It seems in no sense I should have written this letter to you, as I am supposed to be “green” according to my environmental background and that B-Line meets with our nationwide hot picks in general respect on housing affordability, climate change, emission control and sustainable development for our future generation.
However, from years of experiences I researched on Kyoto Protocol, I learn that public transit has to be punctual, fast, cheap and convenient to make people become adaptable to it. Among them, convenience is most crucial to West Vancouver because of its demography, topography and wealthiness. To make this happen, building parkade close to bus terminals is an option, building up a strategic transportation plan to connect with the northbound is another. Unfortunately, we are not provided with either, at least not for now.
What we have, instead, is the B-Line plan with the cost of 12 million from Translink and the priceless right-of-way from all West Vancouver people, but the return is disproportionated by a single busline covering small portion of West Vancouver. Besides, we have not taken into account the frequency we go to North Vancouver each month. The majority of West Vancouver residents are facing huge sacrifice to visitors, employees living elsewhere and small amount of bus users living in our community. For this reason, the B-Line plan is less convincing and has caused excessive oppositions from our community. It is imaginable that if the B-Line plan were in place some day, it would be a punishment instead of a benefit. Forcing people to change their car driving behavior by causing more traffic gridlock is a wrong and brutal way to attain the sustainable development objective.
Every penny counts for city development. I understand Council’s concern and effort of taking advantage of 12 million in improving our public transit system. As a former researcher specialized in climate change, I sincerely hope a comprehensive transportation plan can come up together with the B-Line. Otherwise, it seems more pragmatic to let the B-Line stop at Park Royal instead of going further to Dundarave. With the downward surge from the provincial government, we, West Vancouver residents deserve more encouragement than punishment.
Yours truly,
Julia Zhou
Li_zh@hotmail.com
