Quote:
Originally Posted by allan_kuan
Having seen many recent plans... there's one thing that's distracting me a little... the spacing of SkyTrain stops.
Now, I do realize, there are several cases in Vancouver where stops are placed roughly a kilometre or less apart based on track length. The ALRT technology is also generally quite adaptable to these scenarios.
Having said that, I feel that stations in Surrey should be spaced out more to improve the speed of the service... stations should only be built if there's a minimum of a kilometre separating each one from the next. In Surrey's case, another good recommendation would be to have a station per every two laarge 0.8-kilometre squares, which was what I did on my own map.
Yes, there may be less stations in the end and some people may be missed, but too many stops and starts may turn people off as well if they feel that they can just drive there faster. Also, it's not like if rapid transit is supposed to be a complete replacement of the local bus service underneath.
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What ruins this plan: the lack of park-and-rides or room to build park-and rides in Surrey.
Take 160th Street @ 104th for example; it really only serves one route to/from Langley and primarily on the eastbound route. I don't believe there's a permanent park-n-ride solution at Guildford; at the moment there's a maximum time limit being imposed on parking spaces to make sure all the people in that parking lot are actually going to the mall or nearby and nowhere else. The same can be said for other stops around Surrey, if allan's spaced-out-stations concept were true; I don't think there's much room to build park-n-rides where the line would stop in most places. Of course alternatively you could have more community shuttles, but then that'd be a bit painful on budget, as you'd need a lot more shuttle routes, a lot more buses and a lot more drivers.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TransitFreak
One of the things I mentioned in the Translink survey, and I think another forumer mentioned as well (BC Phil?), was why not have RRT down Newton and down Fraser highway? If Surrey is indeed going to densify and increase their population significantly, it would be prudent to provide a couple of trunks to cover both N-S, and E-W. That way all buses can target a station along their route. With the Canada line, Vancouver finally has a N-S option to complement the E-W Expo/Millenium line. Make no mistake, it would be a huge, huge investment, but it may ultimately be necessary if Surrey does achieve its goal.
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So both options,
absolutely nothing for Guildford? No, no, no
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CanadianMind does have an interesting idea though. In fact his idea would be more or less a combination of LRT alternative 2 & RRT alternative 1, or otherwise the plan/diagram I posted a few pages ago:
[CLICK TO ENLARGE]
About Whalleyboy's post about population: well, density is more or less equal in these areas. There's some business areas, but most of the houses are just plain suburban houses or townhouse complexes. In some areas like closer to Newton Centre, closer to Whalley Centre and closer to Guildford Centre, you have some condominiums/apartments that can house more per area. This sort of thing is not really present much in some areas such as Fleetwood. It really all comes down to density rather than actual population or community size when you compare these areas.
officedweller is also interestingly right about a continuous LRT or SkyTrain line into both Newton and Guildford being more beneficial because it results in less transferring and moreover helps inter-city movement, but the Guildford line will definitely not have scant ridership. Actually go there and check out how full the Central-Guildford buses are and you'll see.