Chapter 3-Media Article

Chapter 3-Media Article

"City, TransLink, UBC Working On 2010 Expansion Plans,"
The Vancouver Sun-Tuesday, June 5, 2005

Because Downtown Vancouver and UBC are the most populated transit destinations in all of Greater Vancouver, the TransLink and public advisory committee are deciding on a plan to have a major improvement in the transit service around Vancouver and the University of British Columbia in the next five years. According to the plan, by 2010, there will be bus service avaliable every 10 minutes for 99 percent of Vancouver and UBC residents during the day time. Or better, within walking distance, up from 88 percent. The draft proposal of the plan includes:
-Starting this year, new bus route with limited stops between the new Vancouver Community College SkyTrain station and UBC will be added.
-The No.135 route on Hastings to a new B-Line bus service between Waterfront Station in Vancouver and Simon Fraser University in Burnaby will be upgraded in 2007.
-A new bus route from the 29th Avenue SkyTrain station to UBC along 33rd Avenue, Cambie Street and 17th Avenue, will be added as well in 2008.
-An upgrade on the No.43 route to a new B-Line service from the Joyce-Collingwood SkyTrain station to UBC in 2009.
In addition to the above upgrades and added routes, the proposal plan also includes using mid-sized, low-floored, low-nosie, and low-emission city shuttle buses on less busy routes.
This proposal plan will be presented to the regional transportation authority for a final approval.

Relationship to Ch.3-Third Party Effects and Natural Monopoly
Personally, I think the proposal plan on improvements towards the TransLink system in the next five years will most likely be benefiting the economy of Vancouver for numerous reasons. First of all, I think by improving the TransLink service (such as adding more bus lines) will probably result in more people to take the public transit as it is more convenient. Especially, in Downtown Vancouver and UBC as they are the most populated transit destinations in all of Greater Vancouver. If more people take the public transit, instead of driving their own vehicles to destinations etc, that will result in less pollution. Futhermore, the government of Vancouver will be able to earn more income through transit fares if more people take the public transits. As well, if taking the public transit is a lot more convenient, such as less time consuming, then it may encourage more people to attend post secondary institutions. For example, some people may not decide to attend post secondary institutions because the institution that they are willing to attend is too far from home, or it is too time consuming to take the public transit from home to their institution, or for many other reasons, it is just simply too inconvenient. And if more people have a post secondary education, the well-being of the society may just be better and eventually, the economy of Vancouver will be better as well. Likewise, if more public transits are avaliable in Vancouver, especially Downtown Vancouver, it may attract more tourists to the city because it is very convenient for them to get from one place to another. Again, this will eventually benefit the economy of Vancouver. On the other hand, some residents of Vancouver, may not be very pleased with this proposal because it may have a negative impact on their neighbourhood. For example, if more bus routes or skytrains are built around one's neighbourhood, one's neighbourhood would not be as peaceful (ie. noise from public transits and passengers) and clean (ie. litter from passengers). Although there are positive and negative impacts that this proposal plan may bring to the city in the next five years, I am quite convinced that the positive impacts outweighs the negative. However, there are still several questions that I think we should all think about. Where will the government find enough money to support this project? If it's from our taxes, are we willing to pay our taxes for this project? Is it REALLY worth it?