Rapid transit to UBC on Broadway
This semester I’m teaching two undergraduate-level courses at UBC. When I was a graduate student, it was easy to live, study and do work at UBC. Even if I didn’t live exactly on campus (which I did, both at Green College and at St. John’s College, as well as Fairview Residences) I was still able to get to campus on time (because when I lived near Broadway and Granville, I could take the then-10 UBC, the 9 UBC AND the 99 B-Line).
Admittedly, moving to East Vancouver (in the Mount Pleasant/Main Street area) has been one of the best decisions I’ve taken. I live close enough to downtown that I can get to my office at The Network Hub quickly, and from there, the college where I teach on Thursdays is pretty close by. So, no complaints on my side. Mount Pleasant has everything I need within walking distance (or even within Canada Line/Skytrain distance). I walk almost everywhere and I also take the public transit system, so it makes my life easy. I can even walk to the Canada Line and/or Skytrain stations within a reasonable 30 minute walk.
Today, I was a bit late to get to the university Point Grey campus (I normally strive to leave my house by 6:00am so I can have a full 2 hours to feel prepared for my first class at 9:00am at UBC) and I saw 4 (yes, you read right, four) 99 B-Line buses pass me by, fully packed. I took a 9 UBC (one of the slowest buses I have to say) expecting to make it to campus close to 9:00am, but luckily I saw a 99 B-Line and jumped on it (it was still packed, but I got to sit around Granville Street).
This got me thinking – there is not a chance in hell that Translink is going to provide adequate level of service during the 2010 Winter Olympics. I was about to post a very sweet entry on the great things I’ve seen Translink do (articulated buses with more capacity for the 8 Fraser, more frequent bus service to downtown, etc.) But this wait for the 99 B-Line really frustrated me.
On Twitter, many people responded to my tweets mentioning the need for an alternative to Skytrain (e.g. light rail or street cars). I am all for an efficient transportation system that is (a) fast and (b) inexpensive, because, taxpayer’s dollars (mine included) are going to go to that. Arguably, and in this I can’t deny it, it’s really important to do the Evergreen line to Coquitlam and the Tri-Cities if we are going to really get serious on greenhouse reduction, so that people can leave their cars behind.
So, since I haven’t had the time to respond to everyone on Twitter, I’m opening my blog to continue the conversation. What should we do with the rapid transit lines, both to UBC and to the Tri-Cities area and the suburbs? Have at it on the comments section.
Related posts:
- My growing dependency on transit in the Metro Vancouver region
- The Provincial Transit Plan and Mexico City’s case
- More on Google Transit and Vancouverisms
- Google Transit – Vancouver – link love
- Sustainable transportation in Vancouver
I used to work for UBC in their transportation planning department. Back then, the kool-aid was for skytrain to be continued along West Broadway, up 10th, to campus.
However, now that I don’t work there, it doesn’t make any sense from a cost perspective to spend 2Billion dollars to extend the line for 70,000 people, when a Light Rail Transit network (marginally slower), could be established throughout the region (Vancouver, Burnaby, Surrey) for the same 2Billion dollars (think Portland metro). Such a network would service 700,000 people.
Much better bang for the buck.
I have no answers, but I can relate to your situation.
I’m actually quite curious about Translink’s logic and the decision-making process when it comes to the B-lines.
I remember taking the B-line to UBC from Granville and Broadway where you’d wait however long, only to have 2 full B-lines pull up. It was never staggered, it was always 2 at a time… wait a while… then 2 more come. The same used to happen for the beloved 98 B-line to Richmond. You’d wait around for what seemed like forever, and then BLAMMO! 2 B-lines come rushing up, full.
As for the full buses, I guess this is what happens when you’ve got the U-Pass system encouraging students to take public transit *and* you build up the density along major transit corridors (and in the city, in general). Population density works when you have the infrastructure to support it. I don’t think we’re quite there, yet.
Interesting article, but do you think that a lot of Olympic tourists will be going to UBC at 6 AM?
I’m not disagreeing that this is going to be a huge strain on our transit system, but your experience isn’t the barometer by which to judge our capacity. All of those packed 99 B-Lines are full of university students going to class. That rider demographic isn’t going to increase during the Olympics.
I will be really interested to see how much of public transit (apart from the skytrain) will be used by olympic visitors. I know they are encouraging it..but again…I really wonder.
As for the future of our city’s transit. Back to the old street cars for places like South Granville, Main and Broadway. cheaper, efficient and much easier on the eyes.
While the skytrain is fast it is ugly. Lougheed is so dark now where it runs under all the concrete and 3 road now feels the same.
Not the best skyline for a ‘world class city’….I think we can do better.
We do need the evergreen line…or do we….I wonder how much transit plans are tied in with population movement…and places of employment etc….are buses being planned for all the small industrial/business parks that are springing up all over the lower mainland.
The horrendous bus trip that a lady told me about who works at the strip mall at Marine and Byrne in Burnaby….awful.
My husband works a 15 min drive away..but to take transit would be over and hour…and 2 zones.
We really need to think about how the lower mainland is changing in its needs for transit and where.
The congestion and frustration you mention (and the odd staggering issue Robyn mentions) are problems I have heard about from UBC students for a long, long time. A good friend who used to live at Main and Broadway actually got to the point where she just gave up: She’d backtrack, take the bus to Commerical Drive Skytrain and line up for the 99 B-line there—because if she waited at Main all the buses just sailed past fully packed and she never got on. To me it always seemed ludicrous she had to do this and it doesn’t sound like in the 3 or 4 years since she was at UBC it’s gotten any better.
I agree with Dan: I don’t think Olympic visitors will exacerbate the Broadway/UBC corridor issue, but it does highlight one of the main problems I have with the Olympics. We have put untold resources into solving issues that will exist for the two- to four-week period of these games yet we are really no closer to resolving problems that have plagued Vancouverites for years and will continue to impact residents into the future. I think the Canada Line was a good step but fully agree that light rail or some other type of transit solution is required here.
Actually, I have to disagree with Dan and @lynneux; UBC bus service WILL be adversely affected during the Olympics because there are official events going on out there. The B-Line and Broadway corridor will be packed throughout the women’s hockey tournament, which takes place over at UBC. There is NO WAY Translink will be able to handle this, and I think that it will be the biggest non-sports story of the Olympics. Atlanta was known for their poor transportation, but I think Translink will take transportation failure to new lows.
While I think that they are taking some steps in the right direction for the GVRD in general, they are NOT adequately addressing the high-traffic transit needs. I live in Kitsilano and go to SFU, and not only do I get the horrible stuffed-bus service on the 135 and 145 lines, but I also get passed by on Broadway, as the B-lines scramble to tackle the UBC volume.
Having lived in a few other cities in Canada, and traveled to a few other cities in the US and used other transit and subway systems, I can safely say that Translink offers the worst, most illogical service I’ve ever experienced.
The best solution for Metro Vancouver is a street-car style system feeding from Coquitlam Centre into the Millenium Line at Lougheed Mall. At the other end of the Millenium Line do the same – street-cars running down the centre lanes of Broadway/10th all the way out to UBC.
The Coquitlam Centre line could be extended to Maple Ridge and beyond or linked into the Westcoast Express system. Imagination and creative thinking required.
The surface rail-street-car system could be extended all through the Surrey-Langley-Aldergrove areas to feed into the Skytrain line or…creative thinking and a real desire to actually solve the regional transportation problems is required.
you will never get logic and desire to do things right in this city, leftcoast…sadly lacking here.
As for the Olympics, UBC students have the two weeks off of school. So maybe that will at least relieve anyone from waiting for more than 4 buses.