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The next dilemma in the commuting and transit challenge: Peak millennial?

May 20th, 2016 · 58 Comments

My favourite thing. I got to work for a month on a story about how commuting is changing (or not) in the Lower Mainland.

It was an eye-opener.

I heard a lot of stories about how people make their transit choices with factors I hadn’t thought about. Childcare is key. (Living close to a daycare where you got in or grandparents is like a life-or-death thing.)

Having a bus route that you relied on get altered means choosing a car over transit. Having a great transit option is the best part of some people’s days. And, for some, the chance to live in a place close to nature seemed to compensate for the most horrible commutes imaginable.

Then there are the big factors. Like what is going to happen to millennials as they abandon the craft breweries for marriage and kids.

And the nerd factors. Like, what do local planners look at to try to figure out how to tip a few more people in the region into taking transit.

I won’t rewrite all 4,000 words here. Instead, here’s the link to my BCBusiness story, which I guarantee will make you think twice about how commuting works in this city.

 

 

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  • Chris Keam

    You complain that people throw out statistics without context and that people misrepresent your remarks. My question regarding your remarks about Singapore and the omission of vital context regarding public transit subsidies and certificates of entitlement remain unaddressed. Further, bicycle lanes are not put in place to make driving more inconvenient, nor did your supplied quotes from the City Manager make such a claim. It remains obvious to me that you are unwilling to come out in support of effective methods of fostering transit use for whatever reasons. That’s your prerogative.

    But, as they say, you’re not entitled to your own set of facts. And unless you can find a way to argue the Singapore experience isn’t reliant on charging drivers massive fees and spending lots of money to increase transit, then your points are moot and your posts fail to meet your own standard for accountable, logical, and verifiable comments. Your opinion is really of no interest to me and I suspect most posters. Strong arguments pro and con for any position are welcomed and given the attention they merit.

  • A Taxpayer

    “Further, bicycle lanes are not put in place to make driving more inconvenient,”

    Unless you are the person implementing the bicycle lanes, I am not sure how you can determine motivation. In any event, they do make driving less convenient by taking up road space and/or reducing the available parking.

  • Chris Keam

    Your words I’m afraid:

    “allocating road space to bicycle lanes in order to make driving more inconvenient ”

    How did you determine motivation?

  • Lysenko’s Nemesis

    Seems as though the relevance of Amsterdam in the 1970’s is overrun by the Netherlands leading the EU in auto sales now.

    https://www.cbs.nl/en-gb/news/2016/09/growth-dutch-car-sales-above-eu-average

    Did Vancouver City Manager Sadhu also write to the federal Liberals asking them to not approve any assistance to Bombardier because the anticipated possible 3,500 sales of they Model C airliner would mean lots of downstream impacts from those 7,000 aircraft engines, burning oil?

  • Rico Jorimann

    I think the difference he is talking about is he wants road pricing to be dynamic and set at the minimum rate that will reduce congestion on a given route at a given time. At midnight most routes would be free. The goal would be congestion reduction not revenue generation.

  • A Taxpayer

    Of course you cannot get inside someones head to determine motivation but you can look at their words and actions which gives you a pretty good idea what drives their policy decisions. There is no hidden agenda here, it is right out in the open.

  • Chris Keam

    Should I wait another few minutes to respond in case you need to change your answer again?

  • peakie

    Cesare Marchetti, self-links his own 1994 paper, “Anthropological Invariants in Travel Behavior, Technological Forecasting and Social Change” on his web page LINK: http://cesaremarchetti.org/
    This was written while he was in Vienna at the IIASA ( iiasa.ac.at/ ) to which Canada belongs but doesn’t support well.
    There are several Canadian references, such as Figure 6.

    Peter Newman of the-similar-to-Vancouver coastal town of Perth/Freemantle, Western Australia uses him often in his urban transport writings.
    Recent Newman books published by semi-local Island Press.

    This Marchetti study implies a limit on commuter time and satisfaction.

    At work, though I take the bike and bus and it is a bit more than a half-hour to the terminus bus stop, others at work complained about their commute and the cost of parking.
    So they would try to negotiate at least free parkling rather than $1000 a year.
    Researching their routes with google maps I found that it was about 30 minutes by car and 2 to 1 1/2 hours by public transit, one way.
    People in the back offices tried to come in at 6 am and leave at 3 pm to beat the suburban rush hour.
    And some from south Surrey worked out that it cost a third of their monthly take-home pay to commute from there and use the Port Mann Bridge.

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