Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics Underscore Need for Transit Transformation

Road closures and designated traffic lanes, plus 250,000 Olympics visitors in Vancouver spell massive reshuffling for commuters this month and next. Fifty-thousand motor vehicles cross the Cambie Bridge, on average, every day in Vancouver. During portions of the Olympics, only pedestrians and cyclists will be allowed over it.

Travelling west along Broadway on the 99 B-line from Main St to Oak at noon today, traffic was light but the bus was packed with some passengers riding next to the front door. The driver waved his left arm at the crawl of cars (and buses) heading east on Broadway and muttered something about the Olympics under his breath to explain why his bus was late and over full.

As in any crisis, there are choices. Grumble! Ignore it! Focus on other things. Or go to Hawaii until the cherries blossom!

A fifth choice doesn’t preclude any listed in the last paragraph. Mayor Robertson aims to shuttle Vancouver to greenest city on the planet status by 2020. What if we all take the rising wave of Olympics über-traffic hitting Vancouver as an urgent reminder to decrease the growing flood of cars and trucks on our roads?

Vancouver and our Metro region fall under the jurisdiction of the 2007 British Columbia Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Targets Reductions Act. The Act mandates GHG emissions to be 33 per cent below 2007 levels by 2020, and at least 80% less by 2050!

“Transportation is the leading contributor to B.C.’s greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for approximately 36 per cent of the total in 2006. Transportation is also the single largest source of personal GHG emissions, accounting for about 58 per cent of average household emissions.” (LiveSmart BC Climate Action Plan)

One would expect Metro Vancouver’s 30-year regional plan, in the making, to include measures to drive the region to meet the legislated targets. Paradoxically, the draft plan does not come close. It only calls for a modest reduction in the increasing rate of km driven, all in relation to expected local population growth to 2040.

Half the population of BC lives in Metro Vancouver, so our choices can leverage large impacts province-wide.

Lowering motor vehicle emissions can improve local air quality and help prevent life threatening planetary global warming. New avenues for relieving gridlock and revolutionizing urban transit are appearing in Vancouver and urban centers around the planet.

The Vancouver Observer spoke with Farrell Segall who created, for Novax Industries Corporation, an integrated proto-type WiFi network between Translink buses and Vancouver’s traffic lights. Buses signal traffic light controls, improving public transit efficiency. Vancouver, Chicago, Edmonton and Toronto are implementing the innovative system under Segall's guidance. New York and San Francisco may also adopt the system soon.

When asked to comment on urban transit choices, Segall did some research and offered this chart to the Vancouver Observer:

The vertical (Y) axis shows relative dollar cost of each urban transit option, including both original manufacturing costs and costs to run each type of vehicle. The horizontal (X) axis shows relative green value, accounting for both environmental impacts of vehicle production and CO₂ (GHG) emissions, by km driven.

Look at the top left of the chart to see the most expensive and environmentally harmful and the bottom right to discover the most economical and green valued urban transit choices.

Segall’s big picture view illustrates relative advantages and disadvantages of various transit choices. SUV’s are second only to air travel as most damaging to the pocket book and to Mother Nature. Ironically, Ford’s SUV sales are robust despite the economic and environmental strikes against them.

The chart is not to scale. If it were, Air Travel would appear somewhere above the top of this post on the cost axis! “Since when is air travel an urban transit option?” VO asked Farrell. In his research, Segall discovered some commuters actually do use helicopters to travel within Metro Vancouver.

Meanwhile, a small, but growing number of folks use bicycles – the clear winner on this chart. Bicycles are orders of magnitude cheaper and greener to manufacture than motor vehicles. Pedalling takes human-power and transforms it into motion, making bicycles practically cost free and 100% green to operate.

There are some obstacles for bicycle proponents to overcome. Vancouver’s current road systems as well as driving habits on the part of both cyclists and motor vehicle operators can make cycling dangerous to cyclists’ life and limbs. Yet, happily, Amsterdam, Portland and Copenhagen show how civic organization and passion can override roadblocks and establish thriving urban cycling ecologies.

Not as fuel efficient as bicycles and definitely more costly, Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (NEV) still beat traditional gas-powered cars when it comes to emissions. If one is willing to discount production costs to the environment and depending on how the electricity to run them is procured, NEV’s may offer a zero emissions alternative for people who need cars for short distances.

VO accompanied Farrell Segall on a NEV GEM test drive with GEM sales representative Denis Lang. GEM stands for Global Electric Motorcars, a Chrysler Company.

Lang arrived at Vancouver’s International Village in a yellow four-door GEM car. The car is much like a large golf cart and the doors are made of canvas. Lang and Segall took turns driving. VO sat on the rear bench seat covering the GEM NEV’s large battery pack. At a stoplight, a driver quipped, “Where’s the rest of the car?”

As Lang pulled forward, he explained to us, “when ordering the car, it comes basic: no doors, no signal lights. Everything is an option. There are some 40 you can choose from.”  His current strategy is to sell the GEM to organizations and municipalities, which can utilize fleets of GEM NEV’s for specialized purposes.

As we drove along Georgia St, the two agreed upon the unfairness of government subsidies for gas-powered cars and the lack of rebates for NEV cars, which discourage the average consumer from trying them.

Farrell took the wheel and Denis encouraged him to test the brakes.

“I feel I have to press very hard to brake. They’re not power brakes,” said Farrell, “but I can’t argue. The brakes work.”

“When you go downhill you’re recharging the battery,” said Lang. GEM NEV’s are rated to go 40-50 km on a charge (less in temperature extremes) and can be recharged overnight on a household outlet. Their top speed is 40 km/hour and currently NEV’s are still prohibited from crossing bridges in Vancouver.

Soon a driver yelled in admiration to us from his orange Mercedes Benz Smart Car, “that’s even more than this is!” When we parked, many more passers-by stopped to look at the GEM and ask questions.

With Lang standing by, VO asked, “What did you think Farrell?”

“I’m an inventor and innovator and I’ve tested a number of electric cars over the years. I’m impressed. Very neat, very basic. Simple. Does what it’s supposed to do. And surprisingly comfortable as the suspension is pretty hard.”

In a subsequent conversation, Farrell told VO none of the electric vehicles he’s tested so far have convinced him to sell his Toyota Hybrid Camry (gas/electric combo) He commutes on the highway and has long distances to drive each day all around Vancouver in his job.

GEM NEV may be more suited to shopping and leisure activity commutes with Canadian averages of only 15-32 km weekly.

Gas powered cars have been around for little over a century. Electric cars may come and go even faster than this. Eventually they’ll be replaced by cleaner and more efficient fuels such as hydrogen. This is the opinion of a former Toyota industry insider who wishes to remain anonymous. “It’s all a necessary evolution,” he said.

VO asked, “for your money would you buy the deluxe model GEM NEV ($20,000), a Toyota Yaris ($14,000) or a Honda Fit ($15,000)?”

“None of those,” he replied, preferring the Toyota Prius (well before Toyota announced braking problems), “the GEM NEV is too primitive. The Yaris and Fit are reasonably economical but it would be really wonderful if we could have these cars mated to the European super-economical small diesel engines.” Then moments later he brainstormed and said, “Perhaps instead of giving cash incentives to sell present-day gas-guzzlers from the dealers’ lots, the big three [automakers] could develop a hybrid [gas/electric] pack and install it for free.”

When asked by VO to comment on NEV’s, Vancouverite and co-founder of the Two Block Diet Kate Sutherland emailed her reply, “I am envisioning that my current car is our last, and that we transit to being members of a car co-op. Am structuring my life so that as much as possible, we do things on foot or by public transit…”

Public transit’s spot on Segall’s chart is all about averages. Transit increases in cost-effectiveness and green value the more we use it. If a bus or a Skytrain car runs empty, then the opposite occurs. New York is known for its popular public transit system. And this translates to admirably low per capita CO₂ emissions for the City according to its Inventory of New York City Greenhouse Gas Emissions - April 2007, less than Toronto which in turn boasts a smaller ecological footprint than Vancouver (Ecological Footprints of Canadian Municipalities and Regions).

The Ecological Footprints Report highlights the importance of Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS) to transit transformation in the 21^st century. LOHAS is an integrated approach to reducing GHG’s implicated in human-made climate change. But it doesn’t stop there. LOHAS is about overall impacts. It calls on each of us to live more lightly in the world. As the report says, “There are a number of ways Canadians can

“reduce their footprint, [and each of these relates to transit – directly or indirectly] including:

• Driving less;
• Walking, cycling, carpooling or taking public transit;
• Eating more organically, locally-grown food;
• Retrofitting homes or businesses to be more energy efficient or exploring renewable energy alternatives;
• Buying “green” power from local utilities;
• Buying a more fuel efficient, low polluting vehicle; and,
• Choosing a home closer to work.”

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While the 99 B line continues on its way, some other major Translink bus routes change during the Olympics:

#5 Robson/Downtown: Trips turn off Robson onto Thurlow, then take Smithe and Burrard to Pender.

N6 returns to the West End via Pender, Howe and Davie.

#15 Cambie/Downtown: Will travel on Smithe until Seymour, rather than turning on Cambie to Robson; it returns southbound along Richards rather than Cambie.

#15: No service on Cambie Bridge on Feb. 10, 12 and 28 and March 12.

#17 Downtown will only come as far as Davie Street.

#25, #33, #41, #43, #49, #480, C20, C22 will all be routed off Wesbrook south of the UBC Loop and 16th Ave. west of Blanca.

#33 29th Ave. Station / UBC will be routed away from the Olympic Centre at Hillcrest Park (the curling venue), going via King Edward between Cambie and Main.