TransLink, Cystic Fibrosis and Shinerama – what’s the connection?

A couple of days ago, my mother-in-law gave me some delightful news: a young (early 30s) woman she knew had just had a baby. What gave this news even more weight was the fact that this woman has cystic fibrosis.

It’s just another success story in a medical saga that has gone on for many decades now, making gradual but definite progress – witness the marked increase in life expectancy over the past fifty years.

Once again this year, the UBC Alma Mater Society (AMS) is taking part in “Shinerama”, the campaign by post-secondary students across Canada to raise funds and awareness for CF research and treatment; and once again this year, TransLink and its family of companies are pleased to be a part of it.

Post-secondary students, knowing they’re at the age when a lot of CF sufferers die, have been involved in the fight for over 45 years. That’s why the UBC AMS organizes its annual Shinerama campaign. It’s truly a “clean and polished” concept: students hit the streets on the first weekend of the school year, shining shoes in return for contributions to the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.

TransLink is supporting Shinerama in a number of ways. You’ve probably seen the ads on the large digital screens in SkyTrain stations on the Expo and Millennium Lines – the work of TransLink’s graphic artist, John Charron.

The BC Rapid Transit Company, the operator of SkyTrain, is making four stations available for the shoe-shining “blitz” on Saturday, Sept. 11. Bring your scuffed footwear – and your generous donations – between 11am and 4pm to one of the following stations:

• Granville
• Burrard
• Commercial-Broadway or
• Brentwood
  

Coast Mountain Bus Company will supply one of its buses for a special appearance during Orientation Week at UBC from 11am till 1pm on Tuesday, Sept. 7, where it will get its own “shine” from Shinerama volunteers outside the Student Union Building.

The connection between TransLink and CF is unavoidable: Cystic Fibrosis is a genetic disease, but it can be aggravated by environmental factors like poor air quality. As public transit becomes more efficient and effective and the public embrace TravelSmart thinking and find ways of getting around that don’t involve private autos, Greater Vancouver’s air quality is improved and maintained.

Since 2005, TransLink has aggressively increased service in a number of areas, all of which emphasize air quality. Our replacing and expanding the fleet of electric trolley buses is a commitment to that low-emission mode of transit that will last another quarter century – the anticipated service life of the new coaches.

The new diesel buses acquired over that time run on ultra low sulfur diesel fuel, with its sharply reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and are fitted with particulate traps, which screen out 90% of pollutants from the exhaust.

The opening of the SkyTrain Canada Line a year ago and the arrival of 48 new cars for the Expo/Millennium Lines have provided more incentive for people to choose transit over private autos. TransLink’s support of cycling infrastructure, both by co-funding municipal projects and taking on major work such as the Central Valley Greenway and the bike/pedestrian bridge that forms part of the Fraser River North Arm Bridge on the Canada Line, adds to that incentive and also helps promote active commuting.

TransLink’s AirCare program makes sure private automobiles do their part, too. Since its inception in 1992, hundreds of thousands of motor vehicles have been repaired after going through an AirCare test and, combined with improvements in automotive technology over that same time, has brought an improvement in air quality in the region, despite a steady increase in the number of motor vehicles.

Particularly important is the reduction of fine particulate matter (PM) from the atmosphere. Research has shown there is a strong link between the level of PM and human health effects. It is estimated that, without AirCare, the amount of vehicle emissions today – including PM – would be 29% higher than it currently is. That would make it harder for all of us to breathe – especially those with CF.

CF is a “blameless” disease: children get it through a genetic defect. One in 25 Canadians is a “carrier”, having that defective gene in their chromosomal structure; should two carriers become parents together, there’s a 1 in 4 chance a child they have will have CF.

CF literally leaves one breathless. A person with CF doesn’t have the inhibitor that most of us have, which prevents mucus from forming in the lungs. As that mucus builds and thickens, bacteria, which would normally be exhaled or coughed out, sticks around in the system, increasing the chance of disease. The mucus also clogs the ducts around the pancreas, which blocks enzymes from getting to the intestines to digest food.

Treatment includes pounding on the chest frequently to break up the mucus (when this writer was at UBC’s campus radio station in 1974, we ran a campaign to purchase percussors – devices that perform that “pounding” treatment), and a variety of drugs and inhalants. A CF patient also has to swallow an average of 20 enzyme pills a day with their meals in order to extract the nutrients from the food they eat.

We’ve only really known anything about CF since the 1930s, when people didn’t recognize a child had the disease until after he or she had died. But research has been making huge strides in identifying the cause and helping people with the disease lead increasingly better lives.
For example, in 1960, a child with CF rarely lived past the age of 4. In 1987, a 22-year-old Regina woman who made headlines with a trip to London for a double-lung transplant had already “beaten the odds” (sadly, she died not long after getting the transplant).

Today, the median age is 37 and up to half of all Canadians with CF are expected to live into their 40s and beyond. Most people with CF can now lead fairly normal lives, in terms of social relationships, physical activity and educational pursuits, although they still need a daily routine of rigorous physical therapy and regular visits to CF clinics. Efforts to improve quality of life and attack the genetic defect causing the disease have clearly been paying off, and research shows plenty of hope and promise.

So whether you’re cheering on the volunteers shining up our bus at UBC on Sept. 7 or getting your shoes shined on Sept. 11, please remember to give generously to the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, so more people can breathe a lot easier!

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose …

On vacation in Ottawa (stepdaughter got married this past weekend), and came across this little gem in another stepdaughter's living room. She and her husband brought it back from Paris.

(I've been searching online for some idea as to what this grande fête was about -- a one-day event celebrating 10 million with "predictors of the future"? -- so if anyone has any information, please pass it along.)

But what caught my eye was the information across the bottom of the poster:

It's the instructions for getting to the event on public transit. Whenever we have a major event in Vancouver -- Celebration of Light, major concerts or sports games -- we always send out a media advisory listing the various ways of getting there and back on bus, SkyTrain, or SeaBus. Are there additional trips? Does service run later? How do you get tickets? All of this is done while keeping in mind the fact that there are some people who aren't familiar with the public transit system.

Even in 1893, publicity for events included public transit information -- and it would be most useful information, especially considering the high cost of oats and hitching (dang taxes!). The Paris system used ferries, rail, trams and buses, and on that day all those roads, apparently, led to Champ de Mars.

So while we look at the public transit option as something new and progressive; but in many ways, all that's changed is the technology.

TransLink’s 2010 Base Transportation Plan – a foundation for the future

The following is a message from TransLink CEO Ian Jarvis.


There has been a great deal of attention and commentary on the fact that, for the first time in six years, TransLink’s annual transportation plan for Metro Vancouver doesn’t include expansion for the transit system. With all signs indicating further growth in our region’s population and economy, observers who understand the link between transportation and our economic and social wellbeing have expressed concern about the significant long-term downside of not maintaining this momentum.

Their concern is valid. TransLink’s whole purpose is to support Metro Vancouver’s growth management, environmental and quality of life objectives by planning and financing an effective and efficient integrated road, transit, cycling and walking network. Our future as one of the world’s most livable regions depends on how well the network functions and there has been a significant rise in the public’s appreciation of the role transit plays.

To assess the impact of TransLink’s 2010 ‘base’ transportation plan, in which funding for further transit expansion is not available, it’s necessary to understand our planning process and replay some of the major developments over the last five to six years. The issue of momentum is important.

A ‘base plan’ represents what TransLink can do in a given year with its existing level of funding. If the region wants us to do more than that, TransLink prepares and consults with the public on an expansion plan called a ‘supplement’ that identifies the additional services needed and proposes the amount and the source of additional funding necessary to deliver them.

If an increase in cash transit fares or the cost of FareSaver tickets is proposed, TransLink needs to have the approval of the Regional Transportation Commissioner. If there’s to be more revenue from gas or parking taxes, the provincial government must approve.

The majority of the region’s mayors must agree to any increase in TransLink’s portion of property taxes and, sitting as the Mayors Council on Regional Transportation, they must vote to accept the overall supplement. If the supplemental plan passes, it becomes TransLink’s new base plan.

The process I’ve just described took place in 2009 and resulted in the approval of $130 million in new, annual revenue in time for 2010’s transportation plan. That additional revenue is now in TransLink’s base plan for 2011.

Throughout the planning process in 2009 and 2010, TransLink has made every effort to be clear that the focus is to sustain a substantial amount of transit expansion put in place since 2004. Had the $130 million supplement not been approved last fall and had the base plan as it was in 2009 carried into 2010, Metro Vancouver would have been in the same position as many other North American jurisdictions – struggling to manage transit cuts, which in our case would have reduced bus services by up to 40 per cent.

As it is today, we’re not only in much better shape than most other jurisdictions, we are going to continue to benefit from the momentum established by all of the transit expansion TransLink has put in place since 2004.

For example, just being able to sustain service levels in place at the end of last December means there will be nearly half a million more hours of transit service in 2010. That’s because we’re gaining a full year’s advantage of the additional buses, the Canada Line and 48 more Expo and Millennium line cars brought into service throughout 2009. Plus we’re just now taking delivery of seven new West Coast Express cars that will add capacity for over 2000 more passengers per day in time for September.

Even if there’s no expansion of the transit fleet in 2011, the momentum from the 2004 to 2010 expansion will continue. In 2004, the average conventional bus in TransLink’s fleet carried 171,000 passengers during the year and the average SkyTrain car moved 298,000 riders. If we maintained these averages with the 400 new buses and 88 new SkyTrain cars TransLink added between 2004 and 2010, the fleet would be moving over 90 million more people per year.
But there’s always a lag between expansion and ridership. As such, TransLink still has the capacity to grow transit ridership, taking full advantage of our larger fleet by optimizing its performance. That’s what we intend to do by moving capacity from where and when it’s not operating efficiently to times or places where it can serve more people, all the while continuing to look after needs across the region.

This, plus TransLink’s ongoing efforts to cut costs internally, will provide a solid foundation for the next wave of expansion that will inevitably be needed to support Metro Vancouver’s long-range goals. We still have the momentum, and there is strong support across the region to make sure we don’t lose it.

And now ... some trash talk from SkyTrain

Riding the SkyTrain with BCRTC boss Doug Kelsey the other day, he went out of his way to pick up some stray newspapers that others had dropped on the train. Of course, I would have leapt into the fray and grabbed more of the litter but I was just awe-struck at Doug's act that I did not want to steal his spotlight -- or give the impression of a sycophantic yes-man.

Right.

Actually, I did grab a couple of newspapers myself the other day -- one that had been tossed idly on the ground by a fellow who seemed to think it was the most natural thing in the world to just drop the paper on the floor and pretend it didn't exist. He didn't even look up when I picked it up and tossed it in the recycling bin at Metrotown.

As it is, this isn't about papers, but about other garbage that can get dropped on SkyTrain platforms and some of the havoc they can create.

Sunday afternoon (June 20, if you're scoring at home), four elderly women passengers were injured after a SkyTrain had to apply its emergency brakes near 29th Avenue Station. Three of them were taken to hospital. Sudden stops like that occur automatically when an object lands on the tracks, triggering the guideway intrusion detection system to prevent the train hitting something or someone.

On investigation, it was found this particular “EB” was caused by a soda can that had fallen onto the track.

In other words, it doesn't take much to set off the intrusion detection system, cause the train to slam on the emergency brakes and cause a system service disruption until the problem is dealt with.

Sometimes, dealing with the problem involves a SkyTrain Attendant simply getting to the station (if he or she isn't already there), checking visually to determine that it's safe for the train to move again, re-entering the train into the computer system, and away they go. During that time, several other trains could be held up, as well.

Doug says, “The safety of our customers is a top priority at SkyTrain and that’s why the intrusion alarms are set to an extremely low tolerance. Something with the weight of a pop can might also be a wallet or a cell phone or a child’s toy, and the owner of that wallet – or cell phone or toy – could jump into the tracks after it."

Of 231 intrusion alarm incidents in the past month, 80 were caused by garbage and another 10 by people jumping into the tracks to retrieve something that had fallen in – an act even more dangerous because of the power rail carrying 600 volts DC.

That’s why it’s important to take personal responsibility for any garbage you bring onto SkyTrain or the platform. Newspapers, food wrappings and other items must be disposed-of properly, and there are ample garbage and recycling bins at stations for that purpose.

It’s also important to remember that seniors and persons with disabilities have priority for seats nearest the doors – with or without decals indicating it; if a SkyTrain has to make an emergency stop, you stand a greater chance of avoiding serious injury if you’re holding onto a bar or a stanchion.

The reason why customers are asked to leave the train at terminus stations – Waterfront, King George and VCC-Clark – is to give SkyTrain cleaners an opportunity to make sure garbage is removed from the cars before the train begins its return trip. Cleaners also work throughout the system to try to keep platforms clear, but we can all help by taking personal responsibility for our trash and – if possible – picking up any other items we might see near us.

Your fellow SkyTrain customers will appreciate it, too. In 2008, a fire in a pile of discarded newspapers that had accumulated on the tracks caused a 45-minute service disruption during the afternoon rush hour, inconveniencing literally thousands of people trying to get home from work and school.

SkyTrain is everybody’s system. We pay for it, ride it, rely on it. The “Target Trash” posters you see on SkyTrain are not just about cosmetics and keeping trains and stations looking nice: they’re about making sure the system remains safe and convenient for everybody.

Canada Line service and the "near-capacity" canard

On June 2, the Vancouver Sun ran an article suggesting the Canada Line was "nearing capacity."

On June 8, the Vancouver Sun ran the following letter to the editor.
It comes from Bill McCreery, a former Vancouver Park Board commissioner, and reads, in part:

A recent headline in The Vancouver Sun read: Canada Line races toward capacity. I know; I ride it frequently.

The ridership is way ahead of projections and is already close to reaching 100-per-cent capacity. Now, though, Vancouver city council has opened the floodgates to developers’ proposals across the city and, before the Cambie corridor planning process is even completed, ouncilors are welcoming a proposal for two towers containing 570 residences, offices and retail space at the already congested Cambie and Marine Drive intersection. Presumably this is being rationalized on the basis of the rapid transit line; Richmond also has an ambitious expansion plan because of it. If Vancouver and Richmond continue on this densification path, however, we will need three more Canada Lines.

The full item can be found here.

However, the original item in the Sun was based on some errors, and we attempted to correct those errors through a letter of our own. To date, though, the Sun has not opted to publish it, so here it is, for your information:


June 9, 2010

The Editor
Vancouver Sun

RE: “How We’re Turning the Canada Line into a Bottleneck”

Bill McCreery’s OpEd piece on the Canada Line (“How We’re Turning the Canada Line into a Bottleneck” June 8) is based, unfortunately, on a key misunderstanding, generated in part by the Vancouver Sun’s June 3rd headline that the line had ‘reached capacity.’ The Canada Line is nowhere near “capacity” especially given our Olympics experience when the line routinely handled over 200,000 passengers per day with the current fleet of 20 trains. That’s over double the ridership normally serves.

The issue right now is that the line can be crowded at peak periods, especially on the Richmond leg in the morning and at downtown Vancouver stations in the afternoon. Options to increase capacity include:

- Re-allocating service hours to peak periods by moving some runs from the mid-day or evening.
- Put more of the existing trains into service when needed. Canada Line currently uses 14 of the 20 trains in peak periods and can add a train when necessary to handle the ‘peak of the peak.’ within currently-funded service levels.
In August 2011, TransLink will increase the number of trains in regular service to 16 – a 12 per cent boost. Future capacity can be added with more, two-car train sets and there’s an option in the longer run to go to three-car trains.

As urban planners and property developers consider their options along the Canada Line corridor, it’s important they know that the Canada Line has the capacity now and in the future to provide a viable, convenient and quick travel alternative to the people who work, shop and live along the route.


For background information, here are some data to show that Canada Line is nowhere near capacity:

Currently, our scheduled service levels can move the following numbers of people per hour per direction (based on 334 passengers per car):

Time of Day Headway (mins.) Capacity (per Hr)
05:00 to 07:00 6 3,340
07:00 to 18:00 3.75 5,340
18:00 to 23:00 6 3,340
23:00 to 01:00 10 2,000

Right now, from 7 am to 6 pm, the Canada Line can handle 10,640 passengers per hour, north and south combined using 14 of the 20, two-car train sets. The operator can add extra trains at the peak of the peak period to alleviate crowding if it develops.

In August 2011, TransLink will increase service levels on the Canada Line offering the following capacity (again, based on 334 passengers per car):

Time of Day Headway (mins.) Capacity (per Hr)
05:00 to 06:30 6 3,340
06:30 to 19:00 3.33 6,010
19:00 to 23:00 6 3,340
23:00 to 01:00 10 2,000


The peak service period will be 90 minutes longer and the capacity, north and south combined, will increase to 12,020 passengers per hour– a 13 per cent increase. This is using 16 of the 20, two-car train sets – but again the operator can add an extra train when necessary to deal with crowding

Ultimately, by adding trains to the line and increasing the frequency of trips, Canada Line will be able to easily handle 30,000 passengers per hour, north and south combined.

Who's "disabled"?

Today is Access Awareness Day -- a time for businesses, agencies and individuals to take a step back and consider how they accommodate people with disabilities and make sure that whatever they provide is accessible to all. You can find out more about Access Awareness Day here.



There's no question we've come a long way in that department: any time you see a curb cutaway or a long ramp beside or replacing stairs, consider that it's only been within the adult lifetimes of many of us that people who needed wheels to get around were even thought of, much less accommodated. I remember when we had a little ceremony in 2007 to mark the first fully-accessible trolley bus route (the 5/6 around downtown and the West End), and as we were setting up, a gentleman happened by and asked what we were doing. I told him, and he mused, "what did [people in wheelchairs] do before?"



The answer: without, is what they did.



A 1970s ad campaign said, "our attitude towards disability can be their greatest disability". Let me share with you a story passed along by Julie Rogal, who spearheads TransLink's Access Transit division and works closely with the disability community to make sure their needs are met.



A few years ago, at the Seattle Special Olympics, nine contestants all physically and mentally disabled, assembled at the starting line for the 100-yard dash. At the sound of the gun, they all started out, not exactly in a dash but with a relish to run the race to the finish and win. All, that is except one little boy who stumbled on the asphalt, tumbled over a couple of times and began to cry.



The others heard the boy cry. One at a time, they slowed down and looked at the back. Eventually they all turned around…every one of them. One girl with Down syndrome bent down and kissed him and said, “This will make it better.” Then all nine linked arms and walked together to the finish line. There was a standing ovation in the stadium and the cheering went on for several minutes. Sara then said, “And we have the nerve to call them mentally disabled.”


As it says in the Psalms -- selah.

Share the road

So maybe you think I'm on a road safety kick here, but after seeing cyclists doing some really dumb things in the first couple of days of Bike To Work Week, it's time to rant again. Last time, I had some choice words for pedestrians, and now it's time to turn our attention to the two-wheeled mode of "active transportation".

First off, yes, I'm taking part in Bike To Work Week (which reminds me, I need to register). The fact that it's occurring this year in Mayvember/Juneuary is the greatest proof that God has a sense of humour since He created the aardvark. I love riding -- my wife and I ride around the Seawall, go to Granville Island, to church: for two people who love to be solitary but together (can you dig it?) it's wonderful.

Often, I use the combination of bike & SkyTrain to get to work. I ride from my home in the West End down to Waterfront Station, board the train (one of the perks of working at Metrotown and living downtown is that your commute goes against the flow), get off at Patterson, because bikes aren't allowed at Metrotown, and then ride the kilometre or so to the office.

When you register for Bike To Work Week, you can actually plot your trip on a map, which calculates distance travelled, number of calories burned and the amount of CO2 avoided by not driving a private car. A feature I particularly like about it is that you can enter multi-leg routes, taking into account the portion travelled on SkyTrain. (Hmm ... I wonder if, since SkyTrain is electric and doesn't produce emissions, one can count distance travelled ....... Naaaah ...)

Today's Globe and Mail has a cautionary note about cycling safety, reporting on a UBC study that looks at the perils on the road. It's an important reminder about road-sharing, and how no one can take safety for granted. Collisions with cars is the major cause of injury in Vancouver (in Toronto, the principal cause of accidents involved streetcar tracks): unfortunately, the story in the G&M doesn't go into who was at fault in those collisions.

It would be interesting to see what if anything the study says about that. Just this morning, I saw a cyclist blast through a red light on Georgia Street, another ride the wrong way down Thurlow and a third cut blithely through three lanes of traffic in mid-block. Some of them seem to take the Squirrel Approach To Traffic: believing the speed and quickness will overpower brute force. That may work for Smokin' Joe Burton*, but not for cyclists in traffic.

Another interesting stat was the percentage of cyclist/pedestrian collisions. That, too, does not surprise me, having dodged around and yelled at more than a few peds who've decided the "don't walk" sign is a decoration; and I'm surprised we don't read or hear about a cyclist getting clothes-lined by a pedestrian for riding on the sidewalk.

Getting "doored" is a major concern, too -- that's where someone in a parked car opens the door just as a cyclist is approaching. I've done it myself -- opening the door and nearly taking out a cyclist -- and it's a sick feeling, especially when you just know that you were supposed to do that shoulder check and for whatever reason, you didn't. Drivers have to condition themselves to make that extra shoulder check, and cyclists, too, need to be aware of what bus drivers call "dirty wheels" -- parked cars with someone sitting in the driver's seat -- and be ready to hit the bell or the horn or take evasive action.

The guy who ran the red on Georgia this morning also decided to drive down the middle of the centre lane. Maybe he'd read the letter to the editor the other day in The Province, claiming that was the most appropriate place for a bike -- away from the danger of the curb lane (see "doored", above), and if drivers can't pass, they'd just have to tough it out. Sorry: all that does is create angry drivers who might due dangerous things in moments of stress.

The guy riding the wrong way down Thurlow was also not wearing a helmet. I was reminded of Gordie Howe's observation about hockey players wearing helmets in his book, Hockey: Here's Howe!. "Guys who don't wear helmets usually have the least to lose." (Yes, Gordie played bareheaded his whole career, but he called that a lifelong mistake that cost him a chance to be on the ice the first time his Red Wings won the Stanley Cup -- he'd suffered a serious head injury just before the finals.) The bareheaded guy on the bike may think the helmet is a hassle, but it's others who'll be on the hook for his medical bills if he suffers a head injury.

The moral to all of this is, if we want others to share the road with us, we have to share the road with them; and that entails understanding and observing the rules of the road. (It's not just the law -- it's a good idea.) We all have certain rights -- but recognizing our own responsibilities makes sure that other people's rights are respected at the same time. That way, calls for improved infrastructure such as those engendered by the UBC study will be better received by the motoring public; and the increase in respect might even make widespread infrastructure improvements less necessary.

-- Drew Snider


*Smokin' Joe Burton was a brilliant hockey player who spent his entire career (except for a single exhibition game with Phoenix) in the minors with the Oklahoma City Blazers of the Central League.