Vancouver On The Lines

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

2010-09-01T11:29:00.000-07:00

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 …

2010-08-02T05:37:00.001-07:00

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

2010-07-14T12:54:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-21T15:11:00.001-07:00

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

2010-06-14T12:17:00.000-07:00

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"?

2010-06-04T09:03:00.000-07:00

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

2010-06-01T10:54:00.000-07:00

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.

Walk This Way ...

2010-05-11T15:09:00.000-07:00

They were young, ambitious, sharp-dressed, beautiful people; evidently nuts about each other.

And I saw them nearly get killed before my eyes.

They were walking along Robson Street this lovely afternoon, heading home from their respective jobs. They crossed Bute Street -- right in front of an oncoming car.

The driver had the right of way because the couple were crossing against a red light. The driver didn't hit his horn, and I'm not even sure the couple even knew the danger they were in. Closer examination showed that the man was talking on a cell phone.

The sad thing is, this is not atypical. Yesterday, walking home from Burrard Station, I saw three cases of people putting themselves in harm's way by not obeying the signals.

Why write about this on a transit blog? Primarily because we at the BC Electric Railway Company also support pedestrian amenities: it's all part of the integrated transportation system, which includes buses, SkyTrain and SeaBus, but also cycling and walking.

And I have a personal thing about seeing lovely young couples splattered all over someone's car and the driver in therapy for the next 15 years.

See, we have a tendency to forget that there are rules of the road for pedestrians too -- and that there are reasons why we have rules of the road. One is for our safety, but if we stop there, we wind up thinking that, so long as we're safe, it's OK. Another reason is to enable traffic of all kinds to flow properly.

But let's start with the safety issue. If you jaywalk, cross against a red light or even take off before the light turns green or the "walk" sign comes on, you're assuming that any approaching driver will see you and stop in time. They say that if there's an "argument" between a car and a pedestrian, you know who'll win, but in reality, no one wins. The driver, even if he or she is 100% absolutely undeniably not at fault, has to live with the incident for the rest of his or her life. I know a bus driver who hit a pedestrian who'd wandered in front -- she had no chance to hit the brakes: the pedestrian survived, but the bus driver couldn't sleep for weeks.

Pedestrians need to remember that it's a whole lot easier for someone to stop while walking than for a driver to stop up to a tonne of moving iron.

Pedestrians also need to know that just because the light is green but the "Don't Walk" sign is still showing does not mean the sign is broken. On Georgia at Howe, there's an advance right-turn signal for eastbound vehicles turning onto Howe Street. For those going westbound, there's nothing indicating anything is different, except for that "Don't Walk" sign, which, of course, doesn't switch to "Walk" until the westbound green arrow has stopped flashing.

But I've seen westbound pedestrians just step smartly off the curb and into the crosswalk, right into the path of the cars. Drivers have to hit the brakes and just sit and wait while pedestrians disobey the law.

Note also that the man in the couple I mentioned at the top was talking on a cell phone. The instruction booklet that came with my new BlackBerry warns people about using a personal communications device while walking -- as well as driving.

(Sherman's Lagoon strip used with permission of the artist.)

But something else to consider here, besides safety: efficiency in movement and environmental sustainability.

Huh?

Motorists are expected to wait until pedestrians have cleared the crosswalk before turning either right or left. If there are still pedestrians in the crosswalk when the "Don't Walk" sign comes on, the right-turning car has to wait for them to clear. Suppose there's a car turning left at the same time. Other motorists might decide to go around on the right, but if there's a right-turning car waiting for pedestrians to go through the crosswalk, then they're stuck on that side, too. Now you've got traffic stalled at that intersection because there are still pedestrians going through. Maybe two vehicles will be able to go straight through on the yellow.

Now, throw this into the mix -- and this is a definite problem for the buses: suppose that right-hand curb lane is on Broadway and reserved at certain times for buses and right-turning vehicles. Waiting for pedestrians to cross when the "walk" sign is on is one thing. But if pedestrians keep straggling across the street after the "don't walk" sign has come on, that's now holding up the right-turning car AND as many as 100 people on the 99 B-Line.

In other words, people who cross against "Don't Walk" signs may think they're clever (or even rebellious), but they're actually putting out a whole lot of people, not to mention causing engines to idle longer than they should (and Vancouver, with its "idle-free" by-laws, has already shown it's sensitive to that).

Efficiency in traffic is not just about getting to a place on time: it's about doing it while minimizing air pollution, traffic congestion and fuel consumption.

Remember those "SHARE THE ROAD WITH BICYCLES" bumper stickers? How about a 2010 version: "SHARE THE ROAD WITH ONE ANOTHER"?

No question: walking is a vital mode of transportation in more ways than one, but we need to remember that it's part of the overall picture and just as much an integral sector as driving, taking transit or riding a bike. As such, we need to be aware of our own surroundings and recognize that, when it comes to traffic, no man is an island.

Traffic island. Get it?

OK, I'll have Donne with it.

Give it a rest, Drew ...

Statement on the HandyDART dispute from Ian Jarvis – CEO, TransLink

2009-12-24T15:57:00.000-08:00

December 24, 2009

On behalf of the thousands of people who rely on HandyDART services, I want to express TransLink’s profound disappointment that there has not been a settlement achieved in the two-month labour dispute. From before the strike began in October to now, TransLink has worked behind the scenes with the company, MVT Canadian Bus, and with the Amalgamated Transit Union on both the local and international level, on options for a settlement within the funding available for the service.

After encouraging both sides to return to bargaining under the auspices of mediator Mark Brown, we were hopeful that a way had been found to resolve what appeared to be the key issues. Mr. Brown’s recommendations, approved by the company, would have given workers a choice between the Municipal Pension Plan or an RRSP retirement savings program. Drivers would have received a wage increase amounting to 18 per cent over four years while office workers were offered 16 per cent over the same period. Regrettably, the majority of the union members who voted were unable to support this settlement.

While a way must be found to resume bargaining, TransLink has asked MVT Canadian Bus to return to the BC Labour Relations Board to expand the essential services order so that more trips can be provided to HandyDART clients severely impacted by the absence of service. In the meantime, the provisions of the existing order remain in place, providing trips to those undergoing dialysis and cancer treatments.

When TransLink selected MVT Canadian Bus to operate the system in all three of Metro Vancouver’s service areas, we presented them with three significant challenges based on our desire to maintain the long-term relationship between HandyDART workers and their clients, and on our need to restructure the service to address the dramatic increase in demand in the coming decades.

First, we indicated to all companies bidding for the contract through the evaluation process that we encouraged them to keep as many of the existing employees as possible. MVT retained over 98 per cent of the staff who had worked for the seven different non- and for-profit organizations that had previously operated the system.

MVT was also given the challenge of melding seven different collective agreements into one, and among their first steps was to move all HandyDART workers to the highest hourly rate paid by the former operators. For some workers, this represented an immediate wage increase of over 15 per cent.

Finally, we were clear to all companies bidding for the HandyDART contract that the system needed to become more efficient. Although TransLink has increased the HandyDART fleet by 30 per cent over the past five years and has substantially raised the operating budget, we must be more cost effective and carry more passengers per trip. This is the only way we can satisfy our most fragile customers’ needs for transport to work and social or recreational outings, not to mention address the demands imposed by the medical system, which has centralized many critical services in the region.

Since its beginning nearly 30 years ago, HandyDART has been a contracted service. Neither BC Transit nor TransLink has had the in-house expertise to operate such a specialized function. In fact, when TransLink went to the market to find an operator able to meet the service requirements that emerged from our lengthy consultation with the disability community, our own Coast Mountain Bus Company concluded that it did not have the experience necessary to submit a viable bid.

As such, this is not an issue of dispensing with one operator and bringing in another. This would only serve to delay the resolution of the labour relations issues and the transformation of the HandyDART system.

We are convinced that MVT Canadian Bus was the right choice. The parent company serves over 180 markets in the US and offers our region the systems and the experience to help us address the formidable challenges posed by the transition that HandyDART must make.

However, we are also sensitive to the fact that this transition process toward a more efficient system has created difficulties for drivers and passengers alike. Once the dispute is finally resolved, TransLink will dedicate the resources necessary to ensure that those difficulties are addressed.

In the meantime, while an expansion of the essential services order may help alleviate the hardships imposed on some HandyDART users, TransLink’s message to the company and to the union is to try again to work through their differences and to do it soon.

Our belief is that the mediator’s recommendations provided the essential ingredients for a settlement. Our hope is that it will take only a few minor adjustments to the proposal to achieve a ratification that leads to a resumption of service as quickly as possible and that it must work within the existing funding levels.

The price of everything …

2009-12-16T11:35:00.000-08:00

Today’s Province includes an editorial opinion on the recent high-level dismissals at TransLink. To bring you up to date, three vice-presidents were released as the Authority looks for “efficiencies”.

We're talking about friends here, human beings who've played a large role in developing Metro Vancouver's transportation system. They deserve better than comments like the ones in The Province: Ken Hardie has already replied to the editorial; I have a response, too.

First, from Ken ...
Three points to make on this editorial.

First, TransLink doesn't get parking meter revenues - they go to the city.

Secondly, the release of the three vice presidents was not due to the Comptroller General's report, it was the result of an internal review that TransLink began months before the Comptroller General received her assignment.

Finally, it would be instructive for the editorial writer to actually look at the work public sector executives do before suggesting that they 'wallow' in the public trough. In fact, while the VP's involved helped deliver unprecedented road and transit expansion in the region, an executive at the Province's parent company, Canwest, earned as much as all three of them combined while share prices dropped like a rock and losses just about brought the whole media empire down.

==================================

And my two bits ...
In its editorial, The Province proves Oscar Wilde’s adage that “a cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing”.

To make one thing perfectly clear, these dismissals were not sparked by the comptroller-general’s report, which made a big deal out of the number of executives at TransLink and its operating companies. Indeed, if they had been, I can imagine The Province would attack TransLink for a knee-jerk reaction. A structural review had been underway for much of the past year. The timing was coincidental – that’s all. (It should be noted that other efficiencies include foregoing the economic increase to salaries for managers and those not under a union contract this year: last year’s was deferred; this year’s is cancelled.)

What’s important to remember is that these were people who poured their lives into the company, making a transportation network for our region. One of them, Sheri Plewes, received an Award of Excellence from the Transportation Association of Canada. The TAC noted that Sheri was "responsible for a $1.2 billion capital program with diverse and complex projects including major bus and rail vehicle procurements, construction of new transit operation and maintenance centres, and road funding programs worth over $50 million each year. 2009 was a particularly successful year, as Ms Plewes spearheaded the creation of TransLink's 2010 Ten-Year Plan which seeks to begin bringing the long range vision into reality. She also played a key role in the development and completion of the Canada Line."

The work these vice-presidents did was key to bringing the transportation network in this region from where it was 10 years ago to where it is today (and anybody who wants to diss the transportation network needs to go look at other metropolitan areas before doing so: Vancouver can be such a city of whiners!), and we need to remember the value of their contributions, not the cost of their salaries.

One could argue that with TransLink now in a holding pattern, waiting until the economy gets better before expanding services any further, Sheri's position in Capital Management & Engineering would be unnecessary; but they deserve better than having cynics, whether in the media or government, dancing on their graves.

If there’s anything good to come out of all this, it’s that we’re not in a competitive industry like, say, pro sports: at least we haven’t dealt away our star players, only to have them come back with another team and kill us in the playoffs. Of course, we in Vancouver would know nothing about that, would we?

Classifying vehicles for tolling on Golden Ears Bridge

2009-09-08T17:25:00.000-07:00

On September 1, QuickPass Tolling began issuing invoices to its customers – including transponder users, QuickPass Registered Video Customers and “Pay-As-You-Go” Customers. More than 85,000 invoices were sent out for this billing cycle.

In light of a news item this week in which a customer claims that she was over-charged, we want to make sure our customers are informed as to how the billing and classification process works.

When a customer registers with Quickpass Tolling for a transponder, the customer is asked to choose one of four vehicle classifications:

Motorcycle
Car
Small truck
Large truck

A “car” may include a sport-utility vehicle, a van or a pickup truck, and the difference between those vehicles and a “small truck” lies in the intent of the vehicle – how it’s being used. If those vehicles have clearly been modified for commercial purposes (e.g. the deck has been widened or fitted with equipment such as a portable generator), they fall under the “small truck” category. A car pulling a trailer is also classified as a small truck.

While the classification listed on the account is based on the customer’s self-description, roadside equipment on the bridge is used to verify the classification on each crossing. It can detect, with 97 per cent accuracy, whether a vehicle fits the classification, based on a number of factors, including size. If there is a discrepancy, the transaction is submitted for manual review, where the photo taken as the vehicle crosses the bridge is examined. If it’s found that the vehicle has been misclassified, the account will be charged at the different rate.

If the review is inconclusive, the customer is automatically charged at the lower rate.

As for the customer who raised the concern with the media, her account showed 26 crossings during the invoice period, of which one was re-classified. A review of that reversed that decision and on September 2 – the day after the invoices were sent out – her account was credited with the difference between the “small truck” rate ($5.55) and the “car” rate ($2.75).

Customers may get more information on the vehicle classifications online at www.quickpasstolling.ca, or by calling the Quickpass office at 604-460-5050. They can also contact Quickpass if they have any questions regarding their invoice.

How not to walk through a train station

2009-09-02T07:29:00.000-07:00

There's a deliciously apocryphal source of urban mythology called the Darwin Awards. In case you're unfamiliar with them, they purport to recognize those who have done the gene pool the greatest service by getting killed in egregiously stupid ways.

Unfortunately (or fortunately, I suppose), reliable fact-checkers such as Snopes have found that the majority of the Darwin Award citations are bogus. So there really was no person who attached a Jet-Assisted Take Off unit to a '62 Impala and tried it out in the Mojave desert and there really was no one who tried to gain unpaid entry to a concert at The Gorge in George, WA by scaling a 10' fence, only to find a 75' drop into Eternity on the other side.

And of the stories that are true, there's little to laugh at: someone's life ended because of something preventable, and they have families and friends left grieving.

Personally, I'm endlessly fascinated by what I would call the Unnatural Selection candidates -- the ones who demonstrate by the fact that they're still alive that the principle of Natural Selection is a non-starter. Like the fellow I saw on a bike, sans helmet, talking on a cell phone with a bag of groceries on the handlebars. And don't get me wrong: I've provided enough "Oh, blimey!" moments to others, I'm sure.

All this is by way of introducing this young woman to you. She's the one in the red tank top at Burrard Station, and I first became aware of her when I followed her through the doors coming out of Royal Centre and she did one of those hip-swivel things where you slip through the door as it's closing without holding it open for someone behind you. When I looked a little closer, I could see why she wasn't aware there was someone behind her. If you look at the photo very closely, you'll see something brown in her right hand. That's a cup of Tim Horton's coffee. In her left hand, which you can't see, there is an open book.

(I snapped this using my BlackBerry, and as so often happens, in the process of pulling it out of the holster, entering the "unlock" code on the keypad, selecting the "camera" function and actually taking the picture, I missed the "money" shot. NOTE TO SELF: do NOT rely on BlackBerry on trip to Loch Ness.)

The "money" shot, since you're dying to find out, was of her carrying the coffee, reading her book -- which was why she was too distracted to notice anyone going through the door behind her -- and WALKING DOWN THE MOVING ESCALATOR. She also walked down the stairs to the outbound platform and onto the waiting train without apparently taking her eyes off the book.

We at the BC Electric Railway Company are concerned about your safety, and while we are not babysitters nor Elmer the Safety Elephant and we do credit you with a reasonable amount of intelligence, it does behoove us to point out that this is not a safe way to behave inside a SkyTrain station (or anywhere else, unless you're Frank Sinatra in the opening sequence of Guys and Dolls or Eddie Murphy in the "LA Freeway" scene in Bowfinger.) Indeed, our safety and security people would have a FIT if they saw anything like that.

Here's why:

first, there's the general inadvisability of walking through any crowded place without all your faculties focused on navigating the area and your own personal surroundings. With that over-the-shoulder bag on one side, an ever-so-engrossing book on the other side and a loaded double-double in what should have been her free hand, she's a sitting duck for a rather violent purse-snatching. I can hear the exchange on the radio now:

HOST "Another SkyTrain crime! When are you going to going to put a police officer in every station?"

SELF "Well, Philip, it's important to note that people have to be personally responsible for their security and aware of their surroundings at all times ..."

HOST "There you go: blaming the victim again!"

SELF "Darn straight!"

Then there's the simple escalator safety rule. Did you know that, while "convention" states "Walk on the left, Stand on the right", the only safe thing to do is to stand still and let the escalator take you where you're going? For one thing, escalator risers are slightly higher than regular stairs, so if your legs are "trained" to step a certain height, you can stumble. The fact that the staircase is moving increases the hazard, and if it should stop suddenly (which has been known to happen), you're now off-balance and in danger of being seriously hurt (or hurting someone else) -- more seriously than if you were standing still with feet planted.
HANG ON TO THE HANDRAIL WHETHER STANDING OR WALKING!!!! It is called a HANDRAIL for a reason. And I wouldn’t worry about transmission of germs via hands: the alternative is falling and either hurting yourself badly or taking out any number of other people. You can wash your hands: few of us are adept at setting their own splint. (I was going to refer to emergency surgery, so I could add, "suture-self", but I'm learning my limitations in my advancing age.)
Walking on a train platform without your faculties focused on the immediate surroundings is also hazardous. You're dealing with moving trains. Fast moving trains with an electrified rail for power. Need I say more?

Our friend in the photo may be an extreme example, but it's something worth keeping in mind -- especially for people getting used to commuter rail travel with the advent of the Canada Line: no matter how much you think you know the system and know your own capabilities, familiarity breeds contempt -- and that can be dangerous, both for yourself and others.

TVM 101

2009-08-26T06:19:00.000-07:00

Much has been made in the media this week about the Ticket Vending Machines (TVMs) on the Canada Line. They've proven problematic -- not because they're faulty, but because the new technology requires a different technique for using the debit and credit card function. This is because these TVMs are of the "new generation", which are equipped to handle the new "chipped" bank cards that will be mandatory as of 2015 (I think it is).

I'm told we're going to be posting clear instruction signs shortly, but in the mean time, here's the Coles Notes version of How To Use The TVM:

If you're paying cash, the first thing you'll notice is that, unlike the Expo and Millennium Line TVMs, the Canada Line TVMs don't have a button indicating you want to pay cash. The on-screen instruction says, "Insert cash or press button for ....." and then the "DEBIT" and "CREDIT" card buttons are below. So at that point, just put in the cash and Bob, as they say, is your uncle.

(Actually, I don't have an uncle Bob, but somebody must, or else that expression wouldn't have left the starting gate.)

OK ... let's cut to the DEBIT / CREDIT function. It's actually quite simple, once you get the hang of it:

1. SELECT FARE AND NUMBER OF ZONES
2. TOUCH “DEBIT” OR “CREDIT”
3. INSERT CARD
4. WATCH FOR AMBER LIGHT
5. PULL OUT CARD QUICKLY AS SOON AS AMBER LIGHT COMES ON (don’t leave it in too long)
6. (FOR DEBIT CARD, ENTER PIN)
7. TAKE TICKET
8. HAVE A GOOD TRIP!

Ken Hardie, Judy Rudin and I went to Waterfront yesterday (Tuesday) along with Greg Tan from Cubic, the company that makes and installs the TVMS, to shoot an instructional video for YouTube on this, and I'll post the link as soon as it's ready. We were able to get the machine to "fail" ... and to work ... and with a fair bit of consistency.

Here's why the TVMs sometimes appear to fail: with the "old school" TVMs, you're supposed to slide the card in and zip it out quickly. That's what a lot of people were doing, and with the new generation machines, you have to wait for that amber light to come on. That light indicates that the machine has "recognized" that there's a valid card in the slot. Then, once that light comes on, you have to zip the card out quickly.

If you leave it in too long, though, the machine has another function. It decides that the card is invalid (because it hasn't been zipped out again) and cancels the transaction.

Unfortunately, the message on the screen in both cases tells you your card is invalid. For those of us who consider such messages to be a personal affront, that increases the frustration level.

When the amber light comes on, by the way, there's an audible "click", and you can also feel a slight vibration in the card.

If you continue to run into problems, one of our green-jacketed Canada Line Attendants is usually nearby to help you, and yesterday, while shooting a story with CTV's St John Alexander, a Transit Police officer and I were also pressed into service (particularly when that BC Hydro power outage knocked out the TVMs at Vancouver Centre Station).

Don't forget, though, that the absolutely hassle-free and more economical payment method is to buy a monthly FareCard and breeze onto the train or bus like so many others do. They're tax-deductible, too. Any FareDealer will sell them, or pop 'round to the FareDealer head office in the breezeway between Metrotower I and Metrotower II in Burnaby.

A SkyTrain Witness rides on to Zone 4

2009-08-24T11:12:00.000-07:00

How do you take a person who was so complex and boil her down to a single, terse headline? "SkyTrain Witness" might be catchy and true to an extent, but it doesn't come anywhere close to describing my friend Candy.

Candy died this morning. She'd been battling brain cancer for about a year; went into hospital about six weeks ago and was transferred to hospice about 2 weeks ago. When word came last night that she was on the final lap, a group of us showed up in her room for a final sendoff party. She was still breathing, but already gone: just turning out the lights.

I met Candy about 3 years ago, when I started going to Westpointe Christian Centre. She was loud, joyful, almost child-like -- despite being in her early 50s -- and one of my first and more memorable "experiences" at that church.

I'll be posting something about Candy on my personal blog (http://revdowntown.blogspot.com), but there's a SkyTrain connection here that may interest you. Candy was a relatively new Christian: she came to the Lord after a lifetime of drugs -- her testimony is that she was virtually "raised" from the age of 11 by bikers in Montreal. One night, some hoods crashed into her apartment, put a gun to her head and demanded she tell them the whereabouts of a certain dealer. She couldn't tell him because she didn't know the guy they were looking for. They continued threatening her, but she wouldn't talk. Not to them, anyway. "Jesus," she says she said at that point, "if You get me out of this, I'll give my life to You."

The hood pulled the trigger. The gun jammed. He tried again. It jammed again. The hoods ran off.

Candy ran -- despite the lateness of the hour -- to the home of Westpointe's co-pastor, who, with his wife, had been ministering to her, and she turned away from the street-and-drug life, then and there -- and forever.

(A few months ago, Candy gave that testimony to Gospel Mission, where I'm assistant pastor. It was a tremendous breakthrough for her, because she had determined she would never set foot in the Downtown East Side again. I believe it touched a lot of people.)

Now here's where SkyTrain comes in. Candy was on disability due to hepatitis-C, and she would often spend her days riding SkyTrain and talking to anyone she could find about Jesus and her new life. Sometimes, she'd ride out to Surrey and go to some of the parks and talk to people. Sometimes, she'd just ride and occasionally say (sometimes sotto and sometimes notso), "thank you, Jesus".

Often, too, she'd pray for people on SkyTrain. It turns out that, as the Bible says, His Word does not return void. People would seek out this somewhat kooky, joyful, totally fearless woman and ask her to pray for them. I'm told some would even call Westpointe, looking for her.

Are you one of those people? When we had the "party" last night at St Michael's Hospice, we got to thinking about Candy's SkyTrain Witnessing and the people who had been touched by her. Who knows what seeds she planted in those chance encounters? If you did meet her, post a comment here. Those of us whose lives were lit up by her presence would love to know about it.

Scenes from a christening

2009-08-04T10:37:00.000-07:00

Here are links to some video clips from the christening of TransLink's new SeaBus, MV Burrard Pacific Breeze.

Maureen Hayes christening the SeaBus.

Maureen talks about what it meant to her and husband Stephen to do the honours.

Sheri Plewes, TransLink VP Capital Planning & Management

Stan Sierpina, VP Customer Service, Coast Mountain Bus Co.

Malcolm Barker, VP & GM, Victoria Shipyards

Andrew Saxton, MP

Darrell Mussatto, Mayor of North Vancouver

Video production by Cezary Kolsut, Colsut Pictures, Victoria.

Bike Like Me

2009-08-03T19:32:00.000-07:00

Maybe it’s one of those now-that-we’re-married things, but not long after we got married (this past January), my wife made good on her threat to get me on a bicycle again. The “again” part is that I hadn’t really ridden a bike since the summer of 1984, at the time of Victoria’s Great Bus Strike. I had a car, but parking was at a premium downtown, so I took to riding in to work. Until someone vandalized my bike.

So my bike-riding desire did a fast fade for the ensuing 24.5 years, until The New Missus brought out her hybrid bike and one her mother had bought while visiting here a couple of years ago, and off we went – first around Stanley Park, then extending the trip to Third Beach and eventually around False Creek to Granville Island. We live in the West End, which is pretty near perfect for cycling. We ride to church in Kits every Sunday, and I’ve taken to using that combination of bike and SkyTrain to get to work. Why not? With the weather we’ve had lately and the fact that we’re in a magnificent region with a magnificent climate, cycling is one of those things that, if you can do it – go for it.

And I love it: I'm feeling fitter, getting more exercise, finding neat new routes to get places and see things I hadn't seen before ... and experiencing a different kind of traffic hazard like this one in Stanley Park (and yes, they did decide to cross at a time when I was running late) -- NOTE TO SELF AND ALL: Do NOT make hissing noises to try to get them to move. They move, alright, but usually faster than you can accelerate on a bike.

Besides, we at the BC Electric Railway Company have a mandate to promote cycling. Our job is to make the movement of goods and people around the region as efficient as possible, and anything that encourages people not to use private vehicles helps that a lot. (There are times, of course, when a private vehicle is a necessity – like those days when your neighbor has to haul that 25lb bag of steer manure home from Foonman’s Nursery and since they don’t have a car you can come to the rescue: as with anything in cycling, balance is key. That’s a little bike humour, there.)

Getting me on a bike was mainly a case of the shoe being put on the other foot. My wife had had a few years of hearing me rail at cyclists, and now, it was up to me to make sure I observed the rules of the road. Heck: back in ’84, helmets weren’t mandatory, and I shudder to think of all the dumb moves I made while riding – like barreling down 26th Street hill in West Vancouver en route home from high school – without the melon firmly encased in jet-age plastic.

The two-wheeled experience is making me a more considerate motorist, too. I’ve never sounded my car horn at a cyclist, having been almost knocked off my bike when a “funny” friend honked at me when I was a teenager (and later phoned to apologize at the behest of the other friend who was driving), but I’m also sensitive to the fact that cyclists need space, particularly when going uphill on a narrow road, and I’m extra careful when cutting across a bike lane to get to a right-turn lane and when getting out of my car when parked at the side of the road.

I notice that, for the most part, motorists are pretty good at respecting the bike lanes that have been retrofitted onto existing roads – although some taxi and limo drivers could use a lesson that THOSE BICYCLE ICONS ARE NOT PAVEMENT DECORATIONS!

But that’s not what this entry is about. Let’s face it, gang: it ain’t that hard to observe the rules of the road while on a bike. Stop at red lights. Observe the 4-way stop procedure at 4-way stops and traffic circles. Don’t ride in crosswalks and do NOT ride on sidewalks. (I swear: it’s only a matter of time before a pedestrian takes matters into their own hands and clotheslines a cyclist.) Don’t try to wedge yourself between lanes of traffic. And if you approach a slower-moving cyclist or pedestrians on a shared path from the rear, SAY SOMETHING! USE YOUR BELL! LET THEM KNOW YOU’RE THERE!

It’s really hard to say whether law-breaking by cyclists is widespread, or just a small minority is responsible. It’s a big enough problem, though, that a fair bit of backlash is growing against cyclists, along with a general desire to see police crack down on the law-breaking. We -- and I'm speaking as a motorist and a cyclist -- have to share the road, and the only way to do that is to remember that the rules apply to all and they're there for the good of all -- not to oppress one group of people or annoy another.

When I say the rules of the road are for the good of all, cyclists need to take that to heart. One may feel like one's in control, zipping through traffic, weaving around idling cars and going the wrong way down a street, but if a cyclist gets hit, it's not just the cyclist that pays for it. In a confrontation between a car and a bike, you know who's going to lose, but the driver will wear that for the rest of his or her life. The family of the cyclist will wear it, as well ... and our health-care system will have to deal with the ones who suffer permanent injury. And all of that is sadly preventable.

That's why you just might see police taking particular notice of cyclists. Some might say that the police have better things to do than ticket cyclists, but do they really? Isn't this a question of public safety, peace and order – which is part of the police mandate?

TransLink’s website has maps of cycling networks around Metro Vancouver, as well as links to other resources, including the major cycling organizations in town.

And for those cyclists totally turned off by the Critical Mass demonstrations, you might be interested in Critical Manners, a “counter-revolutionary” ride being planned for Friday, Aug. 14. You can find out more about it on the organizer’s blog.

You might find The New Missus and self among that number.

The newest member of the family!

2009-07-26T14:11:00.000-07:00

One of the coolest -- and, I daresay, emotional -- events of this wild TransLink summer took place in Victoria last week. Just as a question of what our tax dollars are getting us, it's significant, but the christening of the new SeaBus at Victoria Shipyards in Esquimalt on Friday (July 24) was quite a bit more than that.

(Find links to more videos of the christening here.)

For one thing, some people ask about what happens to the gas taxes they've been paying. The federal government's gas tax fund put $5 million into the $25 million project; the $5 million from the province came from, among other sources, gas revenue, and TransLink's $15 million share also includes revenue from fuel sales.

I'll paste the news release and backgrounder below, but here are a few photos of the occasion.

Here's what the Burrard Pacific Breeze looks like from afar, although you'll have to imagine that it's in the water and you really can't see the pontoons. Notice that the wheelhouse is located in the centre of the top deck as opposed to slightly off-centre on the Burrard Otter and Burrard Beaver. The design and technology are new -- or rather, updated -- so it will take until December for all the crewmembers to be trained and certified on the ferry.

Here's what she looks like on the inside now. Needless to say, there's JUST a bit more work to be done. When it's finished, a key part of the crew training is to get the crewmembers to find their way around in the dark: something you'll be happy to know they can do if there's a power outage or -- God forbid -- a fire, with lots of smoke.

This is my favourite photo. Charlotte Boychuk from Coast Mountain Bus Company (which operates SeaBus) took these pics, and like any photographer, I'm sure she'd love to claim credit for great skill, but she would probably say that it was luck. Anyway, this is Maureen Hayes, christening the new vessel. Take a close look at the picture: it's the very instant that the bottle is just about to break against the hull, and it's concaved, not quite broken.

(It reminds me of Herb Scharfman's famous photo of Rocky Marciano hitting Jersey Joe Walcott in their 1952 heavyweight title fight. But I digress.)

Maureen (as the news release below mentions) is the longest-serving woman employee at SeaBus. She's a Marine Attendant, and joined up in 1983. Her husband, Stephen, was one of the first (if not THE first) SeaBus employees, and sailed the two original vessels over from Victoria back in 1977. His dad, the late Capt. "Skinny" Hayes, was on the design team for those two boats. And Stephen had a role to play, too: part of the christening procedure is for the name of the vessel to be unveiled prior to the breaking of the bottle. Stephen performed that task, then came up the steps to hold the microphone for his wife when she declaimed, "God bless her, and all who sail in her!" Yeah, I'd say it was emotional.

As well as the emotions of that part, it was also a day for the shipyard workers. About 100 of them came out, and for them, I'm sure it's a little like birthing a baby ... OK -- I'm a guy, and statistics say that about half of you reading this would be reacting, "what would YOU know about it?" ... maybe more like sending your kid off on the first day of school (and that's something I do know about). The job is done, the brightly painted, brand-new ship is ready to go in the water, and there must be a sense of wistfulness about that.

There were, by the way, no fewer than five workers who also helped build the first SeaBuses. More emotion.

You Learn Something New Every Day Dep't. According to Malcolm Barker, Victoria Shipyards' vice-president and general manager, the tradition of christening a ship dates back to Old Testament days, when an ox would be sacrificed and its blood sprinkled over the hull to bless the ship. Somewhere along the line, the ox was replaced by a champagne bottle. Pity: we could have had a great barbecue afterwards.

At any rate, below are the text of the news release we sent out, followed by a Backgrounder on All Sorts Of Things You May Not Have Known About SeaBus. We'll have some videos of the day posted soon.
==================================

Newest SeaBus officially christened

July 24, 2009 -- In a ceremony with links to maritime traditions and the earliest days of SeaBus, the MV Burrard Pacific Breeze was officially christened today at Victoria Shipyards in Esquimalt, BC.

Maureen Hayes, the longest-serving female employee of SeaBus, performed the honours. She was joined by North Vancouver MP Andrew Saxton, the Parliamentary Secretary to the President of the Treasury Board and Sheri Plewes, TransLink vice-president, Capital Management and Engineering. Also on hand were North Vancouver City Mayor Darrell Mussatto, Stan Sierpina, Vice-President, Customer Service, Coast Mountain Bus Co., and Malcolm Barker, Vice-President and General Manager of Victoria Shipyards.

Not only does Ms Hayes’ SeaBus service date back to 1983, but her husband, Stephen Hayes, was one of the original SeaBus employees, and rode the vessel to Vancouver from Victoria prior to its beginning service in 1977.

“It is an honour to be celebrating this event, which is so important in the life of any ship,” says Ms Hayes. “This is for all my hard-working colleagues at SeaBus and the people at Victoria Shipyards who have made this happen.”

“The people of Metro Vancouver can be justifiably proud of the way their tax dollars are being invested here,” says Ms Plewes. “SeaBus has become not only a vital commuter link in its 32-year history, but it’s generally the only transit mode where ridership actually increases in the summertime because tourists and locals alike love that trip. It’s definitely one of the keys to the livability of the region.”

“Through the Gas Tax Fund, we are providing real financial support to British Columbia for projects like transit, green energy, and water treatment,” says MP Saxton. “This new SeaBus will cut commute times, ease traffic congestion and result in cleaner air, improving the quality of life for residents of Vancouver and North Vancouver.”

The Government of Canada contributed $5 million of the project’s $25 million cost through the Gas Tax Fund. The federal Gas Tax Fund is a tripartite agreement between Canada, British Columbia and the Union of British Columbia Municipalities (UBCM) delivering infrastructure funding to local governments for capital projects that lead to cleaner air, cleaner water or reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

“This is yet another example of our government’s commitment to improving public transportation in Metro Vancouver,” says Shirley Bond, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure. The provincial government also contributed $5 million to the project cost as part of the $14 billion Provincial Transportation Plan announced in January 2008. “The introduction of the MV Burrard Pacific Breeze SeaBus will help meet the needs of growing North Shore communities, while supporting the Provincial Transit Plan to double transit ridership provincewide and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.”

"Building vessels on the southern tip of Vancouver Island has a long history and this is the 41st vessel built at Victoria Shipyards,” said Malcolm Barker. “We have an excellent working relationship with the TransLink and the Coast Mountain Bus Project Teams and continue to work together to construct the best vessel possible. Most important of all, I would like to thank all the engineers, purchasers, production, project and support staff, and last but not least, the workforce. Without everyone working together, we would not be here today."

At 33.5 metres long and almost 12 metres wide, the MV Burrard Pacific Breeze will carry up to 400 passengers and will go into service in time for the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Burrard Pacific Breeze will go into service in December 2009, to allow time to train the crew on the new technology and configuration of the wheelhouse.

After the Games, the other two vessels – the Burrard Otter and Burrard Beaver – will take turns going into drydock for re-fits, to be brought into line with the MV Burrard Pacific Breeze’s technology. In 2011, it is expected that all three will be available for service during peak periods, thereby increasing capacity by 50 per cent.

Victoria Shipyards is part of the Washington Marine Group and a subsidiary of Seaspan International. Using the Esquimalt Graving Dock, owned and operated by Public Works and Government Services of Canada, Victoria Shipyards can drydock and repair vessels up to 100,000 DWT. VicShip’s work includes construction, conversion, maintenance and repair; recent new construction projects include an eight vessel series of Orca class training vessels for the Canadian Navy, and 24 – 47’ Motor Life Boats for the Canadian Coast Guard.
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Media Backgrounder
The MV Burrard Pacific Breeze – the newest member of the family!

The passenger house and cross-structure joining the two hulls of the catamaran were built by ABD of North Vancouver.

These were then taken by barge to the Esquimalt Graving Dock, where Victoria Shipyards built the wheelhouse and HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) compartment, installed the engines and performed the final assembly.

Size:
o LENGTH 33.54 m (109’)
o WIDTH 11.89 m (38’ 8”)
o DEPTH 3.53 m (11’ 6”)
o TONNAGE 161 T (net) 438 T (gross)

Engine:
o 4 – 6-cyl. Detroit Diesel Series 60. These engines are similar to the diesel engines used on our buses, and the engine overhauls are done by the Coast Mountain Bus Co. fleet overhaul facility.
o Each engine develops 400 horsepower (300 kilowatts).
o The engines and the generators that provide the electrical power are equipped with diesel oxidation catalysts for lessened environmental impact. This feature goes beyond marine regulations.

The MV Burrard Pacific Breeze incorporates all-new technology, including the TechSol Max II computer system, which controls almost every aspect of the mechanical and electrical systems.

All of the crewmembers must be trained and certified competent on the new vessel, which is why the ferry will not go into service until late fall, possibly December. As part of the training, they have to be able to find their way around the vessel in the dark, in case they have to deal with emergencies involving fire, smoke or a power outage at night.

Passenger capacity: 400
Project cost, 2009: $25 million
TransLink - $15 million
Federal Gas Tax Revenue Fund - $5 million
Provincial Transportation Plan - $5 million

The new SeaBus is painted in the distinctive TransLink livery of grey, medium blue and yellow, indicating it has been built or purchased with funding from the Federal Gas Tax Fund.

SEABUS BY THE NUMBERS
Average daily ridership: 18,500
Number of passengers carried in 2008: 5.54 million – a record, beating the previous high of 5.49 million in 1986 (Expo)
Number of service hours lost due to both ferries being out of action at the same time: 1.5 (in 32 years)
SeaBus officially went into service June 17, 1977.
Distance per trip: 3.24 km (1.75 naut. mi.)
· Total distance covered by the SeaBus, 32 years later: 4,806,532.6 km
· Lunar equivalent (number of trips to the moon and back): 6.2
Ordinal number of passenger Charlene Cox, 8:16 a.m., April 12, 2002 – 90 years to the day since RMS Titanic’s maiden voyage: 100,000,000
Number of times SeaBus has struck an iceberg: 0

HISTORY
Ferries have transported people and vehicles from Vancouver to the North Shore for over a century. One of the ferries was called The Senator, which docked at the foot of Lonsdale in North Vancouver in the 1890s.
The first ferry to West Vancouver was provided by “Navvy Jack” Thomas, a Welshman who had deserted from the Royal Navy. He began transporting people by rowboat between Vancouver and West Van in 1903.
Ferry service operated in one form or another until 1958, when the drop in demand due to the Lions Gate Bridge made it uneconomical to run.
Increasing demand at the Lions Gate Bridge less than 20 years later led to the return of ferry service.
Over the years, the SeaBus has had some interesting experiences:
o Nov. 2000: used one of its rescue boats to pick up 14 passengers and crew after a float plane crashed in Vancouver harbor
o Summer 2006: diverted from its course to stand by when a private pleasure craft caught fire
o May 21, 1995: Joan Parranto boarded the SeaBus at Waterfront, but was Joan Smith by the time she got to Lonsdale Quay. During the 12-minute crossing, she married Allan Daniel Smith, signing the register in the wheelhouse. The couple and the wedding party then returned to Waterfront.
o 1994: Scenes from Intersection, with Richard Gere and Sharon Stone, were shot on-board
o 1976: SeaBus helped make transportation history and preserve it at the same time. Waterfront Station – the former western terminus of the CPR in the heyday of passenger rail – was slated for demolition until it was chosen as the site of the SeaBus dock. Now, it’s been magnificently restored and, when Canada Line opens next month, will be a transportation hub serving five different modes.

Freedom in Transit ads – who really won?

2009-07-13T08:37:00.000-07:00

“Our firing on Miami Beach might best be termed ‘ill-timed’, coming as it did on what is known in the press as a ‘slow news day’ … and so it got considerably more attention than we really wanted.”
– Bob Newhart, in The Cruise of the USS Codfish

I think I was 12 when I first heard that, but it has echoed in my mind throughout my career as a reporter and now Public Information Officer for the BC Electric Railway Company. The fact that we’re in the “dog days of summer” with rather little happening may explain, in part, the feeding frenzy that followed the Supreme Court of Canada decision regarding political ads on transit. In case you missed it, SCOC ruled that TransLink’s policy on advertising it will accept violates the Charter of Rights guarantee of Freedom of Speech. The case related to an attempt by the BC Teachers Federation and the Canadian Federation of Students to place adverts on buses during the 2005 provincial election.

Oddly enough, I don’t remember the initial case, beyond some kvetching amid a string of other issues during the campaign. We basically took a wait-and-see attitude as the case worked its way through the system, and got a heads-up late Thursday that the ruling would be announced the following day.

Commentators and spot reporters alike referred to it as a victory for free speech. One Webster-award-winning columnist really made a meal out of it, including a rather bizarre comment that “TransLink’s Day of Judgment has arrived.”

But who really won this case?

So our policy, intended to give our customers – you, in other words – a measure of protection against having political or religious views inflicted on you as part of your transit experience, is declared unconstitutional. A powerful and well-heeled lobby group’s right to freedom of speech trumps your right to quiet enjoyment of the bus and/or SkyTrain ride. See, if you don’t like certain ads on TV, radio or in newspapers, you can change the channel, turn the page, or just not buy the publication. On a bus or SkyTrain, you’re stuck there – and if it’s rush hour, you can’t really move to another part of the vehicle. Advertisers may have freedom of expression, but people on transit don’t have the same freedom to not be exposed to it that they do in other venues.

Personally, there are certain ads we do have on transit right now that upset the heck out of me (case in point: the ones that promote teen sex and portray parents who actually take a moral stand as weirdos) and I find myself ruminating on the message and feeling frustrated that I can't argue back. I know I can’t hold the bus driver to account for it, but there are those who have been known to, and that adds to an already elevated danger factor for bus drivers.

One of TransLink’s arguments was that that creates a workplace hazard, and the advertising policy is designed to avert that threat. One of the justices addressed that issue in the court’s decision, saying she couldn’t see how it could be so: I’d be willing to bet she hasn’t driven a bus.

The other point in all this is, what can be accomplished by advertising a political or ideological viewpoint on buses? Issues in election campaigns are far too complex to be boiled down to a slogan or a catch-phrase. In the New York Transit Museum, one of the antique subway cars has a transit ad from the early 50s, urging voters to “Get the Communists out of Washington” by voting Republican. For those who remember McCarthyism, you can see what the effects can be of debate-by-slogan. In the words of the American journalist Sydney J. Harris, “any philosophy that can be put into a nutshell belongs there.”

Returning fire from Base Canard*

2009-07-07T10:15:00.000-07:00

There's a funny thing about untrue statements and innuendo: they don't get any truer with the repeating.

Case in point 1: a letter to the editor in one of the community papers recently, making the offhand comment that TransLink managers don't actually use the system. In response, I direct you to an entry made last year, which rather turns that cannon against the shooter. Yes, we darn well do, and are just as aware of the areas where improvement is needed as we are of the areas to be proud of. In fact, if you ride with a transit executive -- and most of us are transit nerds at heart, or we wouldn't be in this line of work -- you'll hear him or her mutter about something that needs fixing, which the ordinary transit user wouldn't have noticed.

We use the system, and we care about it: and when we hear or read someone blithely toss off an ignorant remark like that, it still hurts -- no matter how well we know the truth, or how many times it's said.

(The term "transit nerd" is actually rather affectionate, as explained in one of our YouTube videos ...)

Case in point 2: a remark by NDP transportation critic Harry Bains, responding to the "revelation" that there will be a premium charged on the Canada Line for those travelling to Vancouver International Airport. He said, in essence, that we "already have the highest fares in Canada".

WRONG.

Here is the text of a news release we sent in January 2008, refuting that claim. Nothing has changed.

Transit fares in Canada

Since TransLink’s fare increase came into effect on January 1st, there has been an effort to compare our transit fares with those elsewhere in Canada. This is difficult because each major city organizes its territories and public transit services differently. As a result, some commentators have concluded incorrectly that our local fares are the highest in the country.

Comparing basic one-zone cash fares, for instance, shows that both Montreal and Toronto charge $2.75, opposed to Metro Vancouver's $2.50. In Ottawa the one-zone fare is $3.00. Tickets in Montreal and Toronto are good for 90 minutes, but only in one direction. You must buy another ticket for the return trip. In Metro Vancouver, it's possible to travel for 90 minutes in any direction, on the initial fare.

Because TransLink operates an integrated transit system in Canada’s largest service area (Metro Vancouver is about three times the size of Metro Toronto), fare comparisons for longer trips must take into account the fact that transit customers in other cities must switch from one operation to another, at the cost of an additional fare, to complete longer journeys.

For example, it is possible to travel from downtown Vancouver to Langley City, a 40 kilometre journey, without changing systems, for a cash fare of $5.00, less if a FareSaver ticket or a monthly pass is used. The FareSaver and cash tickets are valid for 90 minutes for travel in any direction.

A 40-kilometre trip from downtown Toronto would land a traveler at Aurora, in North York. To make that trip, one would have to take a TTC bus or streetcar to a connecting point with the York Transit system and buy another ticket to continue the journey. TTC charges $2.75, and the York trip is $4.00: a total cost of $6.75 – one-way.

A similar-length trip from downtown Montréal places one in Répentigny, off the east end of the Island. STM buses don’t serve Répentigny, so one must take TRAM, the interurban bus and train service. The TRAM ticket to Répentigny alone costs $6.75, and if one takes STM bus or Métro to the TRAM station, that’s another $2.75: total cost, $9.50 each way.

Implications of the fare increase

The recent fare comparisons have focused on cash fares, but two-thirds of transit customers are taking advantage of the discounts offered by pre-paid fares, such as the monthly FareCard, FareSaver tickets, the Employee Pass Program and the Vancity U-Pass. For those pre-paid fares, the increase per trip is between 10 and 20 cents.

The January 1st fare increase will cover the general rate of inflation since the last increase in 2005. Clearly, operating costs such as for diesel fuel have gone up faster than inflation. As well, there has been significant service expansion on the transit system. As a result, while TransLink will generate about $32 million as the result of higher ridership and the fare increase in 2008, it is adding $54 million more to the transit-operating budget.

It is worth noting that when you take into account the major shift to FareSavers and monthly passes, the average fare per trip on transit has increased 43 cents in the past eight years (from $1.48 in 2000 to $1.91 in 2007). During that same period, TransLink increased funding for transit services by 93 per cent.

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* A play on the name of a fictitious and fanciful Canadian Forces Base ... and the expression "base canard" ... lame, I admit, but I've been waiting for many years to use the joke, and it, too, isn't getting any funnier.

Paying Extra on the Canada Line?

2009-07-07T09:50:00.000-07:00

The story must have been presented as a shocker: Canada Line customers going to Vancouver International Airport (YVR) will have to pay a premium to go to the three stations on Sea Island. Certainly, the TV station that reported it Monday night used expressions like "--- News has learned" and "a surprise".

In fact, the talk about the Sea Island Premium has been around since the construction contract was signed in 2004: something extra would be required to help close the funding gap between construction of the rapid transit line between Richmond and Vancouver and the addition of the branch line to YVR. The figure of $2.50 each way, reported in the TV story, is one detail that hadn't been mentioned, since all the fine points still have to be added to the tariff and ratified by the Board of Directors. The previous Board -- the one made up of mayors and councillors -- had already approved the premium.

So here's some further background: the add-fare (as we call it in the business) would be paid by the 10-15% of the anticipated ridership coming from the airport. People who work at the airport and those who live in Burkeville, on Sea Island, won't have to pay.

At $2.50, it's still a bargain. Compare that with the fare for a taxi or a shuttle bus. Sure, there will be some (as was pointed out by the TV reporter, apparently desparate to find something wrong with this) for whom rapid transit is not convenient -- the 3-to-6-person family, for example, with lots of luggage -- who'd balk at having to pay that additional fare, but rapid transit isn't a viable option 100% of the time, anyway. That family will have more cabs to serve them. For the solo traveller -- the businessperson visiting Vancouver -- or couples, this will increase their options.

And look at the premiums charged in other parts of the world. At JFK in New York, you have to pay $5 each way; at Newark -- where the rail system is also run by the New York and New Jersey Port Authority -- it's $5.50. You have to pay Aus$11.40 in Sydney and 16 pounds sterling in London to go to or from Heathrow. Some transit systems, like Portland's or Chicago's, have rail service to the airport that doesn't require a premium, but those were already worked into the urban transit system: generally, the premium fares are for those areas where either a separate rail system serves the airport or the rail system has been expanded to include the airport (as in the case of Canada Line).

Your ticket -- Don't Give It Away

2009-05-20T11:37:00.000-07:00

Every so often, we re-launch our marketing campaign called "Don't Give It Away", reminding people that it's an offence to re-sell a ticket and/or give it to someone else. The CBC had a chance to help get that message out this week, when they picked up on a former busker's assertion that TransLink loses lots of money because of illegal ticket re-selling. But they elected, instead, to "default" to the same old story about security at SkyTrain stations and missed a chance to do something that was truly in the public interest.

So we'll do it.

Why is the issue of re-selling tickets in the public interest? There are a number of reasons. First of all, there's the ex-busker's assertion that it costs the transit system money. How much, is hard to say: our fare evasion stats don't estimate how many people are riding on tickets that are still valid but were bought from some person on the street. But suffice it to say that, if you buy a $2.50 ticket for only two bucks, that's $2.50 the transit system doesn't get.

But more than that, there's the broader issue of what the money given to a re-seller is used for -- and trust me: it generally does not go for food.

In one of my other lives, I'm an assistant pastor at Gospel Mission, a little church on the Downtown East Side. Our location is right bang in the face of what is probably the most notorious alley for drug-dealing and drug use in the city. I don't think even the alley beside the Carnegie Centre near Main and Hastings is as bad for that activity. It's not uncommon in that area to see people bent double, scanning the ground, hoping to find some little grain of crack cocaine to satisfy their craving. Crack is very cheap, and two bucks can go a long way. So when some well-meaning person, thinking they're helping some poor sod get a cheeseburger, buys a used ticket, they're actually helping perpetuate the problem and all the social ills that go with it. Refuse to hand over the ticket -- or better yet, stick it in one of those blue and white receptacles at the SkyTrain station when you're done with it -- and the problem, eventually, goes away.

What if someone gets aggressive? Call 9-1-1. Go back into the Fare Paid Zone, grab the security phone and stay within sight of the video cameras (pretty much anywhere on a SkyTrain platform). If you have a whistle -- like those pink ones given out at the Collingwood Community Policing Centre -- blow it and blow it hard.

Besides, there's no shortage of food or meals on the Downtown East Side. You can find lists online of agencies and organizations that provide free meals. Gospel Mission has dinners (after the worship service) on Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Saturday nights (6:30 - door is locked at 7:15) and Sunday afternoons (12:30 - door is locked at 1:15). Vancouver Coastal Health and Vancouver Police have lists of agencies that provide meals.

Never a dull moment ...

2009-05-01T15:22:00.000-07:00

One of my colleagues, who's asked to remain anonymous, shared this little tidbit this morning. So long as I keep her name out of it, she's letting me publish it herewith.

As you all know, transit is an amazing place to meet or experience people. This afternoon while riding the 99 B-Line my fellow passengers and I experienced a particularly spirited young woman. Between a number of phone calls and hang ups and conversations that were about as loud as they were intense we learned that she and her boyfriend had likely shared an STD, that she wanted him to go to the doctor NOW and that NO she would not go with him to the doctor and NO she had no money so he could pay for it himself.

There were lots of "F" bombs and even the "c" word used to describe her own mother and then just as suddenly as her world burst upon my fellow B Line passengers and me, it all stopped. Well, sorta.

As she marched down the aisle at what could be described as a gallop, she slipped on a newspaper left on the floor and went flying into a pole by one of the exits. Fortunately, not hurt she announced with nearly as much gusto as her earlier conversations that there was a paper on the floor that should be picked up because its dangerous.

To which someone - not the driver - said, "Well, why don't you pick it up?"

Now given said earlier display you might expect some sort of foul mouthed response. Instead, something totally unexpected: she turned around, marched down the aisle and picked up not just the paper she slipped on but any other she could get her hands on. She even stopped to lecture another passenger about making sure he took the paper on the seat beside him when he left.

She then pushed her way to one of the exits ...although it may be that everyone simply got out of her way ...and was the first to get off when we got to Broadway Station. Needless to say there were a lot of smiles and giggles amongst my fellow B-Line passengers and me. One even saying to me, "Transit in Vancouver is always interesting". And of course I would have to agree.

BePartOfThePlan – your best chance ever!

2009-05-01T15:17:00.000-07:00

I’m not sure how many people read this, but I have this electronic soapbox, so might as well use it …

We often hear people grumble about the “unelected, unresponsive TransLink board”, and while it’s true that the board is not elected – although the members are all vetted and approved by the Mayors’ Council on Regional Transportation, which is made up of elected officials – it’s not true that TransLink does not respond to public input. One of TransLink’s legal requirements is to consult with the public on major decisions and report on how the input was incorporated into the final plan.

The consultation we use is not the thanks-for-coming-we’ll-think-about-it-don’t-let-the-door-hit-you-on-the-way-out kind: it involves open houses, town hall meetings, surveys and other means of gathering opinion and suggestions. I personally have watched how projects have changed as input has been received and included, and often think about the times when, as a reporter, I would watch while an elected body has, to paraphrase Henry Higgins, “listened very nicely then gone out and done precisely what it wanted”.

TransLink is pushing forward with two planning projects, which will shape our future and that of our children and grandchildren: the 2010 10-year plan and the 2040 vision. The 2040 strategy is to develop an overall “big picture” view for where Metro Vancouver is going in the next 30 years, while the 10-year plan considers how we’ll take the first steps to get there.

From a public transportation perspective, one of the projects asks the question, What kind of region to we want to live in? The other asks, What kind of transit system do we want and how do we expect to pay for it? In many ways, questions like these are the proverbial elephant in the living room: hard-crunchy issues that have to be dealt with, and one has to do more than just hope one isn’t in the wrong place when the elephant decides to lie down.

A new way to address this elephant is now “live” on the Internet, called Be Part Of The Plan. You can log in and join the discussions, and already some very thoughtful themes have emerged. It’s a direct way of taking part in the solution, rather than sitting helplessly on the sidelines like a Montreal Canadiens fan (sorry, Canucks fans: I'm still hurting). It’s not a replacement for the other public consultation efforts I mentioned above, but it’s another tool in the toolbox for eliciting ideas and opinions. Tell your friends: encourage people to log on and weigh in.

Let’s look at this another way: a fellow I know who’s a chef in Victoria once told me his family had a rule when he was growing up. If anyone didn’t like what mom had cooked, they had to say why and suggest something better. BePartOfThePlan is your way of having a say in the recipe.

How NOT to deal with a stalled train situation ...

2009-04-23T11:05:00.000-07:00

It didn't take long for colleagues at TransLink to nominate these people for the Darwin Awards, although thankfully, they didn't get killed (which is one of the criteria for receiving a Darwin). Rick Cluff and Cecilia Walters also had a fair bit of fun with it on CBC Radio this morning, and that was largely because no one was hurt.

Here's what happened. Yesterday morning, a fellow decided to go for a walk on SkyBridge, which carries SkyTrain across the Fraser River between New Westminster and Surrey. As soon as someone or something gets into the guideway, trains in the area come to a halt until it can be determined what the situation is and the tracks are cleared. All service was shut down in Surrey, and no trains were even going between New Westminster and Sapperton stations. Hundreds if not thousands of people were left waiting for their trains.

One SkyTrain was stalled on SkyBridge. Signs on the trains -- right by the doors -- tell people that if your train stops between stations YOU DO NOT OPEN THE DOORS AND GET OUT.

This is not because we at TransLink/BC Rapid Transit Co. are control freaks who want to hem people in and infringe upon their personal liberties. This is for the safety of those on the train and the convenience of those waiting for trains.

It's DANGEROUS: guideways are not meant for pedestrians; the power rails carry 600v of DC current and while they are switched off when there's a breach of the guideway security system, it's still possible they could either re-energize suddenly, or we may have determined that it's safe to run trains on the other track in order to maintain service; IT'S PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS ON SKYBRIDGE, which does not have a railing or anything to separate a pedestrian from a long drop into the Fraser.
IT'S HIGHLY INCONVENIENT: yesterday's incident was actually dealt with in about 20 minutes, but because people had broken out of the train, even though they turned around and got back on, we still had to do a visual sweep of the area to make sure no one was still on the tracks. That added another 20 minutes to the shutdown time, which meant that the people who were waiting for trains all over the system had to wait even longer.
IT'S ILLEGAL: Transit Police were on their way to meet the escapees and ticket them for various violations.

Best course of action in a case like this is to wait on the train and not get off until and unless a SkyTrain Attendant comes to take you off. If STAs have to remove the passengers, they'll come in pairs: one to lead the way and the other to bring up the rear.

Above all, STAY CALM: you're actually in a very safe place.

Blowing the whistle on fear

2009-04-09T10:21:00.000-07:00

The tragic event in Pacific Spirit Park has pushed the fear factor front and centre in the minds of many people. People are afraid to go into an area that has been a safe and lovely place to walk or jog. And yet statistically, it is a safe place. The principal enemy right now is fear itself.

Wednesday night, Chris Taulu, director of the Collingwood Community Policing Centre, spoke at the Old Barn Community Centre -- the meeting/recreational facility run by the University Neighbourhoods Association. The Collingwood CPC, in partnership with TransLink, SkyTrain, Vancouver Police and Transit Police, launched the Whistle Blower program two years ago.

The idea is to educate people -- particularly women, seniors and those with developmental challenges -- on how to reduce the likelihood of a physical attack. With the program, pink whistles (on special breakaway lanyards) are handed out along with brochures. The idea of the pink whistles is that if someone is attacked or simply feels threatened, the best course of action is to make a lot of noise and do whatever it takes to attract attention. In the two years since the program began, more than 2,000 whistles have been distributed and anecdotal evidence suggests the program is working. More than just having the ability to make a lot of noise, Chris Taulu says the whistles have another side-effect: people tend to walk taller and be more alert of their surroundings when they wear them. Also, crooks -- who tend to prey on the ones who look vulnerable or unaware -- look for another target.

About 30 people from the newer residential developments at UBC came to the meeting, and it was productive in more ways than just handing out the whistles. People started talking -- to Chris, to Cst. Tom Seaman from Transit Police, and to me. We talked about safety and security on transit; general thoughts about being safe in one's own neighbourhood; the need to overcome fear. One woman mentioned that a Facebook page was being set up for people wanting to walk with others in Pacific Spirit Park and elsewhere. A man talked about setting up Block Watch programs. Chris talked about the simple remedy of walking through one's neighbourhood and saying "hi" to as many people as possible and over time, getting to know who lives there -- and who doesn't.

Much of the subject of safety in one's community is based in strengthening the community -- and you do that through lots of face-to-face contact.

The Whistle Blower Program is being made available to any community group that would like to learn more. Call Chris at 604-717-2935.

Yellow Strip 1 - Foul-mouthed Jerk 0

2009-03-26T15:31:00.000-07:00

I utterly despise the f-word. Some who've known me for a long time might find that strange, considering how liberally I used to throw it around when I was younger. As a teenager, I thought it was a sign of adulthood. As a wannabe playwright, I thought it was a sign of true emotion, a visceral cry from the depths of a lost and tormented soul. As a wannabe standup comic, I thought it was a sign of True Daring In Front Of An Audience.

Now, even though I quietly marvel at the way Joe Pesci and Marisa Tomei turn it into an art form in My Cousin Vinny, it turns my stomach.

Happily, that appears to be the reaction of a number of others, so that when one foul-mouthed jerk started using it on SkyTrain this afternoon (and not even 3:00 in the afternoon!), another guy rather forcefully asked him to stop it. Alas, that led to an escalation of language and a challenge (from the LMJ) to "step off the train" when we pulled into Stadium Station. The guy who asked LMJ to knock it off did get off the train, but LMJ stayed aboard.

That's when I quietly reached up and pressed the yellow strip above the window.

The yellow strip sets off an alarm at the SkyTrain Operations and Maintenance Centre (OMC). You can't hear it on the train, but the SkyTrain controllers are alerted to the fact that there is a problem on car # ---, heading in a particular direction and due to arrive next at ----- station. The controllers then notify the nearest SkyTrain Attendants (STAs), who go to check it out.

As it turned out, the nearest STAs were at the very next station -- Granville -- so when we pulled in, the train opened the doors, boarded the new passengers, and then stood there. Suddenly, LMJ, sensing that the delay had something to do with his floor show, got off the train and headed for the exit. Two STAs stuck their heads in the door and I went to them and pointed out LMJ, who was still visible. They took off after him, but I'm told he legged it out of there faster than they could chase him.

I'm told LMJ was "known" to the STAs. Whether they'd caught him or no, the fact remained that someone who was making others on SkyTrain feel uncomfortable was now no longer on the system, and the passengers could see that the STAs -- or Transit Police, had they been the closest ones to the train -- were on the scene quickly and ready to deal with the situation.

One of the news items mentioned in a previous blog as an example of biased reporting concerned a man who had been assaulted on a SkyTrain. When that happened, someone pushed the yellow strip, and while the news report concerned itself with the victim's perception of the length of time it took for police to arrive, the real story was that, in pressing the yellow strip, the unidentified citizen set in motion actions that led to the STAs' being on the scene two stations later and having the situation under control less than 6 minutes after it had started; police arrived about 10 minutes later.

STAs are not security personnel and have no powers of arrest, but they're eyes and ears and can help keep situations in check until police do arrive. Sometimes, too, they can handle things quite well, themselves.

My boss, Ken Hardie, was on SkyTrain one day last year when some kids got aboard, pulled out a marker and graffiti'ed the train. Ken immediately went into "dad" mode, lecturing them on defacing other people's property, tax dollars, upbringing, etc. etc. -- all the while hitting the yellow strip. At the next stop, LLOYD stepped aboard.

Lloyd is an STA: a massive man -- not fat, but BIG -- with a bright smile and a jovial personality ... most of the time. He stepped onto the train, Ken gave him the quick synopsis of preceding events, and Lloyd said, quietly, "you boys better come with me".

He didn't have to ask twice. I'm not sure of the lads were let off with a lecture or if Transit Police got involved (defacing TransLink property is an offence), but the lesson was probably loud and clear.

The lesson for us, too, is that these security features are there for us to use, no matter what the situation. (Read more here.) You can use the on-board voice intercom or the security phones on the SkyTrain platforms, or if you can't -- or don't want to -- talk, the yellow strip is there, as well. SkyTrain controllers have said often that, if you feel the slightest threat to your safety or security -- no matter how "trivial" it might seem -- don't hesitate to call. If it turns out to be "nothing", no harm - no foul. And if it turns out to be SOMETHING, even if it's some creepy-looking person or a loud-mouthed jerk dropping the F-bomb, then you've played a part in keeping not just yourself, but a whole lot of others safe.

Response to Maureen Bader, Canadian Taxpayers Federation

2009-03-26T15:23:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, March 24, Maureen Bader, executive director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, published an op-ed piece in The Vancouver Sun, regarding TransLink's financial future. TransLink CEO Tom Prendergast has written a response to that article, and since there is no guarantee that the Sun will run it, we wanted you to see it and read the facts for yourselves. (Last year, I was told that the Sun no longer runs "institutional letters to the editor", which means basically that anybody with an opinion can publish a letter, no matter how well-founded in fact that opinion might be, but the institution in question does not have the same forum to respond.)

Dear Editor,
We would like to respond to some of the points raised by Maureen Bader of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation in her opinion piece published Tuesday in the Sun.

TransLink is just now launching a consultation with the public on funding that can sustain current road and transit services, and move the region forward on significant transportation network improvements. Ms. Bader questions TransLink’s efficiencies, and in that regard we can offer the following:

The Coast Mountain Bus Company posted the third lowest operating cost per vehicle kilometre in an international comparison with ten major cities including New York, London and Paris. We can also confirm that Coast Mountain uses a form of activity-based costing, something that Ms. Bader mentioned as an effective management tool, to control the cost of various processes.

SkyTrain’s operating cost per kilometre of service and per passenger carried is lower than most major US rapid transit services as measured by their Federal Transit Administration. Operating costs per passenger kilometre on the West Coast Express are 85 per cent lower today than they were in 2000.

Year-end figures for 2008 show that in spite of an $18.5 million hit to our budget from higher fuel costs and a decision not to collect $9 million in property taxes, TransLink has posted a modest surplus of $8.2 million, $3.2 million more than the target. All the while we’ve added more transit services than at any other time in the region’s history, serving up a record 302 million rides, and proceeded with two of the region’s biggest ever capital projects, the Golden Ears Bridge and the Canada Line. And we’ve lowered administration costs as a percentage of the total budget.

Metro Vancouver has adopted the title of one of the world’s most livable regions, and it’s a title that others have confirmed. People from many other places have told us that our aggressive approach to expanding public transit and our integrated approach land use and transportation planning has helped us earn that distinction.

Ms. Bader believes that TransLink should live within its means. In fact, we are legally obligated to do so. Our record has been one of delivering precedent-setting transportation improvements, but the ability to sustain Metro Vancouver’s transportation network, much less expand it, is in question. That question, which will be the focus of detailed public discussion in the coming weeks, is whether we as a region can afford to take on further road and transit expansion. Conversely, given the cost of traffic congestion in both time and money, we need to ask if we can afford the alternative as our population and economy continue to grow.

Thomas F. Prendergast
CEO, TransLink
____________________________________

Safety and Security - the full story

2008-12-10T14:47:00.000-08:00

Question: what's the surest way to suppress a story about a public agency acting in the public interest?

Answer: give it to a reporter.

That's not altogether fair: Jeff Nagel with the Surrey Leader and Kelly Sinoski of the Vancouver Sun did excellent jobs of presenting the story of Security on SkyTrain and the new approach being taken by Transit Police. But there were some other media -- one TV station in particular -- that fell into the lazy-reporter's "default" mode, rehashing old stories, stirring up more fears among the public and basically missing the entire point of the news conference. (Using stock footage of a fierce-looking German Shepherd, barking menacingly at the camera, was a nice touch; but Chief Ward Clapham primarily talked about looking at the use of docile black Labs, trained to sniff out contraband and possibly bombs, rather than attack dogs. No wonder some people got the William Blakes about the idea of police dogs on the system.)

So in the interest of getting out more of the story, we have posted the news conference where SkyTrain CEO Doug Kelsey and Police Chief Ward Clapham discussed the new approach on YouTube in three segments: first with Doug's comments, then with Chief Clapham and then the question-and-answer session with reporters. The supporting material -- reports, maps and so forth -- can be found on the Buzzer Blog.

Thought you'd like to know.

Minding the message

2008-11-20T07:14:00.000-08:00

The story itself is shocking enough: an armed robber who's not averse to shooting people in the course of his crimes. But the reporting on this inadvertently brought to light the strange double standard that exists in the media: the penchant for accepting what "Mr Ordinary Joe" says without question.

On Wednesday (Nov. 19), The Province ran a story about a series of violent robberies, and a general crime wave in the area just southwest of the Pattullo Bridge, and in the course of interviewing one aggrieved businessman, indirectly quoted him as saying that a lot of the problem is due to drug addicts coming in on SkyTrain, “just a few blocks away”.

The businesses in question are in the vicinity of Scott Road and Old Yale Road, and while the indirect quote says it's "just a few blocks away", Google Maps indicates Scott Road SkyTrain station is 900 metres away from that intersection. What's more, it's 900 metres across a large parking lot and along a four- to six-lane thoroughfare.

So let's do a reality check: a statement like that expects us to believe that a drug addict is going to take SkyTrain to Scott Road Station, trek all that way, commit the crime(s) and then trek back, undetected, with their lolly, to make their getaway on SkyTrain.

Some statements say the crimes are being committed in daytime -- so these people would be making this long trek, carrying stolen property, in broad daylight. Other statements put the crimes happening around 2am -- LONG AFTER SKYTRAIN HAD SHUT DOWN FOR THE NIGHT.

Now, a statement like that can re-ignite the "CrimeTrain" canard -- the very thing that people in Richmond are worried about with the coming of the Canada Line: the idea that SkyTrain "imports" criminals into otherwise peaceful, law-abiding areas. But that's really beside the point here. The point is, the reporter and editor accepted the speaker's claim without question.

Now, had someone from TransLink made a similar statement -- like denying that SkyTrain is responsible for bringing crime into an area -- it would have been given the "Mandy Rhys-Jones"* treatment and critics would have been contacted for their viewpoint. Even hard data to prove the point get called into question. In one case, there was the story this past spring where a man claimed it had taken 40 minutes for Transit Police to arrive at a scene: we provided computer logs from Transit Police and SkyTrain indicating the true chain of events (that the situation was under control in five minutes and police had the suspect in custody in 16 minutes). The reporter presented the information by saying, "TransLink says ... ", as if we were covering our own bottoms.

It was the same thing when PricewaterhouseCoopers audited TransLink's fare evasion estimations and found the methodology and numbers were sound: people were not convinced. Let some ordinary shlep say that it was obvious that people were avoiding paying fares, and it's reported without challenge.

Is this whining? It might seem like it. But two facts are inescapable. 1 - there is a double standard in the media these days, that automatically gives an emotional response from an "ordinary person" greater weight than a reasoned, fact-based statement from a public official; and 2 - when this double standard appears in discussions about crime and the SkyTrain system, it adds further fuel to a foundationless fire of fear -- and media ducks its responsibility to present the truth to the public, rather than reflecting their own misconceptions.

==========

*Mandy Rhys-Jones, for those of you under the age of 50, was a key figure in the Profumo Scandal in England in the early 60s. Cabinet minister John Profumo was accused of passing sensitive intelligence information to the Soviets via some call-girls he'd been involved with. He denied knowing them, and when asked about this on the witness stand, Mandy, one of the ladies in question, replied, "well, he would say that, wouldn't he?"

Salaries: what are they good for?

2008-11-15T14:41:00.000-08:00

For want of actual news, The Province newspaper published an article on Friday, Nov. 14, about the salaries of some of the top decision-makers at TransLink. TransLink Director of Communications Ken Hardie has written the following response, which puts the numbers in context.

The blazing headlines in this morning’s Province newspaper on salary increases for some of TransLink’s executives gives us an opportunity to do a useful reality check on a number of fronts.

First, the information in the article came from TransLink’s annual “Statement of Financial Information,” which, as a public body, we are required by law to publish and make available to the public each year. This statement must list gross earnings (salaries and benefits) plus expenses for any TransLink staff member earning more than $75,000 per year, as well as a list of companies and amounts paid to them totalling $25,000 or more.

This is a level of transparency that is unique to us and to other public agencies, and over time, each public agency is subject to the nature and tone of the coverage we saw in this morning’s Province. Clearly, the fact that our salaries are public information is just one of the aspects of public service that we ‘sign up for’ when we work at an agency like TransLink. But there are others that the paper chose not to examine.

To be sure, the average person would look at the salaries reported and think they were pretty good compared to what the average wage-earner brings home. The Province didn’t say anything about the work and the pressures behind those salaries, nor did it report on the results that these efforts and those of all staff at TransLink and the operating companies have delivered.

A reasonably objective person would conclude that the paper’s failure to do this is kind of unfair to the individuals being profiled. More than that, they would believe that the Province has done a disservice to its readers by denying them an opportunity to judge for themselves if these people deserved the compensation they received.

These salaries have increased in the last five years because the people getting them have been given increasingly complex work to do. We gave the Province the fact that TransLink’s capital program has gone from about $750 million in 2002 to about $2.25 billion in 2007 as the organization has taken on more and larger initiatives to improve the transportation system. But they didn’t report that. We provided the Province with the fact that we have had many good people ‘poached’ by municipalities and other agencies, but they didn’t use that either. They might have mentioned that the salaries noted are a third to a half of the lowest paid NHL hockey player...but they didn’t.

Nor did the paper use other publicly available material to note that over this time period, these people led programs that resulted in a massive expansion of our transit system that now offers 1.1 million more hours of service per year and delivers 68 million more rides per year than it did in 2002.

The paper could have mentioned the hundreds of road improvement projects, the new Dollarton Highway bridges, the Golden Ears Bridge, the 204th Street Overpass in Langley. But it didn’t.

What insulates an organization like TransLink from this kind of coverage is the degree to which we build and maintain constructive and transparent relationships in the community. We do a good job of this, witness the fact that in spite of constant and critical media oversight it receives, TransLink maintains high levels of public confidence.

But we also have to take a big step back and remind ourselves of something important. The media in a free and open society does this kind of reporting. And there are many really bad people getting away with unspeakable things in other parts of the world where papers, radio and TV don’t have these freedoms. This kind of scrutiny is the price we pay, although public servants can be forgiven for thinking from time to time that they pay disproportionately.

The media must remain cynical, but we must remember that the classic definition of a cynic is one who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing. By that criterion, today’s article is at the high end of the cynicism scale. At the same time, we must never, ever lose sight of our obligation to treat the public and their money they contribute with the utmost respect.

There’s an interesting sidebar to all of this. The Province’s parent company has just announced a $1 billion write down in its financial results and staff there have just seen over 500 of their media colleagues across the country lose their jobs due to cut-backs. We can bet that more than a few people in the newsrooms are wondering what executives in their organizations are getting by way of salaries, benefits and bonuses in light of these results. But they have no right to see that information.

The Eagle Stoops - and nails one!

2008-11-13T13:47:00.000-08:00

Funny: the last time we entered something on this blog, it was a not-so-veiled warning that a certain public transportation agency was pretty much fed up with the way the media misrepresent the issues. Sooner or later, I wrote, we were going to turn around and start firing back.

It is, therefore, with no little satisfaction that I pass along this item. It's a story that stayed under wraps for about a year and a half, while things worked their way through The System. Now it can be told.

Last week, the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council – the self-regulating watchdog for the radio and TV industry – rendered a decision, finding CKWX (News 1130) violated multiple articles of the Radio-TV News Directors Association (RTNDA) and Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) Codes of Ethics in its treatment of a story relating to SkyTrain and security.

To give some background, in April 2007, following some crimes, which had been linked in the media – often unfairly or inaccurately – to SkyTrain and its stations, it was decided that we needed to get the message out to the public, that the stations and the system are not unsafe and that there are ways in which one can be pro-active about their own security, using the features on the trains and in the stations. Ken Hardie, Doug Kelsey and I had been interviewed about the issue, but anything we’d said about that aspect was largely ignored. Clearly, we had to get the message out in a way that didn’t rely on the conventional media.

So, with the help of Doug Steinbach at XLEntertainment – our contract videographer – Doug Kelsey and I did an interview, in which he discussed safety and security issues and features on the trains: Doug Steinbach edited it, using B-roll of people using the features and other good cutaway shots, and it was posted on the TransLink web site. You can still see it by going to “TransLink Features” on the home page and clicking on “Safety and Security on SkyTrain”.

News 1130 picked up on the item, but rather than go into Doug Kelsey’s discussion of the safety and security features on SkyTrain, the reporter keyed on a remark Doug made about two minutes from the end. He asked rhetorically if he would let his children ride SkyTrain at night. He said “yes – with conditions”. He said he wouldn’t want them to ride at night unless they were in a group and they were being prudent. For that matter, he went on, he wouldn’t want them anywhere at 11:30 pm or midnight unless they were in a group and being prudent.

In the hands of News 1130, that statement morphed into “The head of SkyTrain says he wouldn’t want his kids riding it at night” and “a shocking admission from the head of SkyTrain”.

We complained to News 1130 that they had misrepresented Doug’s remarks and sensationalized the story. They replied that they hadn’t. We filed a complaint with the CBSC. Our complaint included the misrepresentation and sensationalization charges, but also noted that the ‘teasers’ – the headlines they read to entice listeners to stay tuned for the next full newscast – twisted the content of the actual report. We also noted – although we downplayed this one – that the stories never identified the fact that Doug’s statements were clipped from the website interview: by omitting that detail, the interview was presented as being the work of the reporter and the station. That goes against Article 3 of the RTNDA Code of Journalism Ethics, which states that a station can’t run anything that is rehearsed or pre-produced, unless it identifies it as such. There’s also at least one article that deals with plagiarism, even when the producer of the plagiarized work has “happily” offered it for use by the media (which we had: we sent out a media advisory about the interview, more or less inviting stations to make use of the material as a public service).

After a year and a half, the ruling came down November 6 and was published on the 7th. News1130 had, indeed, violated multiple articles of the RTNDA and the CAB Codes of Ethics in those stories. The Panel, which is made up of broadcasters, jumped all over the fact that WX failed to identify the source of the interview (even though we had soft-pedalled that aspect of our complaint), making it seem like it had been their own (RTNDA Code 3) and that failing to provide this information was confusing to the public (RTNDA Code 11); the promos and teasers were misleading and “exceed(ed) the threshold of enticement” (CAB Code 12).

The Panel found that Doug’s interview in its entirety “resonated with simplicity and good sense” but that “the broadcaster has taken the SkyTrain web-based interview with the CEO of the company and reshaped it to make it conform to the story and teasers CKWX wished to air.”

Not limiting itself to our own complaint, the Panel also went after CKWX for exaggerating and sensationalizing the story: “the broadcaster made at least seven references in the May 1 newscasts to ‘recent violence’ without identifying or concretizing a single incident. In other words, CKWX was creating an impression of safety issues without grounding its story in reality.” The Panel also criticized WX for claiming to have talked with “people” (in the plural) and “giving an impression of numbers” without actually specifying how many that would entail, to wit: “Once again, by leaving that sense of numbers of concerned individuals, the broadcaster was promising more than it ever delivered. Since no ‘streeter’ was identified, the Panel has been unable to determine whether more than one woman was interviewed throughout the series of afternoon newscasts, and all she told the reporter was that ‘she’s felt safer taking transit in cities larger than Vancouver.’ The single individual was not authoritative, nor was there another example provided, in other words, nothing other than vague, unsupported assertions of a wide-spread problem.”

And the cherry on top was finding WX in violation of Article 5 of the RTNDA Code of Ethics by mis-identifying Doug as the “CEO of TransLink”.

WX will have to air the following statement once during prime time within 3 days of the release of the decision (prior to November 10) and once more within 7 days during the time that the promotional spots aired:

The Canadian Broadcast Standards Council has found that CKWX News1130 violated provisions of the Canadian Association of Broadcasters’ Code of Ethics and the Radio Television News Directors Association Code of (Journalistic) Ethics in its broadcasts about SkyTrain safety on May 1, 2007. By taking a website interview with the CEO of SkyTrain without attribution, thereby leaving the impression that it had conducted it, News1130 breached Article 11 of the RTNDA Code of (Journalistic) Ethics. By editing that interview for its news stories and teasers so as to change the meaning, and to misrepresent the SkyTrain CEO’s original statements, News1130 breached Article 3 of the RTNDA 23 Code and Clause 12 of the CAB Code. By leaving the impression of widespread concerns of the public about SkyTrain safety without presenting the promised interviews, News1130 breached Clause 6 of the CAB Code of Ethics.

I am reminded of my good friend and former colleague Frank Stanford, with whom I worked for over a decade at CFAX Victoria. Stanford’s First Law of Journalism states, “the one detail in a story that you did not absolutely have to include will be the one that causes you the most trouble”.

This is not the first time TransLink's Communications and Media Relations Department has "called out" a news organization for reporting unfairly or even inaccurately about us. I expect it won’t be the last -- indeed, after a couple of articles on suicides on the SkyTrain system, we are considering our options.

In many if not most cases, we have managed to develop a good rapport with reporters and news organizations and recognize the job they are supposed to do. But we also know that any kind of inaccurate or unfair reportage affects not just the image of TransLink and its family, but of the people who work here – especially those on the “front lines” – STAs, bus operators, SeaBus Attendants, West Coast Express staff, FareDealer clerks, Customer Information and Customer Relations staff, Transit Police and countless others. That’s why we do what we do – and let you know when an industry body like the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council agrees with us.

The eagle stoops - a media quandary

2008-09-19T11:19:00.000-07:00

One evening in Victoria, some friends and I were strolling around the Inner Harbour when we heard some squawking overhead. We looked up and saw a bald eagle, soaring around tree-top level, being pestered by a couple of crows and a seagull. It's not an unfamiliar sight on the West Coast, and one usually marvels at the fact that the eagle -- the great predator of the skies -- just soars on, does a couple of evasive-action moves from time to time, but more or less ignores the smaller birds and keeps on going.

So we continued on our stroll, and then suddenly, the squawking changed in tone to one more urgent and -- one might even say -- distressed.

We looked up again, and saw that the eagle had swung around on his tormentors and had grabbed the seagull in his talons. He flung the gull around and then slammed it to the water. Then he dove down, picked up the gull again and slammed it a second time. The eagle then flew off, and we were certain that we were looking at one dead seagull. But the gull remained upright, if a little stunned, then managed to flap its wings and fly off, probably to warn the others -- or at least find the other gull who said that eagles would just ignore them.

(It's tempting to come up with a play on "gullible", but it's just not happening. Be afraid. Be very afraid.)

The week's work has included a couple of media stories, which may well turn into an eagle-has-had-enough scenario. First, there was CBC's revisiting of the incident where a woman had a stroke on the #22 bus. Then there was an allegation that a woman had been refused a ride because the bus driver had told her she was too fat. After leaving a voice-mail on the TransLink complaint line and sending an email through the website form, Global TV caught hold of the story.

Now, we've had issues with Global in the past , but after a very productive meeting with the heads of that news department, they've done some positive stories about TransLink -- such as Ted Field's look at transit issues on the Lower Mainland and John Daly's piece about the upgraded video technology on the SkyTrain system. Both the stories cited in that posting in June involved people making allegations which either were not true or were shaky, but the information that brought the allegations into question was buried -- as if the data TransLink brought forward had been "doctored" after the fact. (It couldn't have been: the data we produced were computer-recorded and locked-in.)

This time, therefore, John Daly wanted to make doggone sure he had something firm to work with, and since the allegation is pretty serious, both TransLink and Coast Mountain Bus Co. went to work, finding out what happened and why.

The more we dug for information, the more the woman's story started to come to pieces. She claimed the offending bus driver was East Indian: all the drivers on the route that night were white, except for one Asian. She made other claims that were easily checked and either questioned or refuted outright.

John started to lose interest in the story, and often that's the best bet for a reporter. No harm - no foul.

Or is it?

This really is one for journalists and j-school students to ponder: if TransLink (or CMBC) had been in the wrong, the media would have been all over the story like ugly on an ape - and rightly so. But the situation has now become: woman makes accusations ... woman's story doesn't check out ... TransLink/CMBC are in the right ... no story.

Why is that? Because we can't track down the bus driver, the mud this woman has thrown is not just at an imaginary bus driver, but at all drivers, because they get tarred with the same brush. On top of that, there have been higher management people, at least two communications people, customer information, customer relations, a reporter and a camera operator, spending literally hours trying to dig to the bottom of the story. And at the end of it all, there's no story? Is the person who started this, whether it was to cover up an indiscretion, get attention, or get compensation, going to be made to squirm with a TV camera trained on their face?

Maybe not this time, but the next time, things may be different. Allegations like this are very serious, and can affect the reputation not just of the company but of literally thousands of hard-working, dedicated people. If the allegation is vexatious or just plain false, the accuser may get a surprise. A "David and Goliath" story is one thing, but if Goliath finds his reputation is on the line -- especially if it concerns the reputations of several thousand working stiffs -- David will suddenly feel like that seagull on the Inner Harbour.

I'll see your challenge and raise you ...

2008-09-19T07:24:00.000-07:00

One of the favorite ways of dismissing the efforts of transit planners and executives is to say, "do they actually ride the system?" It's a comforting thought, as one stands, packed into a SkyTrain or watches a bus pass one by because it's too full, that the people planning and operating the system don't actually have to experience it, or else they'd make it better toot sweet.

I can tell you: we do ride it. I can't speak for all of us, all of the time, because there are times when, as in anything else, a private vehicle is required; but we do experience it on a day-to-day basis, and ride it to and from all areas of the system. One colleague comes in from Maple Ridge on West Coast Express; another from Cloverdale on the 502, getting up in time to be at the bus stop at 6:30; others come in from the West End, walking to Burrard Station and taking the SkyTrain; others live in Kits or West 10th and take a combination of buses and SkyTrain to get to work. Yeah, we ride it, and we know the situation.

Here's a reverse challenge to customers who ask, "have they ever ridden the system": have you ever planned one?

It's not a rhetorical question. I was astounded, when I first came to the BC Electric Railway Company in January 2006, at the myriad combinations of factors that go into transportation planning. The factors include budget, numbers of buses, numbers of drivers, how long a bus takes to get from one end of the route to another, how much room there is for buses to wait at the end of the line, working with local civic authorities on things like traffic signals, parking regulations, etc. etc. Within a couple of weeks, I realized that "they have to put more buses on this route" is one of those simple, inexpensive and wrong answers that HL Mencken railed against.

Planners and our consultation group took that challenge to the people when planning the South of Fraser Area Transit Plan. They held visioning exercises, in which stakeholders -- businesses, members of the general public, etc. -- were given strips of colored tape and maps of the area. The colored tape represented different transit types, like SkyTrain or conventional bus or community shuttle, and the amount of tape for each affected how much budget that had to work with. It was educational on both sides: the planners got a view of what was important to people in the area, while the people in the area got a view of what the planners had to deal with.

Working with the people the transit system is supposed to serve is a key element of TransLink's planning. As SkyTrain CEO Doug Kelsey has said, "you could have the most efficient system in the world and give the rides away, but if people don't think it's safe, it'll be empty." For "people don't think it's safe", you could substitute "it doesn't meet the people's needs". It's important not just to build the system, but to build the right system, so that's why public engagement is vital. But public engagement goes both ways: people need to understand that, if the system isn't meeting 100% of their needs, there's a reason why it can't.

Speaking of SkyTrain and safety, that's the focus of an "unconference" being supported by TransLink, but more or less at arm's length from the agency. Members of the public -- taking part in this conference which begins online and then moves to a face-to-face session October 4 -- set the agenda and agree on what's important. TransLink staffers sit in to offer technical support and answer questions. For more information, log onto http://skytrainunconference.ca.

More from the MotherCorp

2008-09-18T15:54:00.000-07:00

The CBC is getting a fair bit of mileage out of the story of a woman who suffered a stroke on a Coast Mountain Bus in June 2007. The story first came out in October 2007, and that was the first that management had heard of it. This week, almost 18 months after the fact, the woman's family talked with the CBC again about the fact that they had still not heard back from CMBC.

Now, to deal with that particular res, a letter had been drafted by CMBC, but we were horrified to discover, on trying to find out where it was, that it had never been sent. The draft was sent to numerous people for input, and somehow went off the track. Not good, and we admit it.

But the CBC report also re-opened the whole tale of the incident, which left the impression that this woman in distress was ignored by other bus passengers and even the bus driver didn't do anything about it until she threw herself on the floor to get attention.

The CMBC investigation found a slightly different situation. She was riding the #22 bus, and when it reached the terminus, the driver checked the back of the bus prior to starting the return journey and saw her there. That's not unusual, particularly on the #22: people often ride it in one direction then stay aboard because the stops on the east side are more convenient for their connections. On the return trip, the first bus driver was relieved by another bus driver. Finally, the woman showed a sign that something was wrong: she leaned against a woman sitting next to her. She told the driver, the driver hit the emergency button on the bus and a passenger called 911 to get the ambulance. They assisted the woman to the floor and waited for medical assistance.

So in fact, the woman was not in obvious distress for quite a while; as soon as the signs of distress became manifest, people on the bus swung into action, and everyone did everything properly.

One thing I've seen on the transit system in Metro Vancouver, is that people generally don't ignore when someone is in distress. Earlier this week -- the same day that CBC decided to resurrect this story -- a young woman was discovered at the SeaBus south terminal (Waterfront Station), bleeding from a stab wound. A passerby ran and got the Marine Attendants and they took care of the girl and called the ambulance. People do care. The comments on the CBC website seem to suggest that people don't care, but maybe the people posting the comments are judging others by their own standards.

The real pity is that once again, we have the media jumping on the negative story about a Coast Mountain bus driver; but in May, we sent out a news release about bus drivers noted for "going the extra mile" -- and they're in the great majority.

No one in the media picked it up. Dare we say that good news is no news?

Here's that news release, then, and bear in mind that these drivers are the norm -- not the exception.

May 8, 2008

Coast Mountain Bus, TransLink, customers pay tribute to “the class acts”

A bus driver circling back to get a blind customer. A single mother missing her wallet. An operator not afraid to “get involved”. What do they have in common? They’re just three instances of Coast Mountain Bus Co. employees, commended for doing “that little bit extra” in the line of duty.

“As front-line workers in ‘people jobs’, our drivers and other employees generally consider that going the extra mile is part of the job,” says CMBC President Denis Clements. “But it’s good to recognize those who give that extra measure of care and encourage others to do the same.”

Recently, Shannon McKenzie, a “regular” on the #169 Braid Station, emailed Customer Information to tell how operator Pat Keenan pulled away from a bus stop and then saw another regular, a blind woman with her dog, arriving late. Keenan drove around the block, came back to the stop and picked up the woman. “I believe that the show of humanity that I witnessed … needed to be mentioned,” Shannon wrote. “It is not often anymore that anyone goes out of their way for anyone. The fact that this particular passenger would have not known that ‘her’ bus had actually pulled away just added to the humanity that this driver extended to her.”

In April, bus driver Che Florant helped a distraught single mother and her friend, after the woman had left her wallet on another bus. The wallet contained money she needed for groceries and (as became apparent) diapers for her toddlers. Che contacted the other bus by radio, but the wallet couldn’t be found. So he gave the woman money from his own wallet, which helped her buy some groceries and the diapers.

Another operator put his own safety on the line, and it probably saved a child’s life. In spring 2007, Jas Grewal was driving a Vancouver city bus when he spotted a group of four or five boys beating up another. Using a wheel block as a “convincer”, he chased the attackers away. Then he attended to the boy who was being beaten. The attackers came back, but as Jas grabbed the wheel block again, police arrived. It turned out the victim had a shunt inserted in his brain, and the beating could have been fatal, if no one had intervened.

Every year, Coast Mountain Bus Co. and TransLink issue dozens of commendations to employees for just such civic actions. The employees receive commendation letters, and often something additional, like gift certificates for dinner. Jas Grewal was honoured by the Canadian Urban Transit Association, so CMBC paid for the flight and accommodations for Jas and his mother to go to Quebec City to receive the award at the CUTA national convention.

CMBC and TransLink encourage members of the public to nominate CMBC employees for commendations. To do so, simply contact Customer Relations at 604-953-3040.

-30-

Reality Check -- on "others", rats and "soaring crashes"

2008-09-15T06:28:00.000-07:00

Comedian Steven Wright gets a lot of mileage out of "unanswerable questions" -- How does Teflon stick to the pan? Why do you drive on a parkway but park in the driveway? If a peanut butter sandwich always lands with the peanut butter side down and a cat always lands on its feet, what happens if you strap a peanut butter sandwich on a cat's back?, e.g. -- and one of those is, "How much deeper would the ocean be if there were no sponges?"

There are times when a transit planner's job must feel like that: throwing a sponge into the ocean. More service hours are added, more buses hit the streets, and they're filled up within days. The new #33 29th Ave. Stn / UBC is already passing up passengers in the morning rush hour, from Granville and 16th westward. People who had been reluctant to make the long shlep from homes in that "grey area" between Broadway and King Edward (west of Cambie) and between King Ed and 41st (east of Cambie) now have a bus route that runs closer to them, and people looking for an alternative to getting off at Broadway and trying to cram onto the 99 B-Line to get to UBC now have what they were looking for. But the buses are still crammed.

This is not really a bad thing. Aren't we supposed to be providing an alternative to the private vehicle?

SkyTrain's challenge is to make the sponges go farther. Thankfully, they have a lot of flexibility in the system, where the service delivery people and control operators can make snap decisions and use trains more efficiently. Maintenance people have been able to push out two additional trains each morning, to go along with the turnback trains running in that peak period of 8:00 - 8:50 am. It helps, but the arrival of 48 more sponges -- um, I mean new SkyTrain cars -- next year will make things a lot easier.

But the reality is, there's still a lot of ocean out there: take a look at the highway-cam shots of the Port Mann or Lions Gate Bridges some time.

****

Tom Prendergast's bold observation to the Board of Trade recently -- that TransLink is a great system -- brought the predictable response, at least in 24 Hours. A letter to the editor this morning (Sept. 15) complains about packed SkyTrains and buses that don't show up, and says, in essence, "I'd hate to see a badly-run system".

Here's one for the letter-writer: what does he consider a well-run system?

(Pause for Jeopardy theme to establish then fade.)

Sorry. Can't think of one, either. Not one that covers 1800 square kilometres, 2.1 million people, and a diverse array of communities, each with its own priorities and needs (not to mention demands). Other systems come and study us to see how it's done.

In Los Angeles, for example, a trip from Disneyland to Hollywood – less than 30 miles and about an hour by car – takes 2 hours and 19 minutes, requires a step-up fare at the transfer point and works out to over 45 miles by bus. In Kansas City KS, the third largest city in Kansas, they recently brought back Sunday service after 20 years – not new service on some routes on Sundays, but any service on Sundays. Limited bus service was recently inaugurated between Arlington, Texas and Fort Worth.

Tom's right: we don't know how good we've got it. Sometimes, it takes a newcomer from another area to tell us that.

***

The MotherCorp strikes again ...

So I'm walking down an alley in the West End yesterday, and there's this dumpster absolutely overflowing with garbage, and a skunk is nosing through it ... and who knows how many rats might be in the area, too? And the CBC is there -- French and English, radio and TV -- swarming around the garbage, getting visuals, on the phone to the disposal company and the City of Vancouver, demanding answers about how this obvious health hazard is allowed to proliferate. The rats offered 'no comment.'

Well, OK ... I made up the bit after the question mark above. But CBC was on the scene underneath Broadway Station, demanding answers about the rats, which are apparently getting nesting material from recycling bins. As they attempted to make it earlier this summer, it's evidently, in their view, a TransLink problem. The story -- at least, as transcribed on cbc.ca -- did mention the $8 million renovation starting in the next couple of months; but in a way that suggested we were spending $8 mill to deal with the rat situation. Perhaps the station reno's are more about making things better for SkyTrain passengers??? Do you think?

This just in ... it's a bad year for rats all over Vancouver. But, just like any crime, social condition or other malady gets associated with the nearest SkyTrain station, the People's Network will handle the rat situation likewise.

Why?

Cynical answer: because reporters don't want to do the digging it requires to get to the bottom of that particular story. And who knows? Maybe if they dig deep enough, they'll get answers that don't point to any one public body and (Heavens!) find that maybe all of us are responsible and no one really is to blame -- and to a reporter, that's anathema.

***

Thou shalt not write thine own headline

That old newspapering commandment may need to be revisited. Randy Shore in the Sun wrote a very good story about the increase in "preventable collisions" among transit buses. Not only did he give the numbers and the increase, but he included the fact that "collision" is any contact between a bus and another object, be it a paint scrape or a major crash, "preventable" means that the bus driver didn't do everything possible to avoid it -- regardless of whether the driver was at fault or not, and that one of the main reasons for it is the fact that over 50% of bus routes in Metro Vancouver are currently on re-route due to construction.

This last factoid is important, because bus routes are designed for the width of buses, turning radii, traffic flow, etc. etc., and detours put buses onto routes that, well, are not.

But the headline read, BUS CRASHES SOAR - CONSTRUCTION BLAMED.

Letters to the editor in the Sun were predictable, listing a litany of bus drivers' sins, painting them all with the brush of dangerous incompetence. "How dare CMBC blame construction when it's obvious that the bus drivers are at fault?"

Answer: because it's the truth. Evidently, the letter-writers didn't read much past the headline. And even the reporter conceded that the headline writer had been a little overzealous: after all, BUS CRASHES SOAR is a good front-page headline, while CONSTRUCTION RE-ROUTES INCREASE BUS COLLISIONS would be guaranteed to push the story to page B6.

CMBC has invited the reporter to look in at the training facility and see what it means to drive a 40- to 60-foot, 10-15-ton vehicle, filled with human beings, through heavy traffic. Maybe that invitation should be extended to the letter writers, too.

Security and SkyTrain

2008-08-22T06:05:00.000-07:00

Last week, the Vancouver Sun ran an opinion piece about security measures SkyTrain and TransLink "need" to take. The article caused some consternation because it made reference to a "confidential security assessment" and also raised the prospect that SkyTrain passengers might be subjected to random searches in the name of terrorism-prevention.

In response, SkyTrain CEO Doug Kelsey sent in a letter to the editor, which, due to a recent policy against running "institutional" letters, nearly didn't get published. After a couple of phone calls to the paper, an edited version appeared in today's paper. It was edited, so here is the original version.

We would like to thank Gordon Keast for his opinion article on terrorism concerns and our local passenger rail systems. It raises awareness about the important role the public plays in being vigilant. However, there are some points of importance that should be clarified.

First, we should make it clear that the confidential internal security assessment has not been released to the public, or to Mr Keast: he was aware of it following a Request for Proposals posted by TransLink on the BidBC website.

Second, on a point of accuracy, the passenger traffic figures Mr Keast cites should be approximately 235,000 trips on SkyTrain and 10,000 trips on West Coast Express per day, not per week.

But most important, the public needs to know that there are no significant threats currently indicated toward the transit system that would justify random searches. On principle, any security measure must be used strategically so as not to send confusing messages to the public. For example, the public should reasonably expect something like random searches to be used as a way to address specific issues, such as the illegal transport of alcohol to events like the Festival of Lights.

That being said, SkyTrain, West Coast Express and TransLink are already taking measures to ensure the security of the public. We initiated discussions with the federal government for funding programs for these measures, for which Ottawa is investing more than $17 million with us on a 3:1 cost-sharing basis. We took the lead in setting up a national transit intelligence-sharing system, and have had significant outside review of our security measures. On the morning of the London terrorist attacks in 2005, we were well-informed.

Our excellent front-line staff receive training in awareness of suspicious activity and anything else that “just doesn’t seem right”. Changing the Special Provincial Constables to a fully constituted police force was another measure aimed at enhancing security on the system. In addition, as was reported by Global TV recently, we have just completed a full upgrade of our video surveillance system from analog to high-quality digital recording.

SkyTrain and West Coast Express stations are undergoing continuing upgrades, with lighting on Expo Line stations being improved to the same levels as that at Millennium Line stations, and more retail presence in and around stations, thus providing for more “eyes and ears” on the system. The planned expansion of Broadway and Main Street Stations also will go a long way towards supporting security goals. We anticipate that more stations will be redeveloped in the future.

The public in general are encouraged to become additional “eyes and ears” by picking up the security phone at SkyTrain stations or using the intercom or “yellow strip” silent alarm in each SkyTrain vehicle. Messages encouraging the public to “see it – say it” are already appearing at SkyTrain stations, and we will soon be rolling out numerous other security-related measures.

At this time, there is no cause to adopt random searches of our customers, as there is no circumstance or threat level present that warrants such intrusive measures. The cost of inconveniencing the public and needlessly raising the fear level would far outweigh any security benefit.

Once again, thank you for raising this important issue in the public and confirming that everyone does have a role to play in public safety and security.

Doug Kelsey,
CEO BC Rapid Transit Company
(SkyTrain and West Coast Express)

Rat patrols in the dog days

2008-08-15T05:42:00.000-07:00

During your agent's stellar (?) career in broadcasting, there was a mantra that came up at this time of year. One would come into the newsroom to start one's on-air shift, and someone there would look at the assignment list or the emaciated stack of follow-up files and news releases on the desk and say, "These are the dog days of summer, my man: we need NEWS, baby!"

(I don't know why they're called the "dog days". Possibly, there's that image of the mid-August heat somewhere in the deep south: the Colonel sitting in his white suit on the veranda sipping his mint julep or sweet (iced) tea ("the house wine of the South"), with old Beauregard curled up in the shade ... but then my cat also enjoys curling up in the shade on hot summer days ... just as she enjoys curling up on the radiator the rest of the time. But I digress ...)

Anyway, the "dog days" meant there were no news items leaping out at us: no politicians to trip over their own rhetoric, too far away from the next long weekend to do the de rigueur Traffic Safety Story with ICBC or BCAA or the equally de rigueur Arrive Early At The Terminals And Consider Making A Reservation Story with BC Ferries. No, for a newsroom that meant one thing: go out and find something and keep the needle bouncing during the newscast.

So it happened this week with The Great Rat Issue. It started innocently enough: Dharm Makwana with 24 Hours put together a very informative, public-interest piece on the fact that rats have gone forth and multiplied in remarkable numbers this year, and for whatever reason, they were a problem all around Metro Vancouver. He included pointers on how to safeguard oneself from a rat infestation.

Then somebody pointed out that there were a lot of rats under the Broadway SkyTrain station. Wednesday morning, a concerned citizen called me and claimed he'd been fobbed off by various departments so he was calling me and then calling Global TV.

"They (SkyTrain or TransLink people) kept passing the buck: they told me it was because of the garbage from the restaurants!" he said.

"Makes sense: food waste attracts rats. We don't sell food at SkyTrain, therefore, we don't have food waste."

"You're trying to shift the blame onto someone else!"

"Yah!" Suddenly, the conversation had turned me into a 15-year-old girl. I recovered. "I think your anger is misplaced, sir."

"They're on your property!"

Which was a valid point: the poor fellow had been bounced from one department to the next, and it's likely the ones he'd spoken to didn't know which department was responsible. And if the rats were on our property, it was in everybody's interest to deal with them. "I'll make some calls and find out what's going on," I said.

And indeed, we were already on top of the situation: the exterminator was setting out another dozen traps (tripling the original number to 18), the place was being powerwashed by SkyTrain Wayside Maintenance people, and we were doing all we could to deal with the problem on our side of the property line. The exterminator was even resorting to "confuse-a-rat": shifting the recycling bins that were in the compound around, to break up the rats' patterns of behavior.

So by the time Catherine Urquhart called from Global TV, I had the answers.

In fact, Catherine had already noticed what our caller had stated: there are restaurants in the vicinity. But the employees wouldn't talk to her. So we did a story on what TransLink was doing about the problem on its own property, she talked to a hot dog vendor about what he's seen, and that was the story.

Thursday morning, I arrived at the office to find messages from CBC - radio and TV, French and English. They were hot to trot for the rat story now, so in the interests of letting people know that we were all over this issue, I headed back down to Broadway. I told them the same position - in both languages. I noticed there were dumpsters piled high with plastic bags full of trash, and that crows were savaging the plastic bags, meaning they'd be wide-open for the rats to get in to find more food. Those bins were in a compound that was not on TransLink property. Right beside us and out in the open was an uncovered dumpster with the name of a particular fast-food restaurant stencilled on the side. If you saw the CBC story, that was the dumpster reporter Kirk Williams said they "kicked (the night before), and seven rats fell out".

Interpretation: in order to get the "money shot" of rats scurrying around, some poor night cameraman had to kick the dumpster, thereby dislodging the rats that had been inside, not really harming anyone, and sending them scurrying off to another location, taking their diseases with them. Think about it.

In fact, that leads to another issue: the Law of Unintended Consequences. One citizen pointed out to my boss, Ken Hardie, that the rats were finding nesting material in our recyclables -- which are stored in the large compound under the guideway. So why, he asked, were we still storing the recyclables there?

Another good point, to which Ken replied that if we did that and the food waste was still there, the rats would find some other place to nest.

By the time the Globe and Mail called, we had decided to stop commenting. But it was as I painted a word picture of the area for the G&M reporter, who was newly arrived from Montreal, that something became apparent. CBC had reported (at least on the website) that the rats were actually in Broadway Station. The G&M reporter was very confused as I described the location -- namely, under the overhead track, behind the station and way far away ("just metres away", Kirk Williams said -- like about 20) from the main entrance going through a grungy parking lot -- and when it finally became clear to her that the rats were not in the station itself, she lost interest in the story.

(A call to Customer Relations confirmed that we'd had no sightings of rats actually inside the station.)

The fact is, this year has been particularly bad for rats: the combination of the climate, increased construction activity chasing rats out of their homes, and (according to Vancouver Coastal Health) last year’s garbage strike, has created something of a "perfect rat storm". Indeed, one radio station jumped on the "garbage strike" angle to spin the story into some finger-pointing at the Mayor of Vancouver.

The irony about all this is that TransLink and SkyTrain have been out in front of this issue from the beginning, yet the reportage is making it look like we're somehow negligent. In truth, we've done everything right. We saw the problem developing long before the media caught wind of it and took the necessary measures. With the amount of work exterminators have right now, for one to be doing the job the day before I got that call means he had already been booked. The fact remains that there are restaurants and a major supermarket in the vicinity, all of which put out food waste, and if you want to shut down the rat population, you start by shutting down their food supply.

Of course, there's good in everything, and the "good" that's coming out of this exercise in journalism is that we all need to be aware:

that there is a rat problem
it's all over Metro Vancouver
new construction can displace rats, so if there's new construction in your neighbourhood, there may be an increase in rat movement
food attracts rats, so make sure your food garbage is inaccessible
at Gospel Mission, where I minister on the Downtown East Side, we've had success with Wilsarin in defeating the rat situation. That's not an endorsement, by the way: just an observation.

SkyTrain, as has been explained in a previous posting, does its part, and people have a role to play, too: that role now has greater importance for all of us.

Keeping the message straight

2008-08-01T14:53:00.000-07:00

Ian King wrote a piece in today’s 24 Hours, about turnstiles and fare evasion … not a bad piece, until you get to the last two sentences. I sent a response to his email address, and that follows the column. (NB The "Backgrounder" mentioned in the response is the substance of a previous posting here.)

Turnstiles won’t fix transit woes
Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon does love to give out white elephants to the people of British Columbia.

Take his demand to put turnstiles on SkyTrain: pretty, expensive to keep, and not much use.

Just as with the Highway 1 twinning and the South Fraser Perimeter Road, turnstiles are a problem in search of a solution.

There is no economic case for installing turnstiles. They’ll cost tens of millions of dollars to install, require expensive retrofits to the Expo Line stations, and cost money to run.

Compared to the $6 million lost annually to fare evasion, it’s clear that turnstiles won’t, and can’t, pay for themselves.

Falcon, as usual, is sticking to his guns, even if it means ignoring the facts.

Here’s what he told The Province, in refuting an audit by PriceWaterhouseCoopers that fare evasion across the entire system was around 2.5 per cent.

“Even in a gated system like in London [England] they still have a four per cent evasion rate. So for us to have a 2.5 per cent evasion rate on an open system just defies credibility.”

But that’s not what the audit found. Fare evasion was 5.4 per cent on the one “open system,” SkyTrain. The entire system had the 2.5 per cent rate Falcon was trying to rubbish. Not that reality, facts, audits or rational research has ever mattered to a politician on a mission. One of the great ironies of all this is that SeaBus’ estimated fare evasion was 4.2 per cent, barely less than SkyTrain’s. SeaBus has had turnstiles at its stations since the system opened over 30 years ago. So much for turnstiles cutting down fare evasion. The case for turnstiles ends up resting on more dubious grounds.

One of them is that they’d enable a long-mulled smart card fare-payment system that would be linked to the turnstiles, something that is now touted as being ready as soon as 2010.

But even if TransLink could design a new fare schedule, award a contract for the smart card system and implement it within two years‚ and it took far longer than that just to roll out the current fareboxes‚
there’s still no case for turnstiles.

Smart cards need sensors. They don’t need gates. So it comes down to the perception of safety: That turnstiles will keep the thieves, thugs, and the dishevelled off the trains.

While it may keep the odd homeless person off the train, a pickpocket will see the $2.50 fare as the cost of doing business.

Unfortunately SkyTrain is working against decades of press coverage that paints the system as a criminal expressway.

New Democrat MLA Adrian Dix is on the right track when he calls for more SkyTrain attendants on the system, ready to respond to situations and make people think twice before causing chaos.

Staff can break up a potentially hazardous situation or halt an assault. Turnstiles? They just stand there.

========================

Ian,
That was a very thoughtful piece on turnstiles and the fare evasion report, but there are two points we should raise here.

First, nothing TransLink has stated suggests that any kind of access control system would be ready in time for 2010. In fact, we have stated categorically that it would not be ready that soon.

We also challenge your support of Adrian Dix’s call for more SkyTrain Attendants on the system. The point that people seem to miss – willfully or not – is that the majority of crimes that have been associated to SkyTrain or its stations actually did not occur on the trains or in the stations. They happened well away from the stations, and we have to ask ourselves, what could an STA have done? Their job, first and foremost, is to be at the stations, and in most cases they would not have seen any incidents happening even as close as a block away.

I’m attaching a backgrounder, analyzing locations crimes that the media have associated with SkyTrain, and showing how the vast majority occurred nowhere near a station. The painting, as you put it, of the system as a “criminal expressway” is due to lazy reporting that ignores reality. Interestingly, the PricewaterhouseCoopers report noted that commentators have stated that fare evasion is ‘rampant’, without supporting those statements with facts. The same can be said about statements regarding crime and SkyTrain.

Drew Snider
Public Information Officer
TransLink

TransLink's perspective on The Province Editorial

2008-07-30T09:45:00.000-07:00

Last Friday (July 25th), the Province newspaper ran an editorial criticising TransLink for not addressing the 'real issues' concerning fare evasion and security. The editorial followed the release of the PricewaterhouseCoopers audit of fare evasion on transit, which, like past audits, concluded that the rate of evasion loss was much lower than most people perceive. The audit also commented that the media contributed to the problem by inferring that fare evasion was high without providing evidence to support the contention. This critique, along with TransLink's recent comments on campaigns to improve 'SkyTrain security' appear to have motivated the editorial. While Ken Hardie, TransLink's Director of Communications, responded to the paper, space limitations resulted in the publishing of a much-edited version of the item we submitted. The full text provided to the newspaper follows.

The headline in the Province editorial on July 25th says it all, “TransLink must tackle real issue.”

But what is ‘the real issue’ when it comes to transit security and fare evasion? Before we shift resources from service expansion to solve problems, it only makes sense to find out what they are. That’s the purpose of the Pricewaterhouse Coopers’ 2007 audit of fare evasion on transit and the KPMG audit in 2002.

The audits looked at how TransLink measured fare evasion and the validity of the results. As an aside, we are one of the few transit agencies anywhere that actually measure and report on fare evasion. The KPMG report recommended better fare checking procedures that were in place for the PwC audit last fall.

Both audits produced much the same results as TransLink’s process. Even if they were only half correct (although nobody has produced data to show this) the actual rate of fare evasion is still far lower than some perceive.
Similarly, in making decisions on security staffing, TransLink’s point is that it makes sense to differentiate between the nature and rate of crime and disorder happening at SkyTrain stations versus the incidents that happen in neighbouring streets and, for various reasons, attributed to SkyTrain.

So, what are the ‘real issues?’ Here’s what the public has told us: There are times of day when people feel unsafe or uncomfortable nearby or inside transit stations and vehicles. In the absence of evidence that passengers have tickets or passes, many people believe the system is losing money to fare evasion. Through its research, including the fare audits, TransLink is developing a clearer picture of solutions that can respond to perceptions and produce other necessary results.

Turnstiles will prove to any observer that someone has paid for their trip and they will keep some undesirable activities off the system. They won’t pay for themselves through reduced fare evasion, but TransLink and provincial staff are looking at combinations of turnstiles and Smart Cards that could improve the fare system and directly address the public’s concerns.

On the security front, people tell us that more transit staff rather than Transit Police will make them feel secure on SkyTrain. That’s the direction we’re heading. This clears the way for the Transit Police to purge ne’er-do-wells from the system (a by-product of their fare enforcement activities) and in partnership with local police and citizens, achieve more successes like the pink whistle campaign they co-sponsored in the 29th Avenue area and recent sweeps with local police to roust drug dealers from streets near Expo Line stations.

Ken Hardie
TransLink

When you dash, grab your trash!

2008-07-28T15:01:00.000-07:00

Not wishing to belabor the point, but here's another piece of information that didn't get picked up ... and it's fairly important, when you figure how many people were inconvenienced on Friday afternoon (July 25) because of a fire that could have easily been prevented.

Fire, system hold, show why we “Target Trash”

A fire, which led to a half-hour system service hold on Friday, is another reason why SkyTrain and TransLink “Target Trash”.

The fire started in garbage that had piled up in the guideway near Edmonds Station and may have been ignited accidentally. Still, after a quick-acting SkyTrain Attendant was unable to control the fire with a fire extinguisher, Burnaby Fire Department had to take over, and the system had to be powered-down.

SkyTrain returned to normal service well in time for the afternoon rush hour, but downtown platforms still experienced heavy crowding until the backlog of customers was cleared.

“SkyTrain is a system that belongs to the people who use it so we all have a role to play in keeping it clean,” says SkyTrain CEO Doug Kelsey. “Our cleaners work all through the service day, but they can only be in so many places at once. It doesn’t take that much effort to carry your newspapers, candy wrappers or munchies bags with you and throw them away. When we don’t, this sort of thing happens, and hundreds if not thousands of people are inconvenienced.”

SkyTrain provides garbage cans and newspaper recycling bins throughout its stations. The “Target Trash” campaign was launched late last year, reminding people that the system is theirs to use, and to keep clean.

SkyTrain Safety: perception vs reality

2008-07-25T07:03:00.000-07:00

Burnaby NOW has a couple of interesting items from city council this week, both about safety and SkyTrain. On the one hand, TransLink is being taken to task because of crimes off TransLink property, but because the victim was going to or coming from SkyTrain it was obviously a TransLink responsibility.

On the other, Transit Police are being taken to task for spending too much time in their cars, away from TransLink property, and not enough time on SkyTrain. Things that make you go "hmmm" ...

In his comment on "... and the F-word", "Toomanyquestions" says, "blaming the media for crimes in stations doesn't seem to be very productive."

Thank you, "toomanyquestions", for handing me this one on a silver platter.

See, the very point is that the serious crimes aren't happening in and around SkyTrain stations.

Aside from some political opportunists out there, there's not much debate that the most recent incident to crop up -- the assault on a woman in the 2200 block Vanness -- had absolutely nothing to do with SkyTrain.

The woman was walking along a path surrounded by bushes: beautiful landscaping, but also perfect cover for a creep to lurk and watch for a victim. She was also wearing a personal audio device -- something reported by Vancouver Police, and identified as a key factor in making someone vulnerable, because it reduces awareness of one's surroundings. Instead of blaming either victim or SkyTrain, one would do better to point that out and encourage people not to leave themselves open to attack; but in the rush to score points, certain commentators once again took the easy way and blamed The Man.

But I digress ...

Around the time of the swarming of Sheshleen Datt at Nanaimo station -- which indisputably happened at a station -- your agent put together a list of serious crimes that the media had reported as being associated with SkyTrain. There were, of course, the four assaults around New Year’s 2007, for which Frank Siniscalchi has since been convicted and sentenced, and the violent robbery of a 56-year-old woman on the morning of April 17, 2007 as she approached 29th Ave. Station.

This was dubbed the “SkyTrain Mugging”, even though it actually occurred off TransLink property and approximately 100’ away from the entrance to the station.

The media continued to turn it into a story about fear on SkyTrain, when it was clearly a matter of problems in the community: Siniscalchi's addiction to crack, for example, or the desire by those other thugs to hit a defenceless middle-aged woman over the head. They bring out the Matthew Martins murder, which also was not associated with SkyTrain, but was an incident that started several blocks away, after SkyTrain had closed for the night.

But how many actually were connected with SkyTrain?

The Siniscalchi case, for example, was associated with 29th Ave. Station, but only two of those four actually occurred anywhere near that location. The victims are described as having been en route to or from SkyTrain.

One happened near the intersection of Vanness Ave. and Todd St., which is just outside the station (near the eastern entrance to Slocan Park); another happened near 28th Ave. and Nootka, about a block away from the station; a third happened on east 29th Ave. at McHardy St., approximately six blocks away from 29th Ave. stn.; closer to Joyce Station, in fact, but still 1.1 km away from the nearest SkyTrain station; and the fourth was on Victoria Dr. at 23rd, .9 km by road from Nanaimo Station, the nearest SkyTrain station.

Then there was a story in The Province with the headline "Number of Assaults Follow SkyTrain Lines".

Glancing through it, you'd think there'd been a lot of assaults around SkyTrain stations. But that's not accurate.

So if you really want to know the facts -- and not just do the knee-jerk response of blaming TransLink and SkyTrain for everything -- check out the list below, log onto Google Maps and plot the location of SkyTrain stations versus the actual location of the crime.

Of 25 incidents included in that particular story the majority happened nowhere near a SkyTrain station, and some would be classed as “borderline”, in which the attacker may well have picked up his victim at a SkyTrain station, but also may have spotted her in some other spot where crowds might gather.

At or relatively near a station:
· 2700 block E. 29th Ave.; in the same block as 29th Ave. Stn
· 1000 block Alberni St.; .2 km from Burrard Stn
· outside 4061 Kingsway, Burnaby; .5 km from Patterson
· Marlborough and Imperial, Burnaby; .4 km from Royal Oak Stn
· Production Way & Eastlake Dr., Burnaby; .5 km (uphill) from Production Way Stn
· actually at Joyce Stn
· outside 540 Rochester, Coquitlam; a .5 km walk from Lougheed Town Centre Stn, and you have to cross North Road to get there.

Borderline
· Royal Oak & Clinton, Burnaby; .8 km from Royal Oak Stn. Route requires going downhill and crossing Rumble.
· Whiting Way and Perth Ave., Coquitlam; 1.2 km from Lougheed Stn. To get there, you have to follow Austin, crossing North Road on Cochrane Ave., then up Whiting.
· Foster Ave. and Whiting Way, Coquitlam; 1.5 km from Lougheed Stn. Getting to the location from Lougheed Station requires following Austin Road, then turning on North Road. The location is also within range of a number of shopping areas, including Lougheed Town Centre
· Manson Drive, Burnaby; .9 km from Production Way Stn. You have to cross Lougheed Highway and follow a number of turns on residential streets to get to the location.
· Whiting Way & Appian Way, Coquitlam; 1.1 km from Lougheed Stn.

Notice how three of these happened within a comparable distance of Lougheed Town Centre. Nowhere near a station (remember: these were actually listed in this "followed SkyTrain Lines" sidebar)

Nowhere near a station:

· Granville St @ W. 67th Ave.; nearest station is Granville – 9.1 km · Heather St @ W. 63rd Ave.; nearest station is Granville – 9.6 km
· 400 Prior St.; nearest station is Main St. -- .8 km (long blocks and busy roads)
· E. 41st Ave. @ Sophia; nearest station is Main St. – 4.6 km
· 1200 block Nicola St.; nearest station is Burrard – 1.8 km crossing several busy roads - 800 block W. 63rd Ave.; nearest station is Main St. – 8.1 km
· Kingsway @ Dumfries St.; nearest station is Nanaimo – 2.2 km
· Carleton Ave @ Albert St.; nearest station is Gilmore – 2.1 km
· Springer Ave @ Georgia St., Burnaby; nearest station is Holdom – 2 km (uphill from station to location)

· Drake St. @ Hamilton St.; nearest station is either Granville or Stadium – ~1.3km (crossing several busy streets)

· Noel Dr. @ Beaverbrook Dr., Burnaby; nearest station is Production Way – 1.5 km
· Hastings @ Sperling, Burnaby; nearest station is Sperling – 2.8 km

So if you're scoring at home, that's 12 that were nowhere near a SkyTrain station, 5 that were sort-of near a station (of which 3 were also within walking distance of a very busy shopping mall), 6 with a possible connection to SkyTrain and 1 that actually happened at the station. Add in the incident July 11 in the 2200 block Vanness, and you get one more that would be classified as "borderline". So ... is it "blaming the media" to call them out when they create an impression that flies in the face of reality?

And one more question for you, "toomanyquestions": where are the data to indicate that turnstiles would help? There are a couple-hundred families in London and Madrid, who would tell you that turnstiles made no difference at all.

Just the facts, please

2008-07-25T06:49:00.000-07:00

Much has been made in the past couple of days about the PricewaterhouseCoopers report, which essentially endorses TransLink's internal audit methodology and confirms the fare evasion figures that have been published in the past.

The response boils down to "I don't believe it". End of discussion, except for The Province's editorial this morning, accusing TransLink of ducking responsibility and blaming the media.

Interestingly, that's another point of the report, which didn't get a whole lot of coverage: the report -- done, you'll recall, by an outside firm, contracted to review the whole process to remove any semblance of self-interest -- calls out the media and others for repeating the claim that "fare evasion is rampant" without supporting the claims with any hard evidence.

So where are the numbers to counter the PwC data?

As for the media, The Province reacted like a stung bear to the thought that a journalist might possibly be giving unbalanced coverage to a story. But they, too, failed to present any hard data to support their position. (For a bit more perspective on that particular angle, check out the blog entry above -- SkyTrain Security: Perception vs Reality.)

Does TransLink have a vested interest in not installing a gating system? Can't see how. TransLink's interest is to provide an efficient transportation system in a region that is rapidly growing and -- because of people's desire to reduce their contribution to environmental trauma, beat high fuel prices and avoid hassles of heavy traffic and parking dowtown -- demanding more buses, more routes and less crowded SkyTrains. You can buy a lot of buses and hire a lot of drivers and mechanics to service them for the price of installing a gating system. That being said, the perception of safety goes a long way towards making a transportation system work (as SkyTrain CEO Doug Kelsey says, you could have the most efficient, comfortable system in the world and offer it for free, but if people don't think they'll be safe on it, then it'll run empty). So if a gating system makes people feel safer and less "cheated" by others they think are riding for free -- regardless of whether there's any truth to that at all -- then maybe it's an investment worth considering.

SkyTrain resilience

2008-07-24T07:57:00.000-07:00

The power failure in downtown Vancouver in the week of July 14 was notable for shutting down many businesses and services, but also notable for one service that didn't get shut down. "Resilience" and "business continuity" are a couple of buzz-phrases in the emergency-planning world, and they refer to the ability of any function to recover from a given emergency, be it flood, fire, power outage -- or worse.

After BC Hydro had restored the power, the boo-birds were flocking to the stories of people and businesses that were adversely affected by the outage, and finger-pointing was the order of the day. So we issued a news release -- a good news story about one organization's resilience and ability to continue.

Total "pickup" by the media: 0.

But it's important for people to know that the public transportation system is resilient, and was able to handle a crisis like this one. So here's the news release we sent out on July 18.

Power outage response demonstrates SkyTrain’s resilience

While many offices and businesses were forced to shut down this week due to the BC Hydro power failure, one key service, which relies heavily on Hydro, remained intact. SkyTrain continued operating throughout the situation, ensuring people in downtown Vancouver were still able to get home or to alternate work locations.

“Twenty-two years of experience has shown us how to plan for many unthinkable situations and respond as we did,” says Doug Kelsey, CEO of BC Rapid Transit Company. “To our customers, the challenge was transparent. The result is that the system kept running and customers had a way to get home. Our team worked through the night, so our customers could work through the day.”

When the outage occurred, SkyTrain’s backup system automatically went into operation. The Skytrain system has been designed so that a number of substations supply power to the propulsion system. If one substation fails, others will take over. As a result, the loss of power to Stadium substation had no effect on train movements.

At Stadium passenger station, two Uninterruptible Power Supply units kept lights on, as well as critical systems like video monitoring and guideway intrusion, security and alarm systems. Within an hour and a half, a diesel generator was hooked up to take over from the UPS and crews monitored it for the duration of the 81-hour outage, making sure it had enough fuel. A second generator was also on standby.

Thanks to good communication and cooperation with BC Hydro crews, public safety – always the #1 concern – was ensured. “We know Hydro had a tough job to do, to remedy this challenge, as we have been in somewhat similar situations ourselves,” Kelsey goes on. “These situations are complex, and sometimes that remedy is not easy.”

The SkyTrain Field Operations office, located at Stadium, had to relocate to temporary quarters; elevators and escalators were not working, and the Lost Property Office and Waves Coffee had to close. Three Ticket Vending Machines (TVMs) stayed in service, with four SkyTrain Attendants on-hand to assist customers and staff a portable farebox, as needed, to supplement the TVMs.

With SkyTrain’s grade-separated track, commuters were not held up in the general traffic.

West Coast Express also continued operating, even though its staff had to evacuate their offices because of the loss of electricity, internet and phone service. WCE set up temporary quarters on the trains during non-service times, using the trains’ generators to provide electricity. Cantrail, the contractor which provides WCE TrainBus, quickly made additional coaches available to transport office workers who had an unexpected day off. Due to the inconsistent nature of the power situation at Waterfront Station, WCE was not able to run its escalators or elevators.

Even though the response was successful, SkyTrain will review how the situation was handled. “It doesn’t end when you do it well,” Kelsey says. “We’ll be looking to see how much we can improve for next time.”

-30-

Stay-cations and the transit trip

2008-07-21T07:46:00.001-07:00

Ho-hum. Another gorgeous day in Vancouver.

Recently, we at the BC Electric Railway Company have hired a new person, who moved here from Ontario. Every so often, she can be heard to sigh, "I can't believe I live here!"

It's little things like that, that can make a lifelong Vancouverite lift his eyes from the task in front of him and see things differently. Apparently, I'm not the only one.

Last week, Global TV did a piece on people spending summer holidays relatively close to home, and getting around on public transit -- all because of the high price of gasoline. We -- reporter Ted Field, cameraman Mike Louie and I -- did a round-trip on SeaBus. They interviewed some "local tourists" and got some great sound bites. Then we took full advantage of media (and media relations) privileges and went up to the wheelhouse and the little deck just outside to get some "cover" shots.

The fact is, our transit system enhances the trip. SeaBus, for example, gives you a total of half an hour (round trip) of a harbour tour like no other. Often, a seal will pop up near the boat -- always a thrill to see wildlife so close to urban areas (unless it's a black bear, savaging a trash can or a skunk winning an argument with your cat, hands-down (or should I say "tail up"?), but we'll leave that alone for now); or you can enjoy the simple pleasure of gazing at the North Shore mountains on one trip and the city skyline on the return, with Stanley Park on one side and the working harbour on the other.

SeaBus, which turned 31 this year and is about at the middle of its expected service life, is not only a commuter necessity, it's a popular tourist attraction. Generally, it's the only mode in the TransLink family that actually increases ridership in July and August. All the others -- SkyTrain, bus, West Coast Express -- show a drop-off, with students out of class and many downtown workers on summer holidays. That's because tourists (and many locals) know it's a convenient, relaxing trip across the harbour, with a spectacular view each way and then easy bus connections to Grouse Mountain, Capilano Canyon and West Vancouver en route to Horseshoe Bay; and Lonsdale Quay is right there when you get off on the North Van side.

Then there's SkyTrain, and the view you get from 30' above ground. I'm a little ashamed to admit that, until my new co-worker arrived, I barely took my eyes off my book or (worse!) my BlackBerry. Now I take whatever opportunity I can to gaze at the Lions, Grouse, Mount Seymour; with the right sun and shadows, one can see more of the topography of those mountains and the valleys ... then that view of the Vancouver skyline (including, one might say, the BC's new official bird: the crane) as you swing around the corner heading into downtown from Broadway station. (Actually, the stretch from Nanaimo Station inbound to Stadium/Chinatown is probably the most amazing view you'll find, with the trip over SkyBridge a close second.)

It's something eminently worth considering when you're trying to figure out how to spend at least part of the summer holidays without spending a whole lot of money. A $9 DayPass is a good investment; and if you have a monthly FareCard, two adults and up to four kids (under 15) can travel all day on Sunday on that single FareCard.

Whether you're a tourist, newly relocated, or are part of that minority, a native Vancouverite (especially a native Vancouverite over 30), I can pretty much guarantee you, like my new co-worker, will spend a lot of time saying, "I can't believe I live here!"

Somebody's getting the message ...

2008-07-21T07:31:00.000-07:00

We have complained -- often and loudly -- in this space and through other means about the tendency some reporters have to go into "default" mode about crime in the vicinity of a SkyTrain station. Over the weekend, an editorial in the Burnaby NOW broke that mold. Not only does it put the "fear campaign" into perspective, but it even concedes that the media have had a lot to do with perpetuating the "crime train" myth.

And no, wise guy, we didn't pay them to write that. The only input from our end has been the statements we've been making for years. At last, someone in the media is saying "stop the madness!"

Setting the record straight (we hope) ...

2008-07-17T06:29:00.000-07:00

During this past weekend's media debacle, when some reporters wrongly identified an assault in the 2200 block Vanness as having something to do with SkyTrain and that was followed by the predictable political default statements, TransLink Director of Communications Ken Hardie launched an email to the media. Here it is, in its entirety.

Hi all,

We see today that Adrian Dix has held yet another news conference to call for more security measures on SkyTrain.

As 'staff' people, it is difficult for us at TransLink to address comments made by an elected representative, but there are some very crucial aspects at play here that require us to do so. Simply put, the message Mr. Dix is sending gives the public the wrong message about the risks they face and they may be at greater risks because of this. That's because his call for improved security at SkyTrain stations will not address the majority of the assaults, robberies and other incidents -- because the majority of them happen away from the stations.

First, Mr. Dix and others are entirely correct that better lighting, more staffing and an improved video system will improve the sense of security at SkyTrain. The conversion to a digital system will be completed within two weeks, TransLink has improved lighting at stations and funded more police and transit staff to patrol the system. Is it enough? Likely not given the number of people who still perceive themselves to be at risk. However, and I must repeat, very few incidents -- perhaps 400 a year out of 70 million passengers carried -- happen on SkyTrain. As such, the majority of Mr. Dix' 'ten point plan' will not be effective in addressing most of the incidents, because they do not happen at the stations.

When so many people are asking for more transit service, how much of our finite resources should be allocated to address crime and disorder that, for the most part, happens blocks away) from our stations? With very few incidents actually taking place at our stations, we wonder how much we need to invest to address perception, often created by media that use SkyTrain stations as convenient ways to 'locate' incidents that happen some distance away? There have been assaults in the Edmonds and Royal Oak areas and around Nanaimo and 24th, not at the SkyTrain stations that happen to be there.

It is immaterial whether the victims or the perpetrators were on their way to or from the station or to or from a convenience store or a bank machine, the incidents are happening and we need clear communication about the nature of the problem and the most effective measures to deal with them. Mr. Dix' comments fail to do this.

How well the public is being served when commentators who should know better call for measures at stations that will do nothing improve security for the public in the vast majority of the incidents that are inaccurately attributed to transit? I guess we also have to wonder how it is that transit staff are the ones in the line of fire because of the poor parenting skills of some people who don't teach their kids respect for others, or for the lack of real consequences (at home or in the courts) for those responsible for anti-social behaviour in our community.

Let's be clear folks, we all have a piece of these problems, and the call by the police and TransLink for all of us to accept our share is a pragmatic step away from the blame game and toward solutions.

Ken Hardie
TransLink

Security and the F-word

2008-07-14T07:46:00.000-07:00

No ... not that F-word.

You'll see.

Disclaimer: the opinions expressed herein are mine, and not necessarily those of the South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority.

I don't normally mix my "parallel life" with my work at TransLink in this space, but my boss said, "it's your blog: go for it", so here goes.

We're dealing, once again, with reports of an "Attack At (A) SkyTrain Station", to use the shrill banner headline at CBC.CA (since changed, after your agent fired a nerf ball across the bow of the MotherCorp). I refer to the story of the young woman who was grabbed and groped in the 2200 block Vanness on Friday evening. The 2200 block Vanness, if you're scoring at home, is 2-1/2 blocks away from Nanaimo Station. Even though the only connection with SkyTrain was that the victim had just gotten off SkyTrain, at least one news outlet (see above) morphed the story into a "SkyTrain attack" and at least two politicians took the opportunity to make pronouncements regarding safety and security at SkyTrain stations.

Enough, already! The whole thing has become a broken record, to wit:

person gets attacked
tenuous connection to SkyTrain
opposition politician demands "human presence" at SkyTrain stations without proving that such presence would have made one iota of difference
media jump on the story
media resurrect the Matthew Martins murder and portray it as a "SkyTrain murder", even though the incident began several blocks away, after SkyTrain had shut down and the station closed for the night
TransLink then explains that turnstiles and/or human presence would have had little effect on the event in question, pointing out that the terrorists who bombed the London Underground three years ago this month got past the turnstiles and ticket checkers
TransLink then explains that the vast majority of crimes linked by the media and/or politicians to SkyTrain stations actually happened well away from the stations (a 2006 article in The Province listed 26 "attacks (that) followed SkyTrain line", but on looking at the actual locations of the attacks, half of them were more than a mile from the nearest SkyTrain station -- one of them happened at 63rd and Granville, at least two others happened on East Hastings ... you do the math)
TransLink then explains the various features on SkyTrains and at stations that people can use if they feel the slightest threat and points out the website video, which walks people through those features

Repeat as needed to create an easy, ready-to-eat fear-based media story and political point-getter.

Something worth noting here is that the incident in the 2200-block Vanness on Friday night happened the day after I'd had a rather frustrating conversation with an RCMP media type in Burnaby, trying to get them to cool it on using SkyTrain stations as "locators". The Mounties were warning people to beware of some creep who was sexually attacking women in an area ranging from Kingsway on the north side to the area of Royal Oak and Edmonds Stations on the south.

I'll do the math for you: that's an enormous chunk of real estate, and that should tell us that the stations themselves had little if anything to do with the incidents.

However, when I tried to explain the implications of saying they happened in the area of the station, the Mountie said, "we used that so people can understand the area".

On the surface, fair enough. As a reporter, I'd often use a well-known landmark as a locator -- "near GM Place", "across from Foonman's Bar and Grill", "near Hamstermascher High School" -- rather than block numbers and streets. But given the sensitivities of the time, if someone hears "in the area of ----- SkyTrain station" these days, they leap to the conclusion that it's a problem with SkyTrain security, and the media reporting invariably "defaults" to that issue, and gets away from the fact that some low-life is lurking in the weeds, waiting to attack women, and here's what women can do to be better protected. Unless there's a direct connection with SkyTrain, I suggested, the RCMP (or Vancouver Police) should either resort to giving the cross-streets or block number, or state categorically that this was not a SkyTrain crime. After all, police news releases often do that (you'll hear a reference to a road accident in the 16800 block of 104th Avenue, for example, or a meth lab discovered at xxxxx Y Street) in other cases, so why not in this one?

"I'll talk to my 'superior being'," she said. I got a voice mail later, but haven't returned that call yet.

(In fact, I'd question whether "Near Royal Oak Station" is a good locator, anyway. Who in downtown Vancouver or Surrey really knows where Royal Oak Station is? All they'll hear is the "station" part of the locator, and that's all they'll need to get them thinking that any SkyTrain station is going to be suspect.)

Anyway, then this happened.

I should point out that Global TV, which I slagged previously in this space, got it right. They focused on the fact that the victim was wearing an iPod and hence had one of her five senses out of commission. We have signs at SkyTrain stations -- including Nanaimo -- advising people not to wear iPods when going to and from the station, and Michelle Miller and her cameraman wound up taking shots of people strolling to and from the station, blissfully awash in the sub-universe created by whatever they happened to be listening to. As if to prove the point, one person stood at the crosswalk, less than a metre away from the camera lens, apparently unaware that he was being photographed.

That story will actually do a public service.

All of this, of course, sets up TransLink as the straw man for whatever ails the world. People in Richmond are already scared spitless about Canada Line and the crime they figure it will bring to their neighbourhoods, based on these reports. (Interesting note: I've just seen some data, which indicate that the rate of crimes against person around the locations of the future C-Line stations in Richmond is already higher than in comparable areas around most existing SkyTrain stations -- and those rates are in single digits. Things That Make You Go Hmmmm.) And with the convenient straw man available, other factors can be easily overlooked, such as:

safety in the community in general: who's responsibility is that, really?
personal responsibility for one's own security
the general question, "where did these creeps come from?"
a laissez-faire attitude towards drugs (a key factor behind much street crime), fostered in large part by the out-moded 1960s thinking of one political party I can think of -- the one that keeps demanding more security at stations
the discouragement of effective discipline of children and the fundamental concept of "what's right" -- also part of that out-moded thinking

Take a look at that list: do we not all, as a society and in many cases individually, bear responsibility for at least one of those factors? Sooner or later, we have to break out of the mentality that demands the "nanny state" (to borrow a term used by Joe Jackson, the musician ("Steppin' Out", "Breaking Us In Two", "I'm The Man") and sometime New York columnist) hold our hand and wipe our noses.

To use the overworked (but highly appropriate) quote from Walt Kelly in the old "Pogo" comic strip, "we have met the enemy and he is us."

Right, then: on to my "parallel life" and the F-word.

My parallel life is as a pastor. I minister at Carrall Street Church -- a/k/a Gospel Mission -- on the Downtown East Side, and a lot of what I preach there is based not in "What would Jesus do?" but "What did Jesus tell us to do?". The most appropriate instruction in this case comes from the Book of Matthew.

Then Peter came to Him and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times?

Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but until seventy times seven.

-- Matt. 18:21-22

That's the F-word: FORGIVE.

I was reminded of this yesterday at the church where I worship -- Westpointe Christian Centre -- as we prayed for the elderly missionaries in Kenya who were brutally beaten, raped and left for dead. From their hospital room, they said they forgave their attackers and wanted to visit them in prison at the earliest opportunity.

Wow.

I look at the broken record scenario above, and wonder how we're ever going to break free from that cycle. The only way is to do something totally against the grain, against our flesh. Forgiving one another sets that process in motion. And I mean, everybody forgives everyone for everything. That includes police, TransLink, commentators, reporters, politicians ... even the attackers and -- in at least one case -- the murderers. It's hard. It runs counter to everything our flesh might desire -- vengeance, being seen to be right, being shown to be the great public representative -- but it releases one another from the burdens both of carrying the blame and of carrying the grudge; and more importantly, it releases God to have His way in the situation.

Forgiveness starts with oneself: one doesn't wait for someone else to ask to be forgiven, or for someone else to admit wrongdoing and apologize. It's a choice, to let it go. Even if you only think the other person has wronged you, forgive them for it and let it go.

Of course, it's not easy to resolve to make that choice -- especially when the death of one's child is involved. But once one does, the sense that a weight has been lifted off one's shoulders is palpable; and really, it's the only way for anything productive to happen.

After all, if Jesus can suffer the beating and the whipping and have a crown of thorns jammed on His head and take a spear in the side and nails through His hands and feet (all without any cause whatsoever) and still say "Forgive them Father, they know not what they do", then we can follow that example.

The system works!

2008-06-17T12:36:00.000-07:00

So much media coverage is given to SkyTrain "security issues", but it's not all accurate, as one can note from the blog entry "Accuracy in Media 1". An incident Monday night on SkyTrain shows how the system works when people are pro-active about their own safety and security.

Quick action by SkyTrain passengers, staff, Transit Police and Vancouver Police led to arrests following an altercation on SkyTrain this evening.

At 6:30 pm, a man was stabbed on a train travelling between Broadway and Nanaimo Stations.

At least one passenger activated the silent alarm -- the yellow strip underneath the upper windows -- and another contacted the SkyTrain Control Centre on the voice intercom.
SkyTrain attendants met the train at Nanaimo Station and took the situation in hand.

Transit police arrived shortly after from Broadway.

The suspect -- a woman -- fled the scene, but was arrested shortly afterwards by Vancouver Police.
Witnesses and the victim, who suffered superficial wounds, are being questioned by Transit Police.

Another man has been arrested by Transit Police on suspicion of assault in connection with the incidents leading up to the stabbing. There are indications the stabbing may have been in self-defence.

Video surveillance tapes have been obtained for use in the investigation.

After a brief system service hold, SkyTrain resumed normal operations.

We're still waiting for more details from police about what exactly happened, but we congratulate the members of the public for being aware of the security features and using them.

We've produced a video, in which SkyTrain CEO Doug Kelsey walks viewers through the safety and security features on the trains and the platforms. It's well worth a watch.

How TransLink can handle higher gas prices

2008-06-10T14:13:00.000-07:00

The utter craziness of gasoline prices may well translate into more riders on public transit. We won't know until mid-July if it has (because we're still in the second quarter of 2008 and it's been in Q2 that the prices have shot into the ionosphere). We know that sales of monthly FareCards have gone up almost 10% in the first five months of 2008 over the same period in 2007, but that only tells us that more people are choosing pre-paid fares. They may be realizing the economic value of using FareCards -- especially since they're tax deductible now -- as opposed to paying cash or using FareSaver tickets. So we don't know yet if there's been an influx of passengers.

But it does raise the question: can TransLink handle the anticipated additional ridership?

Good question: and there's no easy answer. Even with the new bus purchases we've been making over the past couple of years and the 48 new SkyTrain cars currently on order and in production, we're playing catch-up to a situation no one could have anticipated. Many of our routes are currently at or near capacity, and as we add more service, it fills up rapidly.

A good example of this is the West Coast Express. 43,000 more riders rode that train in April than in April 2007. Not having Easter in April this year contributed a lot to that, but then so would high gas prices and the expanded TrainBus service. More TrainBuses (highway coaches that call in at WCE stations) now run outside of the train's regular operating hours and we've added TrainBus runs on the weekends, too. The success there tells us that people are taking public transportation more, and that as we add capacity, it fills right up.

Even with more buses arriving -- which they will through 2010 -- we still need people to drive and maintain them, so campaigns to recruit operators and mechanics are underway; so throwing more buses into the system isn't necessarily the best answer.

One good way to free-up a lot of capacity is by making sure the routes run as efficiently as possible. We work with the various municipalities to set up "bus only" lanes on major thoroughfares -- such as on Broadway in Vancouver -- to allow the buses to move unhindered. We also work on synchronzing traffic signals and "traffic signal priority", in which a green light is held to allow a bus to get through the intersection and maintain schedule reliability without speeding. In some cases, we're asking municipalities to adjust the timing of pedestrian "walk" signals to allow cars turning right to make that turn and keep the lane clear for bus traffic.

One of the best pieces of news for commuters lately was the provincial government's announcement that it's going ahead with a "busway" along Highway 99 through the Massey Tunnel. That will make buses even more reliable along that stretch.

TransLink is not just about buses and trains, though, but moving people in the best possible way. We help promote ridesharing through the Jack Bell Foundation. There are things ridesharing can do that public transit can't, and when you have a number of people in a car, sharing the cost of the gas, there follows an economic incentive, too. Through our Transportation Demand Management division, we also promote "teleworking" -- in which people use their home offices rather than commute. TransLink also makes major investments in cycling infrastructure, from arranging for bike lockers at selected SkyTrain stations to developing a cycling network and routes like the BC Parkway and the Central Valley Greenway.

These aren't alternatives TransLink has "just discovered", but things we've been involved with for years. Now, with additional pressure being put on our "regular" public transportation system, TransLink is positioned to help people find alternatives that work for them.

Accuracy in Media-1

2008-06-09T14:37:00.000-07:00

The following is an email that was circulated to all staff at TransLink and its operating companies, following some reporting by local media.

PLEASE CIRCULATE THIS TO ALL STAFF AND TO BE POSTED IN ALL CREW ROOMS AT SKYTRAIN, GVTAPS and CMBC

To our colleagues at TransLink and operating companies,
We might want to begin this by saying, “More questions are being raised tonight about Global TV reporting” since this is the angle the TV station has taken on recent stories related to SkyTrain safety and security.

We wanted to share the questions we're posing about the station's coverage because their recent reports have turned items with inaccurate facts and questionable credibility into news stories, with the result that viewers of Global TV, which has the highest viewership in the province, are getting an untrue picture of the subject.

Since these stories affect all of us – particularly our front-line personnel such as STAs, Transit Police and Security officers and CMBC operators, we’d like to address these stories and provide you with the facts.

The most recent – and egregious – of these examples was a story aired on Friday noon and evening, involving a man called “Dean”, who intervened to help a woman who was being harassed at Surrey Central station. They got on SkyTrain (inbound) and Dean was assaulted by the man who was harassing the woman. He told the Global reporter, who in turn broadcast the comments, that he pressed the “yellow strip” “15 times” without response, that he called 911, and that, when the train arrived at Scott Road “security” took the assailant into custody; he then claims he waited 40 minutes for police to arrive.

The headline of the story: it took transit police 40 minutes to respond.

Here are the facts:
According to records from both SkyTrain OMC and GVTAPS, the initial emergency call came at 10:18 pm, someone was dispatched at 10:21, the assailant was detained at Scott Road (not clear if it was Transit Security or an STA) at 10:24 and police took the man into custody at 10:34.

Elapsed time from first alarm to the end of the incident itself: about 6 minutes
Elapsed time from the first alarm to the police arrest: 16 minutes – not 40.

SkyTrain records indicate that the yellow strip – the silent alarm – was pressed three times, not 15, and that the intercom was activated twice.

GVTAPS also obtained information from E-Comm that there was no 911 call relating to the incident.

In spite of the fact that we had provided the reporter with the data from GVTAPS showing that Dean’s version of events was wildly different from the version our records show, Global didn’t challenge Dean's allegations and, in fact, continued to headline the story with Dean's claim.

==========

Earlier in the week, Global ran a story about a woman who claimed she’d fought off a mugger at Main St Station “9 to 9-1/2 months ago”, that she’d picked up an “emergency phone " to report the incident , but received a recorded message telling her to call back during office hours .

The story also claimed that she’d written to TransLink to complain and heard nothing back. The reporter on this story provided us with the person's name. Customer Relations checked the files going back several years, and failed to find any record of the complaint – conducting searches for variations on the name, including the surname alone. When informed of this, the reporter provided a different first name for the complainant and said that he would provide a copy of her correspondence to TransLink. No such correspondence has been provided.

It turned out that the woman had picked up the Customer Information phone. In the interview, the reporter offered an opinion that it might be hard to spot the emergency phone (10 feet away), and the woman followed that lead. However, the reporter also did “streeters” – interviews with passers-by – and at least one pointed out that there was also a bank of three pay phones, where one could dial 911 at no charge.

That interview did not make it into the story.

Both the reporter and the cameraman on this story expressed reservations about the credibility of the complainant, but the station ran the story anyway.

In both stories, I informed the reporters of the video, “Safety and Security on SkyTrain”, in which Doug Kelsey describes and demonstrates the safety features in SkyTrain cars and on platforms. Neither reporter mentioned it in his story.

These incidents have led to demands for SkyTrain stations to be staffed with a “human presence” at all times. A news conference that drew attention to the case of Sheshleen Datt, the teenage girl who was accosted by a group of teenage girls a month ago at the entrance to Nanaimo Station also brought out the parents of Matthew Martins, who was murdered three years ago at Surrey Central. In a highly emotional moment, Matthew’s mother was shown on the Global news story (and quoted in the Province newspaper story) stating that her “little boy was beaten to death on the platform”.

There is no doubt whatsoever that this was a tragic incident, but we have maintained all along that it was not an issue of "SkyTrain safety and security." The facts of the case, as most of us know by now, are that Matthew was not beaten to death on the platform, but at the entrance as a result of an incident that began some distance away in the early morning hours after SkyTrain had shut down for the night and the station was closed. The TV station would have known this as well, but opted to run the comments.

As with similar stories in the past year and a half, they are presented by the media as "another in a series" of criminal incidents on SkyTrain, and in such a way as to indicate a crisis or create a climate of fear in the public. (As in, “more questions are being raised tonight about safety on SkyTrain …”, as we began this message.) This theme does not stand up to the facts, and many times the facts we have provided the reporters -- such as documentation of police response times and the actual circumstances of the incidents, including the murder of young Matthew three years ago -- seem not to change their handling of these stories. In addition, we have regularly challenged some print and broadcast outlets on the practice of using SkyTrain stations to 'locate' incidents that have actually happened some distance away. For example, a serious assault occurred a few months ago at a McDonald's restaurant at the north end of Scott Road, but incident was reported to have taken place "near the Scott Road SkyTrain Station." Some media outlets, notably CKNW, have responded positively to our concerns. Others have not.

(One point we need to mention is that Global did give Doug Kelsey the opportunity to present the facts regarding the timing of the “Dean” incident. However, due to a technical problem with Doug’s cell phone provider on Saturday, phone calls that morning from myself, the Global assignment desk and the Global reporter went to voice mail and the messages were not delivered until mid-afternoon, when it was too late to do the interview.)

These are matters that impact public confidence in TransLink, they unduly raise fear and apprehension in the community and they serve to obscure the reality of safety and security issues. As a result, calls are made for remedies that could well mis-use resources while the real problems go unresolved. As importantly, it potentially leaves transit staff subject to negative public reaction. Ken Hardie, Peter Louwe and I will be arranging a meeting with the Global TV news director, Ian Haysom, to discuss our concerns. We find it troubling that the most-watched newscast in the province would run stories in which the sources had obvious gaps in their credibility.

As well, SkyTrain, GVTAPS (Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority Police Service) and TransLink communications are working on short- and long-term strategies to get our messages of safety and security, as well as improvements to the system and things members of the public can do to heighten their own security, out to the public without having to rely on the news media.

Should members of the public ask you about these specific stories, simply tell them that some of the facts have been proven wrong, and if you have the time, please take the opportunity to point out to them the safety and security features at SkyTrain stations. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Drew Snider
Public Information Officer
TransLink (South Coast British Columbia Transportation Authority)

A Killer Bridge?

2008-06-09T14:28:00.000-07:00

A commentary by Ethan Baron in The Province complains about a lack of public access to documents from government agencies inadvertently raises another point: the ability of the media to report accurately. Mr Baron refers to the Pattullo Bridge as the “notorious killer of motorists”, thereby becoming part of the herd that blames the bridge for the deaths. However, police and the coroner’s office have consistently stated in the media that speed and alcohol – not the design of the bridge – were the factor in these tragedies.

(Mr Baron is outraged about "secrecy" among government agencies, but wouldn't you think the real concern would be over speed and drunk driving? After all, media images still portray liquor as part of a "fun lifestyle" and fast driving as daring and heroic: where's the perspective here?)

The media consistently plant seeds of fear in the minds of the public. The Province has been a leader in promoting the “SkyTrain crime” myth. One 2006 “in-depth” feature on a series of crimes was headlined “Assaults followed SkyTrain line”, even though half of the 26 crimes mentioned were nowhere near any SkyTrain station.

Lately, the media have fallen into the malaise of repeating inaccuracies and publishing uncorroborated allegations as fact. Twice in a single week last month, a prominent TV station broadcast such stories relating to TransLink: in one case, the reporter expressed doubts privately about the person’s credibility but the story still aired; in the other, the allegations were readily refuted by hard data from two sources, but they still formed the crux of the story and the hard data were mentioned as a “tag”.

So the question is not simply whether Canadians are willing to accept a “Big Brother” mentality towards public interest information, but whether they can rely on the media to get it right.