Dear Editor:
There have been numerous articles in the North Shore News over the past months regarding TransLink, potential transportation options and potential solutions offered by North Shore politicians to alleviate North Shore congestion. Mobility pricing seems to be the popular answer although public consultation is still to take place.
I would take greater comfort in this solution if I were reading letters from small and medium sized businesses in support of mobility pricing as the answer. Further, I have yet to see any North Shore Chambers of Commerce declare this idea as a bona fide solution for employer staffing needs. Mobility pricing strikes me as an idea that increases the cost of travel to work while not ensuring there will be actual time savings and efficiency gains.
Further, our politician friends state that they have consulted with many jurisdictions where mobility pricing has worked; neglecting to share the public transportation infrastructure in these jurisdictions and the distances travelled by users. Can a firefighter living in Langley, employed by the City of North Vancouver, be realistically expected to take public transit to North Vancouver?
Many municipal employees (police, firefighters, admin staff), as well as teachers, medical staff and private sector employees do not live on the North Shore. These employees, whom we rely upon to provide services to North Shore citizens, will face increased cost to get to work should mobility pricing come into effect. Furthermore, many North Shore businesses are currently stressed to find and retain employees; mobility pricing will not encourage people living in Burnaby, Surrey, Coquitlam or Langley into seeking employment on the North Shore. The indirect result of this additional cost could result in drastically shrinking the employment pool for North Shore employers.
The focus should be to prioritize infrastructure before pursuing other options. For example, on Feb. 2 I had a meeting in North Van. The 8.5 km drive from my home takes 10 minutes by car but would take 53 minutes by bus according to TransLink. Clearly, this is a ridiculous time difference. Would the public take the bus if there were many more buses available to eliminate long waits, crowded rides and lengthy lines to get on a bus? Why reference buses? Buses are the cheapest public transit option and the quickest solution to impact our transportation nightmare. Rapid transit, SeaBuses, bridges and subways are considerably more expensive to build, and availability of these services is not immediate.
Lastly, pricing must be sensible. If the cost of travel by bus rivals travel by car, then people are not incentivized to change. Our politician friends want us to buy into a cash generating solution that penalizes vehicle usage without consideration of the impact on employment. Mayor Walton believes shifting even 10 per cent of vehicles off the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge during peak traffic periods would result in fewer delays and more free-flowing traffic. A potential outcome could be an unintended 10 per cent reduction to the North Shore workforce causing how many businesses to leave the North Shore, close down operations or reduce service hours due to employees being penalized financially for using their cars and thus electing to work closer to home.
So, when discussions on this topic come to your dinner table, please remember that politicians will go after the easiest target – the taxpayer – versus pursuing more challenging solutions like the $0.10/litre carbon tax paid by all B.C. drivers as a funding source. I remain concerned that transportation options on the North Shore will see politician-driven solutions versus business and citizen (i.e. user) driven solutions.
David Reinboth
West Vancouver
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