Rob's Ramblings

- Transportation is one of the highest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in our regions so it is important to shift to less polluting modes. - Metro Vancouver with a transit modal share of only 13% lags behind many world class cities that have modal shares of 40-60%. - Zurich has achieved a transit modal share of 63% by keeping fares relatively low (a one zone monthly fare card is about 40% less than one in Vancouver). - Private automobiles are subsidized by about 6 billion dollars per year in our region. - The subsidies that to go automobiles should be shifted to transit. This would provide long term stable funding for the service and reduce the need for fare increases.

Oulu, Finland sounds like an interesting place.  A subarctic climate   but with more than 500 km of bike routes (mostly separated).  Vancouver is at about 400 km, most not separated.  And their modal share for cycling is between 20 and 37 %.  If Vancouver is going to be the world's greenest city we need to catch up with cities like Oulu.  Unfortunately some of those candidates running for mayor want us to fall further behind. [ photo courtesy   City of Oulu , Finland ]

One of the big news stories here in Vancouver this morning is the announcement of a funding proposal for the long delayed Evergreen line. Rather than focus on the benefits of expanding cleaner transportation options most of the media seems focused on the two cent gasoline tax increase that will be used to fund the project.  CBC radio is encouraging drivers to phone in and complain about the tax. But there is no mention of the fact that driving is highly subsidized here in the Lower Mainland.  Reports by Metro Vancouver and the provincial Ministry of Transport estimate the subsidy to be as much as 6 billion dollars per year.  It is unlikely that this small tax increase will come close to covering that subsidy. There is broad consensus that we need to make significant cuts to our greenhouse gas (ghg) emissions.  Both the provincial government and some municipalities have set targets of 80%.  With transportation being the largest source of ghg emissions in...

Earth Day is usually about rallies in parks, maybe some tree planting and recently corporate sponsored events.  But residents in Metro Vancouver took things to another level this Earth Day when they took direct action against climate change. The largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the Metro Vancouver region is transportation.  Despite this fact the provincial government is in the middle of several large highway expansion projects.  On April 22nd a group of local residents began occupation of a highway construction site.  They have set up tents, barricades, an outdoor kitchen, toilet facilities, a solar power centre and appear to there for the long term. About 25 are currently camped out, vowing to stay and stop the freeway they call a ‘climate crime.’ "Gateway's goal with the South Fraser Perimeter Highway is to triple truck traffic. What they don't tell you is that means triple the pollution, too," says North Delta resident Richelle Giberson. "I...

The StopThePave Earth Day Action has inspired a serious of tweets from Dan at http://bctrucker.com/ Unfortunately these tweets promulgate myths about greenhosue gas (ghg) emissions and transportation.  I guess there is still a lot of work to be done to educate the public around these issues.  And in that spirit here are some of those myths: 1. Building more highways will reduce congestion, fuel consumption and ghg emissions.   There is no evidence to support this idea. In fact, the evidence all points to highway expansion increasing emissions.  The proponents of the SFPR and the other gateway program projects even admit this in their own documentation. The provincial government studies, conducted as part of the Environmental Assessment Process, project an increase of 176,000 tonnes per year in greenhouse gas emissions ( http://a100.gov.bc.ca/appsdata/epic/documents/p247/d24666/1189031210771_a472fd1478e9414c83aed4d70a214df5.pdf ). Gordon Price of UBC has iss...

With recent announcements of investment in cycling infrastructure some are predicting economic disaster if Vancouver reduces the number of light duty vehicles on the road.  The table below compares transportation modal share in Vancouver with other selected cities. All of these cities have significantly less personal car use than Vancouver.  In many cases it is less than half.  Are these cities suffering economically? city country walking cycling public transport private motor vehicle Vancouver Canada 12% 4% 25% 58% Metro Vancouver Canada 11% 2% 13% 74% New York City US 8% 1% 54% 32% Bern Switzerland 11% 11% 54% 24% Zürich Switzerland 8% 5% 63% 25% Copenhagen Denmark 6% 36% 29% 26% Berlin Germany 30% 13% 26% 31% Stockholm Sweden 15% 7% 43% 33% Dresden Germany 24% 17% 21% 38% Helsinki Finland 12% 6% 40% 41% München Germany 9% 8% 41% 41% Aarhus Denmark 7% 27% 19% 43% Bilbao Spain 23% 0% 34% 43% Frankfurt Germany 11% 7% 39% 43% ...

A group of local residents occupied a construction site for the South Fraser Perimeter Road (SFPR) for several hours on Sunday and unveiled a large banner reading "Climate Action Now." The action came on the heals of news that BC was the only province to see substantial increases in greenhouse gas emissions during 2008, the first year of the carbon tax implementation. The SFPR is part of the massive Gateway Program which even the proponents admit will increase ghg emissions by over 170,000 tonnes per year. The action along the SFPR alignment coincided with the annual pilgrimage to Burns Bog . rob_'s ramblings Technorati Tags: stopgateway , delta , climate change , vancouver

A recent article (also here ) is perpetuating one of the most persistent myths of modern society - that cyclists aren't paying their fare share for road use. In fact private car ownership is one of the most subsidized aspects of our society.  In Metro Vancouver taxpayers subsidize car owners to the tune of $6.6 billion per year.  In places like Ontario it is even higher. So cyclists who drive little or never are actually helping to subsidize the polluting habits of frequent car drivers. rob_'s ramblings