service cuts are probably the first to happen. Transit services for the disabled and the elderly will likely be on the chopping block first.

from Wikipedia

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Transit, Transportation, Vancouver

Post-Plebiscite Thoughts and Readings

Well, if you haven’t heard by now, the results of the Transportation and Transit Plebiscite were 38.32% Yes and 61.68% No. The results are personally disappointing, but not at all surprising.

Gary Mason at The Globe and Mail talks of how the plebiscite was doomed from the beginning.

More than $6-million was spent – no, wasted – by TransLink and a coalition of the willing to underwrite a campaign the public had no interest in supporting. Plebiscite strategists such as Mr. Schlackman could only roll their eyes at the pitiful amount of time the provincial government gave the mayors to try to sell their $7.5-billion vision. In the U.S., transit proponents often have campaign runways that stretch up to two years. The mayors had a few months.

I think his last sentence in the article sums up how I feel about how this plebiscite.

All this plebiscite did was demonstrate what happens when a province’s political leadership abdicates its responsibility to govern.

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