VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) - TransLink's new CEO Tom Prendergast has lofty plans for the transportation system in Metro Vancouver, especially when it comes to making it easier for people to choose public transit over cars.
Prendergast spoke at a luncheon hosted by the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association, and actually took transit to the meeting.
He has big plans for our transportation system, but warns they will cost big dollars. "You're going to add a million people...we think we're probably going to need somewhere between $200 and $300 million of additional revenue to achieve those goals. "
Prendergast's focus is on getting people out of their cars. He adds that the days commuting by car from the suburbs to the downtown core will soon be over, and transit needs to be ready when that happens. He says he's also focusing on the movement of people between regions of the Lower Mainland, instead of simply for the people heading into Vancouver.
Prendergast calls SkyTrain 'phenomenal', and he predicts big changes over the next years.
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Come on fellow - there is going to be lots of buses, lots of transit, lots of bikes and lots of scooters - but cars and streets are not going away.
What we need is a transit idea on the books as one is being built. We seem to plan in BC by waiting for a bridge to reach full capacity and then someone says - hey its busy lets expand the bridge. We must spend billions if we keep allowing more people into the province, into the city, the valley and beyond hope.
You cannot have one without the other and back to the lead item....not in my lifetime you won't.