rotary 2015 final 2
TRANSCRIPT
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Greater Victoria Transportation Issues and Opportunities
Rotary Club of Victoria February 16, 2015
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Greater Victoria Transportation Issues & Opportunities
Greater Victoria is almostsurrounded by water
Unique
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In addition Greater Victoria has numerous internal transportation barriers
Mount Doug
Thetis Lake
Gorge WaterwayEsquimalt Lagoon
Malahat Mountain
Thetis Lake Park
Langford Lake
Bear Mountain
Greater Victoria Transportation Issues & Opportunities
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Greater Victoria Transportation Issues & Opportunities
The root cause of most traffic congestion and why late afternoon traffic congestion is always worse
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The 2006 volume bar map from the 2014 Regional Transportation Plan
Sooke Rd
Vete
rans
Highway #1
Pat BayHwy
Quadra S
t
Shelbourne
McKenzie
Hillside Ave
Pat Bay & Sayward (fixed)
W Saanich & Viewmont
Wilkinson and Interurban
McKenzie & Burnside
Highway 1 & McKenzie
Highway 1
Island Highway
Douglas & W Saanich
Douglas & Hillside
Bay & Tyee / Wilson
Helmcken & Burnside
Greater Victoria Transportation Issues & Opportunities
HOT SPOTS
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The Bad News :
No one is in charge
The roadways are owned by the 13 different Municipalities and the Province
The only existing “overarching” governance body is the CRD that :
- owns no roadways
- is perceived negatively by the public (water, sewer, bureaucratic)
- does transportation planning based on ideology instead of science
Greater Victoria Transportation Issues & Opportunities
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Greater Victoria Transportation Issues & Opportunities
2003 - Regional Growth Strategy – The focus will be on increasing the use of transit, cycling, and walking.
2005 - Travel Choices – an ideological document asserting that Greater Victoria could attain the same transit market share as Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal.
2014 – The CRD Transportation Plan- Not a transportation plan at all- No identification of congestion points- No alternative congestion solutions- No priority setting- No financial plan- A $250,000+ “dust collector”
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Greater Victoria Transportation Issues & Opportunities
The “double barrelled failure” of CRD (and BC Transit) Transportation Planning
1) The transit market (mode) share target is based on ideology and not science
2) Transit market share has been (predictably) flat for 10 years of studies
% Journey to Work by Public Transit vs City Population Transit Mode (Market) Share vs Year
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The Result :
Completely unnecessary traffic congestion and delays
On-going intrusions of traffic into neighbourhoods
Unnecessary GHG (Green House Gas) emissions
Greater Victoria Transportation Issues & Opportunities
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Exhibit A – The Highway 1 and McKenzie Intersection
Highway #1
McK
enzi
e
Burnside
Mar
igol
d
Helm
cken
Admirals
Burnside
InterUrban
MissingOn-ramp
Neighbourhood Infiltration / Overflow
Carey
Intersection has three major flows instead of twoand it Is far beyond its rated capacity
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30 %Left Turns
Exhibit A – The Highway 1 and McKenzie Intersection
Why the intersection is so congested – 30% of inbound vehicles turn left
The “third flow” conflicts with- Outbound vehicles in the
afternoon rush hour- Backs up to block inbound
lanes in the morning rush hour
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HOV lanes for - Buses - 2 + occupants - All-electric vehicles
This is NOT one of the current Provincial alternatives - but it could avoid problems if an interchange is ever built
Greater Victoria Transportation Issues & Opportunities
. . . . and there should NOT be an interchange at Tillicum
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The Good News
Victoria traffic cannot be increased from the east, west or south
LRT (Light Rail Transit) appears to be dead There never was a Business Case for LRT
Greater Victoria Transportation Issues & Opportunities
1) The LRT Ridership forecasts were inflated by including bus passengers as LRT passengers $ 23,730,000
2) Property Value Uplift values were incorrectly included as a project financial benefit $ 182,130,000
3) Accident benefits were overstated by $ 405,509,800
4) Non-Transit travel time benefits were overstated by $ 402,950,000
5) Vehicle operating benefits were overstated by $ 148,350,000
LRT Benefits were overstated by $1.2 billion
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The $1 billion expenditure would have increased transit market share byless than 1/2 of 1%.
Private Vehicle
78%
Walk10%
Transit6%
Cycle 3%
Other2%
Travel Market Share based on the CRD 2006 OD Survey
0.5 %
Greater Victoria Transportation Issues & Opportunities
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More Bad News
There is no leadership on the need for a Greater Victoria transportation network
There is no acknowledgment that science trumps ideology
There is no governance solution on the horizonand hence no prospect of any optimal solutions
There are no incentives to adopt zero-emission vehicles
Greater Victoria Transportation Issues & Opportunities
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Douglas Street Rush Hour Transit Lanes
Bay Street
Hillside Ave
Finlayson
Saanich Rd
Douglas S
t
Cloverdale
Tolmie Ave
Phase 1Fisgard to HillsideSouthbound Transit Lane 6am to 9amNorthbound Transit Lane 3pm to 6pm
Phase 2Hillside to TolmieNorthbound Transit Lane 3pm to 6pm
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The 2006 volume bar map from the 2014 Regional Transportation Plan
Sooke Rd
Vete
rans
Highway #1
Pat BayHwy
Quadra S
t
Shelbourne
McKenzie
Hillside Ave
The Proposed $16 million Westshore Parkway Extension
WestshorePkwy
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Greater Victoria Transportation Issues & Opportunities
Summary
1) Victoria has unique transportation geography requiring a region-widetransportation function
2) No one is in charge of solving transportation problems
3) Planners remain confident that known transportation science has no role in transportation planning
4) Greater Victoria dodged a financially disastrous LRT implementation
5) Mistakes and missteps are being made ($7 million + has been misspent)
6) Transportation congestion and pollution will continue to get worse
7) The broken transportation planning process could be fixed