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Archive of posts tagged translink

be part of ‘my’ plan…

Posted by cris on 26 August 2009, 3:28 pm
this post was bound to happen sometimes, and since it’s been delayed by quite a bit i’m going to be throwing more than just one subject in it.

the first subject for today’s post is the newly opened ‘canada line’, yes the massive over priced, poorly managed 2 billion costing sky train line that links richmond to vancouver…and let’s not forget…the first rapid transit from a canadian international airport to the respective downtown core. so if by now you didn’t pick up on it…i’m not very happy about the project. don’t get me wrong, i think a rapid transit line should been build 10 years ago. it’s not the idea i have a problem with…is how they went about doing it. translink has not only over-spent, but managed to ensure their salaries got bigger and bigger. and what did the public get? well…they got a campaign with the motto ‘be part of the plan’. the only options one has when offering their useless opinion (useless since translink won’t take it into account) is whether to increase one form of tax over the other. there are essentially five options…either increase transit far (why not), increase taxation either on gasoline, car insurance, land taxation…or other forms of taxation. they offer no insight on how their decisions are made, no insight on how they chose who to contract for work being done…but once every year they essentially ask for more money. on the day the line opened…there were shows and freebies given out at each station…our drunken leader made sure he self-promoted his white smile over the news on that day as if he managed to bring something unique to vancouver. the speach included reference to this being the only line of its type in canada (the airport to downtown part)…well that might be the case…but vancouver as we know it wants to compare itself with the major metropolitan cities of the world. and in that comparison, well they’re at the bottom of the list. all major european cities have some sort of rapid public transportation to and from their airport…which are cheaper and some of which include free wi-fi. now that being said, other news were given to the public on the same day…only this one was not so publicly stated and more or less hidden.

our premier decided to share the news that healthcare is looking at a reduced budget for next year of roughly $60 million. yes, the news was first provided to the public on the same day as the crappy line took on its first rider. this was followed yesterday by the full report…in which the most important sectors of our society are facing budgetary cuts. that implies the school system and healthcare. however, most of the throne speech yesterday was to defend the ‘hst’ tax (if you don’t know what it is…then google is your friend). i may be slow, but i missed where any of the things on the agenda from yesterday are helping the not so ‘rich’ part of society. more tax, less money to public services…and well let’s face it…the poorer will stay poorer, but with less public service.

all the promises that fooled bc-ers into voting liberal a few months back are not only not being followed, we’re getting the opposite. hold on a second…isn’t that what happened the first two times around? even the americans got it right after during their third try…how is it that bc-ers don’t. the cycle continues, the rich will stay richer…the hst will help business (which by all means has been on the agenda every single time drunken gordo got the power) and essentially squeeze even more money out of the working lower classes. so congratulations to those who voted, congratulations to the ndp leader who can’t seem to figure out she can’t win an election and congratulations for the drunken leader who managed to fool everyone yet again. at this point one does wonder on the iq level of the voting population…

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more tax…more tax…

Posted by cris on 13 March 2009, 10:28 am
how’s the crisis from your side of the monitor? well…as it seems some things are good (somewhat cheaper gas – yet not nearly as cheap as it should be given that the oil price is incredibly low), and some…quite bad. this morning some stats were provided…and without anyone getting surprised…in british columbia there were 4900 jobs lost …while in canada the number is 83000…all in the month of february. the unemployment rate…well it’s at 7.7 in canada…and bc stands a bit lower, but then again our industry is no-where to be found.

so, given this recent update…what does translink propose? more tax…yes tax on cars, gas, pay parking…and eventually on ticket prices for their already worthless services. now, i’m not a financial analyst, i don’t pretend to know a lot about finances…but it seems that almost every year we hear the same story from translink…they need more money…to get this they want to ‘raise tax for drivers’… and why? sure, reduce emissions…congestion on the road..etc. however, how about they start doing a better job with their finances. take a lesson from icbc or worksafebc – yes both of those invest money…and usually make a killing in profit…i guess translink should take some 1-on-1 lessons from those two companies…or at least try to ‘steal’ their accountants… then again…why bother when they can just ask the government to increase tax..instead of say increase the standard of their services. security on public transit? i don’t think i need to visit last years events at or inside sky-train stations.

according to a translink official…they want to do this to raise necessary funds to be able to provide better for the community…and if they can reduce the number of cars on the road…then the more the better…warning though…if not allowed to raise money…they will be ‘forced’ to reduce their service…my question is “what service?”

as i was driving from school yesterday i have another ‘hands-on’ experience with the quality of the translink bus drivers…i started at a stop sign, bus was coming from the adjacent road and he had a sign of ‘yield’. now, on the buses in vancouver there is a yield sign on them…to essentially warn drivers that it’s the law for us to yield to the bus when they pull onto the lane from a bus stop – in other words…to let them cut into traffic (regardless of whether or not the drivers can actually break and let them in). anyhow…sign on the street was a yield to him…and i had priority. not only did he not stop seeing as i’m coming…he didn’t even attempt to break…and essentially cut in front…thus, i was forced to break to make sure i don’t ‘take’ the bus home. i’m just wondering out loud here…but which yield sign should have been followed? the one on the bus (which essentially is there to yield to the buses then they come out of the bus stop) or the regular road-sense yield sign that is sitting on the pole on the side of the road?

a few months ago, when i was still taking the bus to school…i entered one of the buses in the morning, sat down…and essentially tried to zone out as much as possible given the bus was packed more efficiently than a can of sardines. during roughly a 35 minute bus ride…the bus driver slammed on his breaks about 5 times. one of which…caused 3 people to lose grip and fall…one of which manage to hit me in the process – now it wasn’t his fault, and he did appologize…but you can understand the reason as to why translink received a complaint (the beauty of feedback forms). anyhow, the other thing that occurred was…a simple case of almost ending up with the bus on its side…the driver takes a small curve a bit to fast…and the wheels end up hitting the curb…and the bus tilts to a side…that was pretty much one of the last times i took the bus to school…ever since then…i’m “polluting more”.

another story occurred while i was still working towards my undergraduate degree…taking the bus on my way home…i ended up pretty close to the driver…standing and pushing to make sure i have a grip. the bus driver..decides it’s time for lunch…so she places her bowl of soup (which still looked warm) in between her legs…takes a spoon…and consumes her lunch…while driving the bus…at roughly 60-70km/h (yes i could see the speedometer)…down the hill from sfu (for those who know the school…i think they’ll understand)…i think the bus had probably more than 150 people on board…

there’s plenty more stories about the standard ‘quality service’ translink offers…in terms of drivers…but really…there’s much more to their service…lack of public transport in the outer cities of gvrd…the buses which are usually late…and the bright decision of making a sky-train loop (although it benefits me from a subjective point of view) in burnaby…rather than expand the skytrain to cities like coquitlam, port moody…richmond (which they are currently doing).

so…if their proposed taxes don’t go through….they’ll cut the service? yeah…what service?

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new bridge…

Posted by cris on 7 February 2009, 9:07 pm
in order to decrease congestion on hwy 1…our province’s will charge a $3 fee for crossing each way. let’s put this in context a bit…i am talking about the proposed new bridge for hwy, instead of the undersized portmann bridge. last i recall, they proposed an expansion to the current bridge…something i’d agree would probably help the congestion. now it seems, a new bridge is in order! i fail to see how that decision came about? given the next bridge over (patullo bridge) is not only about half the size of the portman, but has recently suffered two fires, it looks as if it’s going to crumbly any day now (new west bridge is falling down…falling down…), and esthetically…it looks like crap!

so, to cope with the price (recent reported figure was about $3 billion) of building a new bridge…a toll fee will be added. yes, $3 each way…i guess the morning starbucks for all those drivers coming westbound will just have to be forfeit. how is this going to decrease congestion? well, one way comes to mind…most people won’t drive over the new bridge…yes, they’ll probably either skytrain (i guess that’s the only ‘good’ outcome out of this) or use the other bridges…i can only imagine the extra gridlock coming from surrey towards either new westminster or richmond. let’s not forget, the other bridges take drivers way out of the way, increase the amount of stopping at red lights, drive slower, and most likely cause a nice pattern of a ‘stop-&-go’ traffic….in simpler words…at least based on my current understanding of the situation.. it will definitely increase combustion emissions. so…decrease congestion on hwy 1 (with apparently the intention of decreasing our carbon footprint) will probably not happen.

let’s return to the $3 toll…so, hwy speed around these parts is 90km/h. driving to work at that speed (one would only wish) and the have to stop at the bridge, take out the $3 and pay the fool that works there. i guess it will increase job opportunity in this financial crisis by 6 jobs? maybe? oh well, at least the goverment is creating jobs (oh wait…our unemployment rate is just over 7% at this point…about a year and a half ago…was around 3.5%). that’s not going to create congestion though, require everyone to stop, take the coins out (and probably receive change given we don’t have a $3 coin) and then start up again. thus, forcing people to stop will decrease congestion…our liberals never fail to impress us with their logic… probably some people will decide it’s too much, and if they won’t want to take other routes…which will not only waste more time and gas…but indirectly increase the chance of accidents (hey…look at that icbc will probably have an increase in profit for the next few years…yet again)…

they’ll probably skytrain. damn, but wait there’s only 1 line out of surrey…park-and-go around the stations is usually limited if at all available…and the skytrains (even though they run quite often) are usually pretty full. again, thumbs up to the liberals…try to force people to use another undersized public service (ahh…and there we are again…translink will probably profit from the increase as well)… but wait, if people will refuse to pay, refuse to drive out of their way…or simply refuse to use public transit…they’ll probably have to either move closer to work, find work close to home…or work from home. moving closer to work (thinking they might move towards vancouver)…will probably…actually most likely help increase home prices…stunning!…financial crisis, lowering home prices, banks losing since people are not buying…and the liberals find a way to indirectly ‘suggest’ that we should move closer to work…i’m just waiting for the environmental pitch for the move…b/c i’m sure it’s coming…

so…yet again…elections coming up…shortly…the liberals find another way to help business prosper…make another decision with ‘the public’s interest’ in mind…and i’m just ‘guessing’ here…that they’ll win again come spring?

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