Comments on: Rapid transit to UBC on Broadway

By: Marty

Marty — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 20:18:14 +0000

A litle off topic, but they should build a rapid transit to the North Shore. I don’t understand why this hasn’t been done already. Most people who live in North or West Vancouver work in Vancouver. The Lions gate bridge just gets worse and worse every year. The sea bus is really slow and not really that appealilng. If there was rapid transit from the bottom of Lonsdale to water front station, I think you could easly cut down on half the number of people who use their cars to get to work from the north shore.

By: Victoria

Victoria — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 21:57:23 +0000

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.

By: Crunchy

Crunchy — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 04:21:22 +0000

you will never get logic and desire to do things right in this city, leftcoast…sadly lacking here.

By: theleftcoastca

theleftcoastca — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 03:36:16 +0000

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.

By: Kali

Kali — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 00:30:39 +0000

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.

By: @lynneux

@lynneux — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:53:23 +0000

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.

By: Crunchy

Crunchy — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:40:15 +0000

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.

By: Dan Udey

Dan Udey — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:19:51 +0000

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.

By: Robyn

Robyn — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:02:25 +0000

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.

By: Mitch

Mitch — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:00:25 +0000

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.