Getting from A to B
TRANSPORTATION: The Lower Mainland's inefficient road system costs the region $1.5 billion a year -- but there's hope
Frank Luba, The Province
Published: Sunday, May 13, 2007
Paul Landry's business depends on the blacktop that is getting choked by more and more vehicles every year.
Landry is president and CEO of the B.C. Trucking Association, whose vehicles haul 90 per cent of all consumer products and foodstuffs transported daily in the province.
He says the time per trip for trucks in the Lower Mainland has increased by 30 per cent in the last 10 years, adding $550 million to $750 million annually in costs -- which have to be passed on to consumers.
Paul Landry says a 'bundle' of public-policy changes needs to accompany an increase in road capacity.View Larger Image View Larger Image
Paul Landry says a 'bundle' of public-policy changes needs to accompany an increase in road capacity.
Gerry Kahrmann, The Province
Overall congestion costs throughout the region are now estimated at about $1.5 billion annually.
That's why addressing congestion with a road-and-bridge solution like the province's $3-billion Gateway Program is like manna from heaven for business.
But what might surprise some is that even Landry says that more roads and bridges aren't the only things that are needed.
"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result," he says. "We really need to think differently, and to my mind, thinking differently includes expanding [road] capacity."
But for roads to work, other things need to be done, he says.
"We need alternatives in terms of a transit system," Landry says. "We also need to look at a bundle of public-policy initiatives that will complement those investments so that we preserve the capacity that is introduced."
In that bundle he suggests initiatives like trucks and warehouses operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to make better use of the roads at night.
Landry said consideration has to be given also to eliminating street parking on major transportation routes like Knight Street.
He also suggested better incident management -- dealing with stalls and accidents so that they don't cause immediate traffic jams.
Landry recently took part in some of the Greater Vancouver Regional District's Future of the Region forums emphasizing transportation.
The focus of the discussion was a question most residents of the Lower Mainland can relate to: "We can't get there from here."
The provincial government's response to congestion is the Gateway project, which includes: twinning the Port Mann Bridge; improving the Trans-Canada Highway from Langley to Vancouver; building a new Pitt River Bridge that is part of an integrated North Fraser Perimeter Road; and building a new South Fraser Perimeter Road linking Delta with the connector to the new Golden Ears Bridge.
According to Gateway's website, the Lower Mainland's population has grown by 750,000 over the past 20 years and will hit 3.1 million by 2031. The number of vehicles in the region is increasing by 20,000 every year.
Add to that the growth in port traffic, which is supposed to triple by 2020 to six million containers from the current two million. Much of the goods in those containers is moved by the trucks working for more than 20,000 companies.
The whole situation is further fuelled by the Lower Mainland's booming economy, which has
created an abundance of jobs.
According to Landry, B.C. needs about 4,500 to 5,000 new professional drivers annually, but only about 3,000 enter the field.
The 30-per-cent increase in trip time over the past 10 years means about 30 per cent more drivers are needed.
"At some point, we are going to hit a wall in terms of finding qualified people," said Landry.
It's not just trucking that is suffering, according to Darlene Gering of the Burnaby Board of Trade, which was one of the sponsors of the transportation forum.
"The No. 1 issue with business is labour," said Gering.
Employees consider more than just the job, she said.
"It's a huge decision on the part of an employee -- 'How am I going to get to work?
"'If I have to spend three hours on the bridge,
I'm not going to take the job in Burnaby and Vancouver.'"
As far as rapid transit goes, the $2 billion Canada Line will move people between Richmond and Vancouver.
But the long-promised rapid-transit connection to Coquitlam, now dubbed the Evergreen Line, was bounced from the top of the priority list by the Canada Line even though population growth in the northeast sector continues to boom.
Gateway is also being touted as a way to reduce the production of greenhouse gases, because cars and trucks will be moving instead of being stuck idling in traffic jams.
But that notion is rejected by University of B.C. planning professor and transportation expert Larry Frank.
"We're going to add [road] capacity and at the same time use that as an argument to reduce CO2 emissions," he said.
"People are smart enough to know that you don't reduce consumption of a particular commodity by providing a lot of it."
Mike Proudfoot, executive director of Gateway, says the program is about more than just roads and bridges.
Twinning the Port Mann will allow for the return of buses, the bridge will use tolls to reduce usage and help pay for construction, and it will have more high-occupancy-vehicle lanes.
"We're building roads and bridges that will provide the capacity for these transit operations that had not been able to be achieved for the last 20 years," he added.
© The Vancouver Province 2007