Build the Line and Build it Right
I was in the San Francisco Bay area recently.
I travelled from the S.F. airport to the Oakland-Coliseum stop and back on separate days, a trip of about 50 minutes. I travelled from the Oakland-Coliseum stop to Powell Street and market and Union Square and back on another day. That's a trip of about 25 minutes.
On all occasions, I found the experience not pleasurable, but reasonable. Cheap, efficient, reliable, easy to understand and negotiate.
Has BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) reduced auto traffic on the Bay Bridge or roads in general? I have no idea, but I would guess not. We drove 4 times from the Oakland stop to and from my friend's house in Clayton. Each trip took one hour on a packed freeway system.
Does that mean BART is a waste? Not at all. It's a great system, millions of people use it every day, and if more lines are built, more will use them.
All of which is to say...if Premier Campbell wants to built more public transit, I say, "Do it!"
Now, if you screw up my 10th Avenue shopping district while building a subway to UBC the heartless way you have screwed up Cambie Street, I will be mightily pissed and lobbying to have your head.
But, that aside, build the damn things already. Only this time, try to do it right.
And while you're at it, throw in several hundred million in compensation for the Cambie merchants whom you have bankrupted with your callous negligence.
3 comments:
BART is old, and apparently "loses money" year after year, but it works like a hot damn, back and forth from the airport, over to Berkeley in the mud of SF Bay. When BART isn't an option, San Francisco has an inexpensive bus and trolley system that can get you almost anywhere as fast as, and sometimes faster, than driving a car.
I'm mystified as to why we can't have as good a system here in "Metro Vancouver."
I'm sorry to say David that the 'over-arching' power of the Provincial governement driving this program is a problem, and will create new problems along the way.
All I could think of while listening to the Premier making his announcement to the golf claps of the Mayors and MLAs was:
"...at least he made the trains run on time."
Something said of Mussolini.
Having the Provincial Government in charge of this with the Transklunk bored doling out the bags of money is insane.
If we thought the fast ferry fiasco was bad, wait for the mess this crew will make!
I agree with you about building more public transit here. But how to pay for it? It appears that the Liberals will add a gas tax. Whatever they choose to add, our gas will still be a lot cheaper than over in Europe. But it'll also be more expensive than Alberta and Washington State.
The "interesting" thing is that the NDP is set to oppose any such gas tax. How topsy turvy is that in terms of historical political views?! Smart politics though. Just imagine the voters of B.C. electing the NDP because they opposed a gas tax.
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