Vancouver Becomes a Transit City for 17 Days
March 31, 2010
It was a cool experiment, and perhaps North America's largest traffic trial ever. Take one auto-oriented-but-making-progress city and for 17 days remold it into a transit city. Happily, it worked beyond anyone's expectations. Now it's time to take what we've learned to improve Vancouver's transportation system.
By John Calimente, re:place Magazine
During the 2010 Winter Olympics, Vancouver was transformed. People flooded onto the transit system, particularly the Canada, Expo, and Millennium Lines. Additional SkyTrain cars, buses, West Coast Express trains, and a Seabus were added. Lane closures in and around the downtown core dramatically curtailed traffic. And many more people were out walking and cycling than would be normal in mid-February.
The Plan
The simple goal was to achieve a 30% reduction in motor traffic in downtown Vancouver. This would be achieved by introducing road and parking restrictions while simultaneously increasing transit service. VANOC put in $17 million in order to fund this expanded service. Road capacity was reduced by 50% downtown and 20% for the city as a whole. The Georgia Viaduct was closed. Drivers were urged not to travel downtown between during peak times.
Pressure was also taken off transit by the closure of universities and many people taking holidays during the Olympics. But no one anticipated the huge surge of visitors that ended up taking transit to the downtown core. Expo, Millennium, and Canada Lines ended up running all of their trains most of the day, a total of 48 extra cars per day. As well, 160 on-demand buses were added. The West Coast Express added a total of over 100 additional trips at midday, evenings, and weekends. Bus frequency was also increased on many routes at all hours of the day. TransLink and City of Vancouver staff were on hand to provide help on using the transit system and direct visitors to Olympic venues.
The Numbers
Public Transit: TransLink had expected a 20% lift in ridership, meaning about 960,000 trips daily compared to the normal average of 800,000 trips per day. Instead, ridership jumped by 31%, with an average of 1.6 million boardings per day. The results are summarized on TransLink's website. Bus ridership increased by 8% over the average weekday. Rail lines fared even better - boardings jumped by 64% over the normal weekday on the Expo/Millennium Lines, 118% on the Canada Line, 119% on the SeaBus, and 58% on the West Coast Express.
Weekends saw even bigger increases, as fewer commuters means lower weekend base numbers. Saturdays on the Expo/Millennium Lines were 226% above normal and Sundays a staggering 348% above normal. The Canada Line was similar, with ridership 203% above normal on Saturdays and 224% on Sundays. The West Coast Express had many people standing on the journey to downtown, with the heaviest load nearly 3,000 passengers when the seated capacity is only 1,250. With the addition of a third SeaBus, ridership jumped 382% on Saturdays and 450% on Sundays. Single-day records were achieved on the Expo/Millennium Lines (567,000 boardings on February 20), the Canada Line (287,000 boardings on February 19), SeaBus (59,000 passengers) and the West Coast Express (2,970 passengers).
The Olympic Line Streetcar saw an astounding 550,000 people take a ride on the 1.8 km line between Olympic Village station and Granville Island in its two months of operation. That's an average of about 9,000 per day. As a comparison, it took a full 12 months for the 2.1 km South Lake Union Streetcar in Seattle to reach 507,000 riders.
Pedestrians and Cyclists - During the trial, the Burrard and Cambie bridges saw an average of 20,000 pedestrians and 5,000 cyclists per day.
Automobiles - The reduction of car traffic into the downtown core by 30% was easily achieved. I don't think I've ever seen it so quiet in Vancouver on a weekday.
Remarkably, with an average daily ridership of 1.6 million over the 17-day event, Vancouver temporarily had the third-highest transit usage in North America behind only New York and Mexico City. While this is an amazing accomplishment, it is also staggering to think that much, much larger cities in U.S. have such low transit ridership.
So what does this experience tell us?
1) Metro Vancouver's transit system is amazingly efficient. The 31% jump in ridership was handled as smoothly as could be expected. Of course there were delays and waits, but considering the huge strains put on the system, there were no major failures. Expanded service also encouraged more people to ride the system. As Dale Bracewell with the City of Vancouver explained, "If we provide high-quality service, people will use it."
2) Increased transit ridership and fewer cars on the road meant that automobile drivers were happy as well. Many, many drivers told me that traffic everywhere in the city was minimal, with the exception of a few routes into the downtown core. Traffic on the Lion's Gate Bridge moved smoothly even though it was down to only two lanes. Just imagine if all those Olympic visitors had driven their cars everywhere. As Anthony Perl, professor at SFU noted, "If these people were in cars the line-ups would be never-ending."
Another benefit? Better and faster bus movement. Bus drivers told me that they were constantly having to slow down, because traffic delays are built into their schedules. With reduced volumes of automobiles, buses ran extremely efficiently.
3) When people are unfamiliar with transit, they overwhelmingly chose the easiest systems to understand, which were the rail-based systems. Bus ridership was up only a few percentage points. TransLink staff at the SkyTrain stations said that many people only wanted to hear options that involved SkyTrain. The routing of buses was often seen as too complicated, or unappealing for longer distances.
4) When everyone is riding transit, it becomes more acceptable to the average person. The crowds on the SkyTrain lines didn't discourage people from riding. On the contrary, it may have actually encouraged more riders. Regardless of what people often say, we like being around other people. But people need to feel comfortable on transit, especially those that rarely take it. Since the transit system was surging with middle-class folks going to Olympic events, it became acceptable for more people to ride.
And there's also the issue of safety. Many of our SkyTrain stations are absolutely dead at night. While the trains may be busy, the stations are not centres of activity. However, during the Olympics, the critical mass of people using the system also resulted in a greater feeling of safety around stations, with increased security, TransLink staffers giving directions, and simply a greater number of people around. More people riding the system actually encourage greater ridership.
Honestly, there was not really that much going on in downtown Vancouver if you didn't have tickets to an event. Metro Vancouver residents were basically riding downtown to see the crowds of people milling about.
5) One group that was conspicuous by its presence: families (and extended families). I had never thought about how few families I normally see on transit. Transit in Metro Vancouver is mainly about singles and couples. Complete family groups are a relative rarity. This is one issue that TransLink needs to look at. From a cost and convenience perspective, driving a vehicle is still cheaper and easier that buying tickets for all family members. Hopefully now we'll at least see more families taking the SkyTrain when they head downtown, but the cost of a using a vehicle will have to increase dramatically before we see any appreciable increase in families on transit. There's now a group called TripEd that wants to reduce the cost of field trips taken by transit. Perhaps there could be a family pass to encourage families to take transit once in a while?
6) As Richard Campbell points out, was there any buzz at all about the Sea to Sky Highway? No, because it's almost impossible to have a shared group experience when everyone's in their separate cars. Just imagine if we had spent the $600 million in highway money on improved train service between Vancouver and Whistler. Or how about between Vancouver and Seattle? That would have been an amazing Olympic legacy. The response would have been incredible: a taste of that can be seen in the popularity of the Rocky Mountaineer, which the Alberta government booked for the duration of the Games
So will we see a long-term impact as a result of the Olympic transportation plan? Signs have not been encouraging so far. The Olympic Line streetcars have already been sent back to Brussels. On March 3rd, the federal government announced that $33 million would be spent in B.C. for road improvements, but no money would go to the Olympic Line or the Evergreen Line.
The Canada Line is an Olympic project that has already shown its value. But now that everyone has hopped back in their cars and life has returned to 'normal' in the region, it's up to us to let the politicians know that we want more investment in public transit. It was amazing to see what Vancouver could look like as a transit city. I'd like to see it again in the not-too-distant future.
***
John Calimente is the president of Rail Integrated Developments. He is a fan of great public transit + transit integrated communities + urban life lived without a car.
So VANOC kicked in $1 million per day to help boost transit service? That’s an extra $365 million per year; I don’t think that kind of money is going to be forthcoming from the regular funding sources.
Here’s another feature of the Olympic transit experience which I don’t think you mentioned: your ticket to an Olympic event got you onto transit for free. The “free” part was nice, but that also meant you didn’t have to make a special trip to the store to buy transit tickets, or that you didn’t have to make sure you had enough loonies and quarters to pay the fare. Other transit systems have machines on the street where you can buy tickets; couldn’t Translink look at that possibility?
An additional $365 million a year devoted to transit represents about 7% of the annual subsidy of car dependency in Metro Vancouver, factoring in the annual costs to the economy caused by congestion as well (source: Livable Regions Strategic Plan).
Putting more public money toward public transit is a matter of priorities. The Olympics demonstrated perfectly how effective transit and pedestrian space could be.
I’m wondering if something simple could be done to improve transit going forward:
Run more five- and six-car trains on the skytrain system all the time. At rush hour, some trains are only two cars!
One of the main reasons I don’t take the skytrain to work is that it takes too long and can therefore be unreliable. Some days at Broadway & Commercial the wait for a train is over 10 minutes long as the trains are so packed heading downtown. Immediately before the Games, and after, when the road closures were in effect, the longer trains meant I could get on the first one that showed up.
How much extra would it cost to run a five-car train instead of a two-car one?
Initially, the extra capacity might not be used, but as people discovered you could actually get on, commuting behaviors would switch.
I believe the problem, Wendy, is that SkyTrain runs at well below the design capacity of the system because there aren’t enough train cars to make up the 6, 8 and 10 car trains it really should have at rush hour and special events. It’s simply a matter of buying more. This is especially pertinent with the planned expansion of the station platforms from 80 metres to 100.
The real issue is where will the money come from? I know what I think is the most reasonable funding source, but Steve seems to be on holiday WRT funding public transit over bailing out his beloved GM Inc. and building more road space.
Hi John Calimente,
I’d like to offer an alternative to your analysis that bus ridership was only up a few percentage points because people like trains better. The bus system here is already at capacity during much of the day and there was very little service added for the Games, because we really have no spare capacity to add.
While TransLink has spent hundreds of millions, no make that billions expanding the rail system - new lines, additional vehicles for existing lines, etc. - very little has been spent Expanding the bus network. And like I said there was very little bus service added for the Games. Yeah the buses were mostly shiny and new but buying a new bus to replace an old one is not the same as buying 2 new buses to replace one old one.
Add to that a lack of transit priority in key corridors (Main Street being the worst, which was gridlocked 12-15 hours a day with all the road closures surrounding it) and it just wasn’t possible to choose the bus. My own commute to work, from the west side of the downtown core to the east, normally takes 20 minutes. It regularly took 40-45 minutes and often the bus would be short-turned because it was so late due to congestion.
One day during the Games, at the corner of Main and Broadway, I waited 25 minutes with 50 other people for the Main Street bus (supposedly 5 minute service). I gave up when I saw TransLink’s own “Director of Olympic Readiness” walking with his whole family the 28 blocks from their home to the rail station. Enough said.
Don’t think that just because there were fewer cars on the road that everyone took alternate means to get around.
I’ve spoken with MANY people that usually drive to work downtown, and if anyone had the means to get out of town during the Olympics, they most certainly did.
There were law firms indicating that less than 10% of their lawyers stayed in town, and these are usually the types (those with means) that would usually drive downtown.
I just want to repeat what Murray said about people who normally drive staying away. Those changes were temporary and could not be mistaken for what might be permanent. Those who are driving to downtown offices are pretty committed to doing that, and I don’t quite agree with Murray that it’s only upper income professionals. I work with several people in mid-level jobs who dirve because time is precious to them, leaving work, going to the gymn, and then home. Loosing another hour out of the day on transit isn’t on for them.
I hope the WCExpress demonstration of its ability to move people in off-peak hours isn’t forgotten. I firmly believe that expansions to commuter rail, more WCE trains in BOTH directions, 18 hours a day as exists with the GO trains in Ontario, and service along the CN tracks to the south of Fraser cities is the single most important transit improvement that can be made. Personally, I would give it an even higher priority that completing the Evergreen (Nevergreen?) line, though perhaps that’s debatable.
That said, bus system improvements, other than just putting on more buses that travel at the same rate, ABSOLUTELY REQUIRES road system improvements. You can no more have a good bus system without a good and appropriately configured road system than you can have a good subway or LRT system without an approriate ROW and track. It’s a simplistic point, I know. So perhaps someone can explain to me why so many of the Lower Mainland’s self-appointed “transit advocates” and “transit experts”, most of who have never taken transit themselves of course, fail to even mention this point and instead vociferously oppose ALL road system improvements, from PMH1 to additional left turn lanes at busy intersections. It’s a line of argument that is at best stupid and irresponsible, at worst, a piece of intentional deceit.
Perhaps the answer can be found in the financial dependency so many supposed advocacy groups have on donors whose real estate portfolios dictate certain approaches to transportation investments.
As for the Hwy 99 project, I don’t agree with the article that it’s never mentioned. It’s the one and only BC MOTH project I have ever heard Americans compliment. I tend to look at it a little differently. I am impressed by what has been done, but there are still one or two sections where the highway goes down to just two narrow lanes with no concrete or other central barrier to prevent head on collisions. The section just past Porteau Cover is the best example. I think that situation needs to be remedied.
Thanks everyone for your great comments. My replies below:
Paul - You’re right - we need to make it easy for people to choose transit, so we should be able to buy transit tickets in more locations. Books of 10 transit tickets as well as monthly passes should be available from the machines. A good start would be to have them at key SkyTrain and Canada Line stations, SeaBus, and locations like the Horseshoe Bay and Tsawwassen ferry terminals.
MB - Yes, transit needs to get as much priority as we saw during the Olympics. And it’s a hard political sell (maybe getting less so), but restrictions on car use help as well.
Wendy - I agree with MB’s comment. What I’ve heard as well is that generally all the SkyTrain cars (and buses I imagine) are used during peak periods. TransLink simply needs the money to buy more SkyTrain cars. But yes, they could be running longer trains and/or increasing frequency at other times of the day.
Don - Thanks for your perspective. I hadn’t observed the crowding on bus routes but of course it makes sense. Increased passenger loads would tend to be concentrated on routes heading downtown like the #3, or routes going to Olympic venues like the #99. Routes along Main and Hastings Streets seemed to suffer more because of the congestion downtown - cars that would have taken the Georgia Viaduct instead had to go along Hastings St.
And I agree with you - we’ve been replacing old buses with new buses but we haven’t added capacity. Reducing headways as well as real-time information on bus departures would ease rider frustration. With real-time information on hand, drivers could keep headways instead of trying to keep to schedules, which just results in ‘bus bunch’.
I hope that we’ll get all three SeaBuses running again as well. Reduced headways would really improve service on that route.
Murray - Definitely that reduction in auto traffic was partially (mainly?) the result of people who work downtown taking vacations during the Olympics.
Rod - Excellent point on the WCE. I agree 100% that WCE expansion needs to be given priority. A frequent link to Coquitlam, Poco, and Mission would do wonders for people working downtown. The difficulty seems to be that they’re sharing track with freight trains - they can’t get more track time than they already have.
Regarding roads, I think we need to do more with the road capacity we have. Absolutely we need to make improvements, but we can do a lot to increase capacity without spending money for road widening. For example, charging even a small fee on pinch points during rush hour would spread traffic out and allow traffic to flow smoothly. Another example is the Port Mann bridge - transit service was cut when buses couldn’t meet schedules. Why can’t the Port Mann have a transit priority entry lane like we see on the Lions Gate Bridge?
Emphasize: 30 % fewer autos downtown.
I would have tought it would have been more like 50%
How do people rationalize their use of automobiles.
It is soooo pleasant not to have the noise, stink and stress from automobiles.
Make people experience life for us pedestrians ( includes babies, toddlers, children of all ages, handicapped and seniors) and cyclists before they can renew their registration/license.
Tax their use.
[...] Regarding Place has a great article at the end of March about how Vancouver became a transit city for 17 days. [...]
As far as getting families on public transport goes, I’d suggest something like they have in southern Sweden and eastern Denmark: for about 1.5 times the single fare, you can get a ticket that applies to two adults and three children. It doesn’t actually cost much to implement, since most riders are on their own, and it does a very good job of attracting families who otherwise wouldn’t bother with the train.
David, I love your idea!
Here’s another option, kids ride free with paying adults.
This would solve the cost of taking transit for field trips too as the paying teacher could get her whole class on!
I think you should keep the discounted fair for kids by themselves seeing that we’re trying to get family units on transit. Anyways that’s my two cents.
[...] I spoke too soon! At the end of my last column I said “…life has returned to ‘normal’ in the region…” after [...]
[...] I reported earlier, during the 17 days of the Winter Olympics in February, 3.9 million people rode the Canada Line, or [...]
[...] visitors to Vancouver’s downtown core. With the viaducts and other traffic sewers shuttered, transit ridership was up 31% - including a 64% increase on the Expo/Millennium lines - and stayed up in March by 20% [...]