
By Gagandeep Ghuman
Published: April. 20, 2012.
A corridor gas tax for transit. Enhanced council support for the Ride Share program. Integrating transit systems across the region, even the province. Fostering a continued dialogue about the needs for better transit systems.
These were just some of the suggestions various transit stakeholders floated at the Compute the Commute event on Sat, April 14.
Organised by the Sea to Sky Clean Air Society, the event brought representatives from Trans Link, BC Transit, Jack-Bell Ride-Share, and transport consultant from the proposed South Britania development.
Daryl Novak, the project manager of Ride Share, said there are currently nine vehicles plying commuters from Squamish to Vancouver.
Ride Share has about 100 vehicles in their fleet across the Lower Mainland, and it’s expanding.
Novak said the company also helps commuters connect with each other for ride share in their private vehicles.
“We have a database that allows people to register with us, which helps them connect with other commuters,” he said.
Novak said Ride Share is a non-profit society that operates on a cost recovery basis.
“We need funding, we need community support, and we need community champions to market us,” he said.
Councillor Susan Chapelle agrees.
Chapelle stayed for the whole meeting, while Coun. Ted Prior paid a brief visit, but no other councillor was present. Ride Share is an affordable, environmentally friendly way of commuting, and the council should support such endeavours, she said.
Chapelle said the district is hiring a transportation coordinator, but it also needs to give more money for programs like Ride Share.
Peter Joyce, the transportation planner for the housing development at South Britania, said developers should actively integrate transportation in their plans.
“We want to be part of the solution,” he said.
“We want to create transit stops and bicycle routes. We want to support and pioneer ride shares, we want to integrate bicycle and pedestrian routes.”
Such ambitious plans and hopes for a better regional transit were also outlined by Matt Craig, the senior transportation planner for Trans Link.
He said Trans Link would finish the evaluation of its transit systems by May.
Craig said Trans Link is aware of the “strong interest” that Squamish residents have shown in extending the service to Squamish, Furry Creek, and Britania Beach.
“At this point, it’s more of a question of when it will happen,” he said.
SLRD director Maurice Freitag said regional transit systems need to be integrated. He also pressed the need for a central hub where people can get information on commuting.
Transit advocate Murray Gamble said there is a need to promote a transit culture in Squamish.
Ruth Simons says
We appreciated seeing Councillor Patricia Heintzman being one of the first to turn up to the event (by bike) and staying for the morning.
Mina Kavia says
Many people commute to Vancouver on a daily basis and we have not considered a train system such as the west coast express that runs from mapleridge to downtown vancouver. Is this something Squamish residents might benefit from? A train that runs south in the am at 6.30 and returns at
5 pm. This would significantly reduce the amount of drivers on the sea to sky highway. It would enhance the lives of commuters allowing them time to eat and read on a train, even have a carriage for exercise. So many health benefits and environmental benefits not to mention a reduction in cost of running vehicles.
Hopefully we can be progressive like the european countries and add a functioning train system into our infrastructure .
Thanks
mina
Ruth Simons says
Your comments and question regarding the train will be included with others from the event. We did invite someone familiar with the West Coast Express train, but no luck. Train travel seems such a logical option and comes up as frequently as the suggestion about a ferry. We will keep trying to obtain a response to this suggestion. http://www.seatoskyairquality.ca.
Ralph Fulber says
Absent a comprehensive growth strategy for the corridor, of which transportation is a key component, we are left with piecemeal developments that lack cohesion and forsight. Immediately at issue in Britannia with the proposed development by Taicheng is realizing the MO planned highway routed through Britannia. Many of the new residents who purchased and built homes on property immediately adjacent to the right of way are hopeful this never happens. That is one of the immediate conflicts which Taicheng will face. Another is the increased density they seek. For me as a resident activist who fought decades for remediation of the pollution and for security of tenure in our community, it makes sense to entertain a higher density to avoid building another bedroom community extention of the lower mainland. That means that there needs to be an integral part of the plan which creates jobs locally in order to support changes in the Official Community Plan and to permit zoning changes as requested. Not later pie in the sky but design and build with the first stage of the development. Then there is the elephant in the room, rail transportation. I have been a vocal advocate of rail transportation since moving here from living in Germany in 1984. First Nations needs to take the initiative and re-establish their interrupted utility of the old ‘grease trails’ which linked communities up through the corridor we call Sea to Sky and create a rail passenger and freight service. One of the more intelligent, (though I wonder if intentional,) changes brought about when BC Rail was gutted and the freight service sold to CN, was that the monopoly BC Rail enjoyed was broken and ‘tranched’. The rail no longer belongs exclusively to the company which holds the commercial freight contract. This leaves room for First Nations to assert their displaced right of access to the rail lines that pass through their territories and participate in the benefit by creating such a service. Looking elsewhere in the world we see that rail is sone of the most significant future transportation modes. It is green and sustainable. We have an opportunity to plan this one right and avoid that which happened to Surrey when a thousand small developments are allowed to proceed without an overall growth strategy and eye to the future. Building consensus may be a tedious route but we need to make the time to start getting it right.