Congestion:
- Transport Canada estimates the economic
impact of congestion on all traffic in the region is up to $1.5 billion
per year, with the rising costs of delivering goods and services
eventually passed on to consumers.
- Commuting times have increased by 30 per cent in the past 10 years.
- The BC Trucking Association estimates
that goods movers are stopped or slowed in Lower Mainland traffic 75 per
cent of the time, and approximates the current cost of congestion to goods
movers at $500 million per year.
- TransLink studies indicate that
transportation is the top concern for Lower Mainland residents.
- The Port Mann Bridge is now congested for
13 hours a day. During extremely congested driving conditions,
when there are vehicle stalls or crashes, it can take over two hours to
travel the 29-km stretch between 200th Street in Langley and Willingdon
Avenue in Burnaby.
- The combination of increased population
and employment, with more dispersed commuting patterns, has contributed to
an increase in road congestion.
- There has been no significant increase in major road capacity in the
region since the completion of
the Alex Fraser Bridge in 1986.
Growth:
- Population has grown by 750,000 people in
the Lower Mainland over the past 20 years, greater than the population of
New Brunswick. The current population of 2.1 million is anticipated to
grow to 3 million by 2031.
- The Port Mann Bridge has the highest daily traffic volumes per lane
among all the major water crossings in the Lower Mainland, carrying more
than 120,000 vehicles a day, including 10,000 transport trucks.
- The Port Mann Bridge’s daily traffic
volume is higher than that of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge.
- Traffic volume on the Pitt River Bridge has nearly tripled since
1985, and this bridge is congested for most of the day.
- In the past
five years, the number of registered vehicles in the GVRD grew by 12.5 per
cent. This growth is greater than population growth during the same time
period, and represents an increase of approximately 3.25 vehicles every
hour.
Changing Travel
Patterns:
- The growth in Vancouver residents working
in other Greater Vancouver municipalities exceeded the growth in other
GVRD residents working in Vancouver by a factor of nine to one.
- Job creation has become more dispersed than anticipated. In
the last 10 years, only seven per cent of new office jobs have been based
in regional town centers efficiently served by transit, while almost 50
per cent have gone into suburban office parks, located primarily in
Burnaby, New Westminster and Richmond.
- 82,000 to 115,000 additional vehicle
trips will have to be accommodated in the morning peak hour by 2031. By
comparison, the Port Mann Bridge currently carries approximately 127,000
vehicles in an entire 24-hour day.
- By 2011, the
average morning peak period queue to access the Port Mann Bridge westbound
could extend 12 km to 200th Street, and by 2021, it could
extend 17 km to 216th Street.
- Over the long term, the greatest projected population growth is
expected in Richmond, the Northeast Sector, Surrey, Northwest Langley and
Abbotsford.
Economy:
- Gateway
facilities now account for 75,000 jobs and $10 billion in business output
annually in Greater Vancouver alone.
- Approximately
50 per cent of containerized goods are currently transported to and from
Greater Vancouver’s terminals by truck; the other 50 per cent move by
rail.
- Greater
Vancouver has become Canada’s highest volume container shipping location,
with over 1.6 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) handled in 2004,
transporting goods from all over the world.
- Employment in Greater Vancouver is
expected to increase by about 500,000 jobs by 2031.
Benefits of the Gateway Program:
- The Gateway
Program will result in travel time (and operating cost) savings at a
present value of $8 billion (based on a real discount rate of 4.5 per
cent).
- The Gateway
Program has a benefit cost ratio of 3 to 1.
- Proposed
cycling investment represents the largest single investment in cycling
infrastructure in the region.
- Depending on
their origin and destination, travellers could see time saving of between
five and 30 per cent over 2003 travel times, significantly more over
projected 2031 travel times.
- Construction of
Gateway Program facilities will generate approximately 17,000 person-years
of direct employment and will contribute $1.7 billion to British
Columbia’s gross domestic product.
- Combined with
other transit and transportation projects planned or underway, the Gateway
Program will create a comprehensive, effective, safe and reliable
transportation system that addresses congestion, supports economic
activity, increases transportation choice and provides better municipal
connections.
- Preliminary
analysis suggests that implementation of the Gateway Program would result
in 0.1 per cent more vehicle emissions in 2021 than if the program did not
proceed.
Consultation:
- The Gateway
Program recognizes the importance of consultation and ongoing
communication with interested parties and is committed to a comprehensive
consultation program as well as an ongoing community relations program to
ensure that community and public input is considered in the development of
the Program.
- Consultation
with municipalities, TransLink and the public is ongoing and has been
underway for more than two years.
- Public
consultation takes place at three key design stages: pre-design,
preliminary design and detailed design.
- Input will be
considered with financial and technical information as projects proceed.
- Key elements of
the consultation program include small group meetings, open houses and
web-based consultation.
- Aspects of the
project being discussed will be presented through discussion guides,
display boards and staff presentations, with community and stakeholder
input
- Input will be
gathered through meeting notes, feedback forms, fax, e-mail, phone and
correspondence.
- Input received
during each phase of consultation will be summarized in a Consultation
Summary Report. These reports will be available for public review on www.gatewayprogram.bc.ca.
- Pre-design
consultations on the Pitt River Bridge and Mary Hill Interchange Project,
as well as the SFPR Project from Deltaport Way to Nordel, are complete.
- Port Mann
Highway 1 pre-design consultation will begin soon and will be the largest
consultation program in the history of the region.
- The preliminary
schedule for the Gateway Program calls for pre-design consultation to be
complete in 2006, followed by environmental assessment reviews and the
procurement and construction phases.
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