Cascadia Report

What Vancouver can learn about rail building

Seattle's nascent light rail line was showered with praise this week -- in Vancouver.

The reason is the $50 million fund set up to help businesses impacted by construction of the light rail line through the Rainier Valley. Apparently there's no such support for business during construction of the Canada Line, which will connect downtown Vancouver, the airport and Richmond.

It's odd to hear praise of Seattle's transit efforts from Vancouver, which has had rail transit for more than two decades and is considering building a fourth line. But a representative of a Vancouver neighborhood suggested B.C.'s free-market loving government might support a Seattle-style fund: "It's a classic American approach," he said. "It's seen as an economic initiative to ensure a tax base, not as a handout. I thought the Campbell government might embrace this approach."

Seattle's Rainier Valley has been showered with support during the rail project, ever since the decision was made years ago to build that section at-grade instead of underground. Just wait until the surge of newcomers and gentrification when the line opens in 2009.

Eliminating fares wouldn't help transit

Collecting transit fares costs a lot of money, funds that could be better spent adding service. That's the conclusion of this interesting report at TheTyee.ca.

The report considers Vancouver and several transit systems in the Northwest and around the country. For King County Metro, the costs of fare collection in 2006 were about 10 percent of revenue -- equal to about $8 million or 18 new buses per year, it says.

Yet fares are hardly the biggest problem facing bus service. There must be more efficient ways to collect money (issuing annual passes, rounding the cost to the nearest dollar, etc.). But charging something probably gives people at least some sense of ownership, or a feeling that they should be getting a service in return.

New container port gets funding

While infrastructure bottlenecks constrain shipping at Cascadia ports, plans are moving ahead for a brand-new container facility -- one big enough to eventually handle as much freight as Tacoma's.

Oregon's legislature recently approved a $60 million package to dredge the harbor at Coos Bay over the next five years. The funding hinges on a major shipping company commiting to operate there. The Oregonian called the prospect "an economic dream come true."

Though hurdles remain, the deal is the latest sign of more competion for ports in Vancouver, Seattle and Tacoma. It should underscore the need for more efficiency at existing ports and for transportation improvements to keep freight moving.

The Coos Bay project reportedly includes a new jetty and $250-$750 million in terminals, rail infrastructure, a container yard, docks and wharves. Eventually it could handle 2 million 20-foot-long containers, roughly the volume at the Port of Tacoma.

Shift freight to rail, cut traffic congestion

Shifting freight traffic to rails would cut congestion and pollution, according to a study by Demographia:

In the Seattle area alone, shifting 25 percent of freight from trucks to trains by 2025 would mean 43 fewer hours in commuting time every year, compared with what is likely to occur otherwise. That same shift also would decrease air-pollutant emissions in the Seattle area by as much as 11,635 tons and save thousands of gallons of fuel.

The trick, of course, is making the change. Improving and expanding the Eastside rail line and also adding rail capacity throughout the Vancouver-to-Portland corridor could handle the traffic. Curbing the subsidy for cars and trucks on freeways would make the shift financially sensible.

Too many want to live in downtown Vancouver

Living in downtown Vancouver is so popular the city needs to keep people away in order to preserve room for offices.

As a remedy, the city may allow still taller office buildings downtown and expand the area where offices have priority over condos.

Taller buildings are already on the way. Yet given Vancouver's shedding of headquarters jobs, the bigger question may be what businesses will fill any additional space.

Measuring benefits of the booming economy

Here's an interesting editorial questioning the popular perception of British Columbia's booming economy.

The short piece is notable as a contrast to the majority of B.C. media, which are more likely to cheerlead for the Olympics and major development projects.

For details on how B.C. stacks up, take a look at the latest Cascadia Scorecard by Seattle's Sightline Institute, which includes a wide range of alternative indicators to measure regional development.

Vancouver trying to speed city buses

Vancouver is changing the way passengers board buses in an attempt to speed service. It seems like a partial solution to some of the delays that also plague buses in Seattle.

Passengers on select bus lines will be required to have proof of payment and will be able to board through all the doors on the bus. Critics suggest the transit agency's real motive is the crack down on riders even as it plans yet another fare increase.

Motives aside, this is exactly the kind of change necessary to make bus rapid transit work. Seattle should adopt similar steps as it rolls out the new bus service that taxpayers agreed to fund last fall.

Vancouver (but not Seattle) a world commerce center

Don't let clogged traffic, overpriced real estate and a lack of major businesses fool you. Vancouver is a top center of global commerce.

So says a new study by MasterCard ranking the top 50 cities as "world centers of commerce" based on their contribution to economic activity. Vancouver ranked 28th (between Montreal and Brussels), according to the index of six characteristics. It got high ratings for legal framework, ease of doing business and economic vitality. Those outweighed poor scores for being a financial center, knowledge/info economy and being a business center.

Seattle didn't even make the list, which included eight other U.S. cities. Vancouver's result comes despite the city's steady loss of headquarters and relatively weak corporate environment. Of course, the presence of two University of British Columbia professors on the nine-member panel that set the rankings could have something to do with it.

Vancouver shows how not to handle buses

Vancouver is struggling with new bus lanes because of interference from cars. It's a good lesson for Seattle, which is about to implement bus rapid transit along five corridors.

The congestion means that bus lanes haven't cut travel times. But the city's report notes an improvement: "bus lanes can raise the profile of transit on a corridor and can be a symbol of transit priority."

The question remains why we can't mimic the successful Rapid Ride program in Los Angeles. If you simplify the system and provide frequent service, people will ride.

Lesson from Japan: Boosting airport capacity

Most visitors to Japan are funneled through Tokyo's Narita Airport, which is a good example of how an airport can accommodate more people without growing larger. The lesson should put to rest the idea that Seattle needs a new airport.

For at least its first 30 years Narita was a joke. Located about 50 miles outside Tokyo, with a single runway and too-small terminals, it was the worst major airport in Japan and fell far short of those of rival cities like Seoul, Hong Kong, and recently Bangkok, Shanghai and Kuala Lumpur. Business began going elsewhere partly because of Tokyo's travel hassles.

Something similar could happen in Seattle, where Sea-Tac is plagued by delays and crowding even as rival Vancouver continues to stretch. A supposed solution? Site and build a new larger airport somewhere in the Puget Sound area.

Tokyo offers a better model. On my recent trip, I noticed again how two train lines ferry travelers directly into the terminal buildings, a second long-planned runway has been added on existing airport property and -- the biggest change in the last few years -- the terminals have been completely overhauled to handle more people.

Narita is also helped by the recent major improvements at Tokyo's huge in-city domestic airport and at airports in Osaka and Nagoya. Coordinating select flights from Paine Field and other satellite airports could complement Sea-Tac too.

Sea-Tac's third runway will provide extra landing slots and improvements to terminals and ground transport could boost overall capacity. Faster rail between B.C. and Oregon would relieve some stress for local travel. Combined with ground improvements at Sea-Tac, such changes could meet the region's demand and help knit it more closely together without the distraction of a new airport.