After coming back to Vancouver, I had a great aspiration to be more green in my life.  One of the areas in focus is the transportation.  Having lived in Beijing the last few years, and without a car, I am very used to traveling by public transit.   Of course, it also helps that the Beijing public transit is very cheap (0.40RMB for bus ride, 2RMB for subway, 7RMB = 1USD)

Anyways, the past month after taking public transit in Vancouver, here are some of my suggestions:

1. Start putting on some gates on Skytrains – I have always bought tickets, but I also “heard” that many don’t. For over 1 month of public transit, I was only being checked ONCE at a skytrain station.  Hopefully this can make the public transit system getting its fair share of revenue.

2. Make less bus stops – To make the buses run more efficient.  It doesn’t help when there are TWO stops at one intersection (look at Fraser and 49th).   Also, between city blocks there are too many stops.  Between Main and Cambie along 49th Ave, there are 4 bus stops, each ones within 200m of each other.  A normal person can usually walk a little bit, this can create a healthier lifestyle too.  I suggest simply take those stops out, people will be ok with it after a while.

3. Less runs to the Airport, more runs to Richmond on the Canada Line – It makes no sense to have a train every 6 minutes to go to the Airport.  I believe Vancouver must have the most frequent airport commute IN THE WORLD.  Instead of having one train to Airport and  the next one to Richmond, Translink should make this ratio 1 to 3 or so (3  trains to Richmond, and then 1 to Airport)

4. On the same note with the Airport train, I think the fee is TOO CHEAP.   It must be one of the cheapest transportation from city center (downtown) to airport IN THE WORLD too.  Beijing Airport,  with the low cost of living, has shuttle buses at $3USD and subway at $5USD, and Vancouver’s system is $3USD departing every 6 minutes. If cost of living is calculated, the Vancouver system’s cost should be 3 times as much as the one in Beijing.   (Note to self, my next article will be researching on the price)  One suggestion is to combine the ticket that goes to airport with the 24hr All-zone Pass.  This way, people who go to airport can pay around $10 and still feel that it is not overpriced.

5. The Olympic Line should stay – the connection to Granville Island and Canada Line is great for environment and business in Granville Island.  Now Granville Island became a place that is easily reachable, which is also how the Canada Line is to businesses in Yaletown.

6. The zone system is stupid – This one is tougher to implement.  I live in Vancouver, about 2 bus stops from Burnaby.  I think it makes no sense that I would pay a much cheaper rate to go to downtown, which is 20km away from where I am at, than to Metrotown, which is 5 km.  Most countries and cities would have the distance of travel be the only aspect to calculate the fare.  Of course, implementing this system requires changing the entire payment system – i.e. smart cards, readers, etc.  So I don’t see an easy way.

Here are some of my ideas.  If you have any more good ideas, let me know!

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Transportation is a big part of a city’s carbon footprint, responsible for over 25% of total carbon output.

There are some ideas about how to reduce the transportation footprint:

• Idle-free zone –  Vancouver started the program a few years ago. It is now illegal to have your car idled for over 3 minutes.
• Electric vehicle incentives – newly built apartments built in Vancouver are now required to have electric vehicle charging posts.  Government generally give out great cash incentives to subsidize the  higher-priced EVs.  Car manufacturers are finally getting their act together in putting out nicely built vehicles that suits the needs of drivers in North America.  (Go Prius, Go Volt!)
• Better Transit system – Growing up in Asia and North America, it is easy to tell the difference – the population density of major cities in North America are simply not enough to sustain a profitable system (maybe except New York City).  In Asia, any major city will have packed subways, highspeed trains, and it’s great.
• HOV lanes – encourages carpooling and ridesharing
• Work from Home – most of the times it works, but it requires quite a dedication and concentration to be able to work from home without distraction.

Any other ideas you want to suggest?

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