THE NEED FOR AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH TO TRANSPORTATION FOR AN INCREASINGLY URBAN PROVINCE (2007) The provincial government, in conjunction with local and federal governments has committed significant funding for the expansion of transportation infrastructure across the province as an investment in transport as the next big driver of growth for the province.
Urban productivity is highly dependent on the efficiency of its transportation system. The ability to move people and goods efficiently and smoothly between multiple origins and destinations is the cornerstone of successful urban regions. As BC continues to grow, the ability to improve the flow of people, but more importantly goods, in our urban centres will require a range of measures ranging from new infrastructure to demand management tools.
Trend Towards Urbanization Census 2006 clearly demonstrated that Canada, and BC in particular, are becoming highly urbanized. In fact, the Census demonstrated that 85.4% of the provincial population now resides in urban areas. BC’s largest urban areas are at tidewater where a considerable number of our transportation bottlenecks are located which affect transportation movements originating from outside these regions, and economic activity generated within. The successful alleviation of bottlenecks will facilitate the movement of resource-based exports from the regions to international export markets, while ensuring local “supply chains” move fluidly.
Importance of the Transportation System The provincial government’s Asia Pacific Strategy is a highly ambitious plan to place BC as the gateway for the huge increase in trade traffic from the fastest growing economic region in the world. The overall strength of the economy and significant population growth are placing a significant strain on our entire transportation system.
There are many areas of the province that have significant congestion that results in lost productivity, increased costs and deleterious effect on the environment. BC needs to address these issues in order to remain prosperous.
The Chamber believes that new and innovative approaches to transportation in our urban centres are required to address these challenges now and for the future.
The Core of the Issue – Automobile Dependency Automobile use obviously produces a variety of advantages such as performance, comfort, status, speed, and convenience. These advantages jointly illustrate why automobile ownership continues to grow worldwide. Several factors influence the growth of the total number of registered vehicles, such as sustained economic growth (increase in income and quality of life), complex individual urban movement patterns (many households have more than one automobile), more leisure time, and suburbanization. The significant growth vehicles also gives rise to congestion at peak traffic hours on major thoroughfares, in business districts, and often throughout urban areas.
Over time, a state of automobile dependency has emerged which results in a diminution in the role of other modes, thereby limiting still further alternatives to urban mobility.
Two major factors contributing to automobile dependency are:
• Lack of Demand Management Techniques:
Road infrastructure in BC, as in many other jurisdictions, is considered a public good and therefore is heavily financed by the taxpayer. In the absence of effective price signals such as tolls, as well as other mechanisms to influence behaviour such as HOV lanes, and appropriate and available transit options, there is inevitably an increase in single-passenger vehicles and use which then leads to congestion and bottlenecks; and
• Planning and Investment Practices:
Efforts to plan and allocate public funds towards improving road and parking facilities in an ongoing attempt to avoid congestion tend to make insufficient use of other transportation alternatives. In many cases, zoning regulations impose minimum standards of road and parking services and impose de facto regulated automobile dependency.
In short, simply investing in new capacity will lead to the vicious circle of congestion. The Chamber has been consistent in its support for projects such as the Lower Mainland Gateway Strategy as well as the need for transportation infrastructure investments in other regions of the province. Underpinning this is a firm belief these projects can only be successful if they improve the flow of goods now, and in the foreseeable future.
Numerous studies, along with empirical evidence from around the world, clearly demonstrate that simply building new roads and other infrastructure in the absence of demand management techniques, including quality public transit options, will not alleviate congestion in the long run. In other words, in the BC context it is not one or the other but “both”.
A key to our long-term success will be strategic and long-term investment in high-quality public transit. The Chamber recognizes that transit investments by themselves will not reduce roadway congestion. However, they become more effective at reducing congestion as a critical component of a comprehensive strategy that includes complementary road pricing, mobility management strategies and smart growth land use policies.
As we look to the future of our transportation network for urban areas The Chamber warmly welcomed the recommendations of the Translink Governance Review Panel which has directed government to begin thinking in new ways and over a longer horizon about the future of transportation planning.
One of the key recommendations The Chamber applauds is that the entire Lower Mainland region – from Pemberton to Hope – now be covered by a 30-year vision which will give rise to 10 year strategic plans developed by a new professional board of directors.
The Chamber believes this presents a unique opportunity for the province to remove politics from transportation planning and to create a vision that provides clean, efficient, accessible and reliable public transit covering the entire region, while introducing innovative mechanisms to ensure the efficient movement of goods and services.
The Chamber believes that the provincial government’s current “tolling policy” must be reviewed. Under the current policy, the province will only introduce tolls to pay for new construction and when a viable, free alternative is available. The Chamber believes this policy is not in the provincial economic, social or environmental interest and puts at serious risk the success of the Asia Pacific strategy.
The benefits of investments in transportation depend on good traffic speed and, in the long term, there is widespread agreement that the only way to preserve this is to ration the road using tolls. The Chamber believes that the global trend is towards an acceptance of the necessity of tolls as both a provider of long-term sustainable funding for transportation and transit investment, within the concept of ensuring that the user pays, as well as the most efficient traffic demand management system that is available.
The Chamber understands there is likely to be significant public resistance to comprehensive tolling. However, we also believes that public acceptance of tolls would be possible if quality transit options are made available from the start. Initial tolls can fund the inevitable start-up costs, and can be adjusted to keep traffic at targeted performance for the benefit of the public and business.
Vehicle tolls would be appropriate in instances where alternate means of transportation are available and the entirety of the toll collected is allocated to improved transportation infrastructure in the region served.
Tax Shifting The federal and provincial gas taxes collected are currently largely allocated to general revenue and the federal government only allocates 39% of that revenue to transportation infrastructure. The shifting of gas tax revenue to tolls that would be allocated to transportation at a local level would provide a much more relevant and immediate display of transportation costs to users.
Traffic Demand Strategy In circumstances where tolls are approved, a comprehensive traffic demand strategy should be created to ensure that transportation solutions are integrated.
BC stands at a transportation crossroads. As we embark on significant investments in transportation infrastructure and transit options, The Chamber believes the provincial government must ensure we embrace new ways of thinking about transportation from an integrated economic, social, and environmental perspective.
THE CHAMBER RECOMMENDS
That the provincial government:
- immediately move forward with the development of a 30-year vision of provincial transportation;
- make a prerequisite of these visions the need for investment in public transit to provide viable alternatives to single passenger vehicle travel;
- commit to funding transportation infrastructure investment through mechanisms that are equitable, efficient and reflect basic traffic demand management principles; and
- create, in conjunction with business, a tolling policy on transportation infrastructure, and examine the use of tolls, and other innovative funding programs, as a sustainable funding mechanism and a key traffic demand management tool.
