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This is the follow up to an earlier post detailing what made me change my mind about safety issues on SkyTrain.

As I said in the former post, I used to be anti-turnstiles and considered safety concerns at SkyTrain hyperbolic and mostly due to perception. Now that that has all changed, here’s a few ideas that I feel would make our transit system much safer. 

Turnstiles with 1 attendant at each station

The real problem with safety *on* SkyTrain has to do with undesirables getting onto the system so easily. Turnstiles solves this problem because it creates a barrier (both figuratively and literally), encouraging only legitimate usage of the train. 

Furthermore, turnstiles require at least one attendant to be there at all times in case there’s issues with the gates. This ensures that there is a staff presence at each station, and will make people feel safer because they know someone is always there (unlike the current roaming structure). If the attendants end up “adopting” one, or a few, stations as their regulars, it will also create a sense of community for users. 

Flexibility with frequencies

What I encountered the other day with a completely empty train could be resolved by adjusting the train frequency. Now, I know, the great thing about SkyTrain is very consistent frequencies. For example, trains come at least every 4 minutes at late night! It’s odd though, considering how TransLink tends to play with frequencies much more on the buses to increase efficiency. That is to say, it’s not like they’ll run 1/3 full buses every 10 minutes over half an hour period - instead they’ll just run one full bus every 30 minutes. 

So why not explore this option for times when safety is a real issue (usually late nights)? Why not reduce the SkyTrain service on Mondays to Thursday between 10 and 11 to every 10 minutes? Then between 11 and 1 to every 15 minutes? 

On Fridays when things are busier, maybe increase the frequency a bit. Play with the frequencies to fit the actual demand - this ensures that there is sufficient ridership on the trains to reduce safety concerns. 

This suggestion was made at one point during a 24/7 SkyTrain service discussion I was having. The point was made that having 24/7 service didn’t mean running trains every 6 minutes from 1am to 5am. It could be as simply as running one train every 30 minutes or hour! Besides, there wouldn’t even be enough demand to warrant such high frequencies that late at night. 

Playing with frequencies would make more efficient usage of the trains, reduce maintenance costs, and improve safety on the system. 

Stations as Community Hubs

Considering how much money we’ve paid for SkyTrain, it’s actually quite absurd that we haven’t utilized this expensive infrastructure to it’s full capacity. Transit oriented development around these parts is a relatively new thing unfortunately. Our SkyTrain stations should be the hubs of urban communities. 

This model has never really been fully implemented yet, but half baked versions exist at Metrotown, Edmonds, Gateway, Brentwood, and Joyce. For example, at Joyce, what I refer to as the most successful attempt yet, they built an urban village in the south east corner of the station on former industrial land. This brought in a wealth of legitimate users to the station, as well as a handful of shops and community amenities like parks and recreational space. Joyce also has community gardens below the SkyTrain guideway, and a community policing station nearby. 

Building urban communities around our SkyTrain stations makes much more efficient usage of the infrastructure, brings in more legitimate transit users (good for safety), and is a possible solution to the affordable housing problems. We need to be densifying around stations, and also locating community amenities like gardens, parks, sports fields, libraries, rec centres, pools, police stations, and more near or at the stations. 

CPTED the system

CPTED stands for Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design. It’s a series of design protocols that enhance safety and deter crime. For example, different light intensities or light heights can have different effects on safety. The same can be said for bushes and trees. 

The Expo Line stations were never built with CPTED. As we look at making substantial upgrades to the stations, CPTED should be implemented in every which way possible. 

Furthermore, there’s a ton of minor improvements that could be made at the stations to incorporate some CPTED principals without requiring millions of dollars. For example, the metal grate walls could easily and relatively cheaply be replaced with glass. Thankfully the terrible lighting is current being upgrading to a CPTED standard. We should also be looking very carefully at the existing foliage at the stations, and perhaps replant most of these areas - improving safety and beautifying the stations at the same time. 

A comprehensive media campaign 

There are vast swaths of both transit riders and non-users that simply have no idea that SkyTrain has some great security features already (i.e. the yellow boxed secure zone, the silent alarm, the real time communiqué with SkyTrain control). TransLink has kind of been pushing this more recently, however handing out mini safety guides and whistles isn’t enough. The major media corps should be publishing guides for SkyTrain safety in their papers. Maybe TransLink should look at doing full paged ads in Metro and 24, highlighting a safety feature each week. Customers need to be better informed and this will help with the heightened perception of crime on the system. 

Crime data online

Truthfully, I have absolutely no idea about the crime that goes on, either on SkyTrain, or around the stations. All I know is what the major media decides to report. So I might hear about a stabbing at Edmonds one day, but never about the cell phone or purse snatching rate. Making sure this information is consistently updated and readily available, in an easy-to-understand GUI, will also dramatically affect the perception of crime. The website could look like Google Analytics for example, showing the data in various forms such as graphs, percentages, pie charts, and even a map view. Crime stats should be taken from not just what happens on SkyTrain, but also mixed with the data from respective RCMP detachments and police departments of the municipalities, taking into account crime from 800m around the stations.

I’ve been taking SkyTrain regularly for two years now, and I’ve never once seriously felt scared for my safety until last night. Putting that into context, realistically, it says the system is quite safe. However, that doesn’t mean improvements should not be made to ameliorate the transit experience for all users. 

Maybe it was because I was going westbound at midnight on a Tuesday night Millennium Line train, a situation I’ve never been in, but three things happened last night that made me reevaluate my position on turnstiles and staff numbers. Up until yesterday, I had been a vocal opponent of turnstiles (cost to benefit ratio was too low), and I thought having more staff at stations was just a waste of money (considering how lazy most of them are). Here’s what made me change my mind. 

1. Dead, empty SkyTrains. From Braid to New Westminster, there was two other people on the train with me - a very low number and enough to make me start to feel uncomfortable. See, it’s all about the ghost town effect. I feel safe walking around at night downtown because I know I’m going to see a few people each block. It’s the eyes on the street that make me feel protected. However, in the ‘burbs, where everything is eerily quiet and nobody is around after 10; that’s when I get freaked out. Anybody could pop out from a bush! If something happened, I seriously doubt anyone would come help. 

That’s what happened on the SkyTrain. Normally returning eastbound on an Expo Line train, there’s at least 5 random strangers with me. We have a collective sense of protecting one another from creepers or hooligans. Once you go lower than that, it starts to get unnerving. 

After New Westminster, I was completely alone on the train until Patterson. It was soooo scary! See, any weirdo could’ve hopped onto my train (and these were the MK I trains, so no walking from one end to another). I would’ve been stuck on the that train with this person until the next station. Anything could’ve happened and I had no exit strategy! 

What was even more nerve-racking was stopping at a completely empty Metrotown station at night. That never happens!

2. Troublemakers. At Patterson, two rowdy teens ran up to my train as it was stopping and starting banging on the doors. Freaked the hell out of me, considering the likelihood of them joining my empty train and me being stuck with them till Joyce! Luckily, they hopped on the third car instead. 

Once I got off at Joyce though, there they were again. Bouncing up and down and tagging walls, just as the female SkyTrain attendant wasn’t looking. Very alarming stuff - especially after hearing a story from my female high school counsellor that made her hate the SkyTrain: one night she and another lady got stuck on a train with a bunch of wild teenagers that starting roughhousing on the car - leaving herself and the other woman fearing for their lives in the corners.

3. Creepers. Rather than the teens joining me at Patterson, this old guy with a trench-coat came onto the train. Seemed normal enough and besides, he was on the other side of the train. He starts looking around and I assume he’s trying to find a good seat. Then, he starts coming my way. Walking slowly, scanning the ground with his feet. Brushing aside papers and garbage. He makes eye contact. He’s close now and I’m scared shitless. Trench-coat. Maybe he’s a pedo, maybe he’s a murderer, maybe he’s a psycho. I just don’t know. He continues scrounging the floor. Oh my god - I’m stuck on here with him until the next station! 

He sits down in the middle of the train and pulls out a Bible-looking book. I see crosses hanging from his pocket and neck. Woo - maybe he’s just a weird religious guy. The next station is… Joyce. Okay, I’m finally here. Why is he getting up? This is my station not his. The door opens and he’s not moving. Oh my god, he’s waiting for me to go - maybe he’ll grab my bag, my wallet?! I quickly rush past him and towards the stairs. 

I see him scan the station then get on the eastbound train. Weird. Maybe he’s just a scrounger - trying to collect lost items of value off the train. Still, he’s crazy creepy! 

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So there’s my story. Those three experiences over one night have completely changed my opinion of safety both around and *on* SkyTrain. Stay tuned for Part 2 of this post with my ideas on how to improve this horrific safety situation. 

He is the ultimate underminer.

First, essentially *forcing* TransLink to revote (3 times!) till the Canada Line was accepted. Then, unhappy that the board even dared to disagree with construction of the then-named RAV Line, he went forward with a governance structure review, ensuring that he and his buddies would get control over regional transportation.

Then, going forward with the Port Mann twin, despite the numerous reasons against doing so, including that it is not supported under long range regional plans, will increase greenhouse gases, and is certainly not encouraging people to take transit. But hey, it’ll let Falcon drive his SUV over the bridge a bit faster for a couple of years, until it gets congested again…

He continues to push Bill 43, which will see the board move from a semi-democratic form, into nothing short of a private transportation corporation. As this Georgia Straight article sums up perfectly: “With the creation of this new TransLink board, they are giving a group of business appointees powers equal to a municipality: the power to increase property taxes, the power to reclassify business tax for the purpose of taxation, and they are giving them the power to land-bank.”

Last week, on the whim of visiting Europe and seeing turnstiles, he suddenly decided that they would do good in Vancouver. Don’t bother reading the multiple TransLink reports on safety or fare evasion that stated the cost/benefit ratio is not sufficient enough to support the investment (as The Province explains in this article). Or the fact that there is no clear cost estimate for installing turnstiles (anywhere from $10 to $100 million, depending on which media outlet you follow). Or the fact that the current board continues to fight Falcon on moving forward with his imposed plan. Or the fact that, if the “province” (aka: Falcon) really wants TransLink to install turnstiles, they could easily provide the capital from the huge $4.1 billion annual surplus. But no, anything to let his business buds make a little side cash (after all, a private corporation will happily pay to install and run these turnstiles for years, with “no cost” to the taxpayer!).

Now comes news that Falcon thinks the SkyTrain should be open later, and wants the board to “take a look” at doing so. First off, I highly doubt he even takes SkyTrain, so who is he to suddenly decry that SkyTrain should be open later, and have it simply happen with a snap of his fingers? This issue has been around for a long time (the fact that SkyTrain closes before the bars downtown, which actually would boost taxi companies’ revenues). I’m sure plenty of people have suggested this idea to TransLink. Just off the top of my head, I’m pretty darn sure even Mr. Mayor Sam Sullivan (!) said he thought SkyTrain should run later. So why is it that TransLink doesn’t listen to anyone until Falcon shows up? Now, they are even calling their own studies on fare evasion false, with Malcom Brodie agreeing with Falcon that there simply must be more than “6-7% of riders without tickets” and that the number “must be around 25%“. Since when did Falcon get a chain and whip, and turn the municipal mayors and councillors into his bitches?

What the hell is up with this clusterfuck of a Minister? You thought Campbell was bad (I’m talking to the Campbell haters here, of which I am actually not one) - Falcon is the one you should be watching out for. He is a draconian despot.

Even The Vancouver Sun senses something fishy with the way Falcon is running his Ministry: “Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon said the new structure would restore public confidence through accountability and governance. But one has to wonder what the point of the exercise is, since Falcon now seems determined to continue to make decisions that should really be taken by the board.”

“But if instead Falcon insists on continuing to make all the important decisions, then the change to the structure of the TransLink board will be merely cosmetic.“

And so Mr. Falcon cried down from the heavens of Legislature, “Let there be turnstiles”. And there were turnstiles.

I really hate rants, but reading all the stories today about this, I can’t help but make sure some facts here are more clear.

TransLink has completed several studies over the years on the cost-benefit ratio of installing turnstiles on the SkyTrain system. It was found to be expensive - 1. Because the Expo Line was not designed for them, 2. Because there would need to be staff at each station in case the public needed assistance. The honour system that is currently in use allows for moderately easy fare evasion and a perception of less safe stations.

To rectify some of these issues, without installing turnstiles, TransLink hired more SkyTrain staff, and began the Transit Police (with guns!). Nowadays, there’s usually one TransLink employee at every second or third station- many times more.

But lo and behold, Kevin Falcon takes a trip to Europe, sees the lovely smart cards and turnstiles, and thinks, “hey, that’s cool, we should have that in my hometown”.

He comes back, says he wants the system in place, and off he goes to make it happen. The history behind turnstiles in Vancouver.. nope it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter that it makes no fiscal sense. What Falcon wants, Falcon gets.

Port Mann twin. Canada Line. TransLink overhaul. Turnstiles.

May 12, 2006- Falcon ruminates on the virtues of the undemocratic Chinese governance model. He states the Chinese “don’t have the labour or environmental restrictions we do. It’s not like they have to do community consultations. They just say ‘we’re building a bridge’ and they move everyone out of there and get going within two weeks. Could you imagine if we could build like that?”

Can a guy be more autocratic?

So, of course, being the BC Liberal that Falcon is, he states that the project will be a Public-Private-Partnership. A private corporation will pay the $100 million plus to retrofit all the SkyTrain stations with turnstiles, and in return they will get a share of revenue.

Now, we are entering very creepy territory here. What I’m keenly afraid of is the aftereffect of these P3s 10 years from now. The Canada Line is very much a private transit line, simply being licenced as a service under very thin contract boundaries to TransLink. If the public wants more trains, and it doesn’t make fiscal sense, inTransitBC won’t add more trains, and TransLink will be blamed, and not be able to do anything about it. The Port Mann twin will be funded by a private corp, and will be in charge of raising tolls to their satisfaction. All that money that you’ll be paying to cross the bridge… it won’t go back into improving the overall system; it’ll go to paying this private corporation for the next 30 odd years.

Private corporations exist to make money. There is absolutely no difference between public healthcare and public transportation - neither can be profit-driven, elsewise the public will, in the long term, receive a worse product overall.

Finally, Falcon seems to want this to happen immediately. In some media outlets, his estimate has been by next year. Falcon seems to always forget that, since we are in Canada, there are processes by which these projects must move through. Architectural designs, safety checks, bids for the contract, etc. Things take time. And heck, usually, projects don’t even go forward unless they make sense to build!

It’s a disaprate article, I know. But Falcon frustrates me so. And, what’s worse, is it’s likely he’ll get head office once Campbell steps down. Ugh, politics and transportation….