This is the third pillar in my civic platform.
Transportation, all things considered, isn’t actually a *huge* deal out here. Most Surrey residents own a car and deal with reasonable traffic loads. The minority that doesn’t rides the buses and have put up with poor service for a long time now. However, this cycle can’t continue forever. At some point, with too large an increase in population and not enough road expansion, the drivers will get angry. Everyone knows roads can’t be expanded forever.
From here, we need to start looking at ways other than the car for people to get around. One simple strategy is to improve transit to the point where you can sufficiently attract drivers out of their cars. Another one, somewhat pioneered in our region is the idea of building complete communities. With this strategy, the concept is that people will be able to work, live, and play, in the same area, and could simply walk or cycle anywhere they needed to go. Longer trips could be taken of my transit or even a car share type program.
At one point in time, Surrey grew up around the Interurban, sprouting communities like Newton, Sullivan, and Cloverdale. Unfortunately, we are no longer a rail city, and growth has been half hazardly occuring around roads. It’s quite rare to see anyone walk in the city - only from the car to the store. Don’t even think about cycling in the area unless you are ready to fight the drivers.
This is unsustainable and needs to change. Now.
Imagine living somewhere where you wanted to walk to the store because there was things to see along the way and you felt safe. Imagine being able to safely cycle on your own lane, physically separated from the auto traffic or down beautiful greenways along the creeks and rivers. Imagine being able to walk a short distance to a bus stop with a modern and sharp looking weather shelter, comfy bench, along with a transit map, a garbage and recycling bin, and daily newspapers. We can make this a reality. Here’s how.
1. A Transportation Hierarchy
Development in Surrey is based around the car. Simple as that. There have been attempts to make developments a bit more friendly to other forms of transport. For example, making sure sidewalks are built, or perhaps bike lanes. But, you’re still building for cars, not people.
No more.
Surrey needs to establish a transportation hierarchy that will apply to a whole methodology surrounding developments and the way people get around. Taken straight from SmartGrowth BC’s Transportation policy:
- Walking
- Cycling
- Public Transit
- Goods and Commercial Services
- High Occupancy Vehicles
- Single Occupant Vehicles
With this overarching philosophy in place, developments will be made once again for people, not cars.
2. Bus stop initiative
Surrey doesn’t have too much control over transit and is frankly very much held captive by TransLink and the provincial government on that matter. The one area they have jurisdiction over though is the bus stops and what amenities are located there. If Surrey is truly dedicated to transit and transportation alternatives, our bus stops need to be at least as good as Vancouver’s.
First off, Surrey and it’s citizens need to decide whether they are fine with adspace paying for a large portion of this program. We could define ourselves as the city without advertising. Bus stops could be adopted by the local community and feature job boards or school artwork. Or, they could have ads for car drivers. This decision needs to be made as it influences funding.
From there, the City needs to hold a design contest with local architects to design modular bus stop amenities that can give the City an overarching transit identity, but still flexible enough to change things like colours depending on which of the six town centres the stop is in.
Next, the City needs to define progressive guidelines for bus stop amenities and also take a good look at the data. For example, some stops may be places where everyone always exits - a stop which would unlikely need a shelter, at least compared to one where riders are waiting for the bus.
Taking these variations into consideration, I generally support the concept that all stops should feature at least a shelter. This is Metro Vancouver. It rains. Shelters are needed above anything else. Shelters can also comfortably be leaned upon. A shelter is of much more use than a seat. Also, all stops with shelters must incorporate a transit map into the design.
All stops should also feature a garbage/recycling bin, in various sizes depending on the usage of the stop. Busier stops should also have a comfortable seat (not metal!), as well as newspaper bins.
It may seem like a huge initiative, but could actually dramatically improve the transit experience for all riders for quite a low cost, especially if it is partially funded through adspace. Think about it. Standing in the rain could make someone want to never ride the bus again. Having a newspaper to read could dramatically reduce the stress one faces waiting for a late bus - similar to the effect the radio has on drivers stuck in traffic. Minor investments with huge benefits.
3. Cycling Network Initiative
This is another “best buy”, similar to the bus stop initiative. For very low capital investment, Surrey could make huge strides in terms of cycling usage.
Cycling could be Surrey’s defining feature. We could be the national capital of cycling. Why not? It’s fun, it’s healthy, it’s green.
In fact, a ton of the immigrants living in Surrey have known cycling for most of their lives. It’s sad seeing them attempt to ride safely on the sidewalk, away from the traffic.
Ask anyone why they don’t cycle and they’ll reply, somewhere near the top, that it’s not safe! Bike lanes don’t encourage cycling, at least not among the majority of the public. We need physical separation.
Of course, just like any form of transportation, there needs to be a network. That it why, under my originally proposed Surrey Cycling Initiative, the City would make major capital investments into the system to complete the network in the near future (i.e. a couple of years). And as I said, building a whole cycle network costs so little in comparison to road expansion.
The initiative revolves around creating two major networks.
- A greenway network would feature long distance routes running through the City’s expanded biotopes in coordination with the Nature Preservation Strategy in the Green Spaces pillar. These would run along the farms, the creeks, and through the park - connecting them all up for enjoyable recreational use. It would be Surrey’s equivalent of Vancouver’s extremely successful seawall route.
- The second network is a mainly commuter one. And as I said before, to make people feel comfortable to ever do so, there needs to be physical separation. The commuter network would feature physically separated cycling lanes, alongside sidewalks, down the major roads in Surrey (aka: King George, Fraser, Scott Road, 152 St., etc.). There are a number of way the separation could be achieved, but there needs to be something there (i.e. bollards, a mini median, trees and grass, a small concrete strip, etc.)
Futhermore, in coordination with the Traffic Calming Strategy further down, measures would be taken to make cycling safer in neighbourhoods and residential zones. This could be things like bike lanes, sharrows, and the like.
4. Traffic Calming Strategy
The current traffic calming strategy is failing in two main realms.
- It requires inception from the community. This means that unless people truly care about their neighbourhood and have enough support for traffic calming, it won’t be put in.
- The traffic calming features in use aren’t cycling friendly.
The solution is quite simple. Require a traffic calming strategy to be incorporated in all new developments. Also, update the strategy to include markers for calming features to be installed in certain areas. For example, you could set baeslines according to how many cars a road is designed for - if it surpasses this number, traffic calming is installed. Similar baselines could be set around the number of speeding tickets that have been written around certain location - or the number of accidents.
Also, update the acceptable measures to ensure that traffic calming that is friendly towards cyclists. For example, some cyclists have difficulty with roundabouts that feature a potted garden in the center. This could be adjusted be removing the garden, and allowing cyclists to proceed directly forward, while cars would have to do the roundabout. Or, you could just not have roundabouts in the first place, and do things like speed bumps or traffic diversion instead.
5. Municipal Green Fleet
As part of Surrey’s green efforts, the City should, sometime in the next few years, begin to purchase and replace it’s vehicles with “greener” ones. These could be anything from hybrids, to electrics, to diesels, to smart cars. Major capital shouldn’t be put into this, however a strategy should be in place to gradually upgrade the municipal fleet to greener vehicles.
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