• Further encourage an increase in the number of vehicles on the road;
• Lead to long-term increases in air pollution;
• Encourage urban sprawl and longer commutes;
• Further pave the precious farmland and open space in our greenbelt, the Agricultural Land Reserve.

Taken For A Ride: Ministry of Highways Manipulated Media to Undermine Better Transit Option for Port Mann Bridge

 [This report] exposes the manipulation of the media and the public undertaken by the Ministry of Highways over its Gateway Program. The new report, Taken For A Ride uses documents obtained through Freedom of Information requests to show how the Ministry misled the media about transit solutions for Port Mann Bridge congestion. One Ministry email reads:

"the transit mode share of 20% was assumed for the markets that the new transit routes were serving and not all demand on the Port Mann. Therefore, the actual mode share [is] around 10% [but] I've worded it in such a way [that it] plays up the 20% mode share".

 “The province is trying to trick the public into thinking that the Gateway Program is the only option for our region. We have shown that they will say anything to get their way and even manufacture false evidence to back their claims,” said David Fields, campaigner with SPEC

The Minister of Highways has told anyone who will listen that the competing transit plan promoted by the LRC will not work. However, documents secured through FOI requests show that the provincial government had in fact concocted its own transit plan that was made to fail and lead the media and public to believe it was the LRC proposal.

Response to the Throne Speech from Better Environmentally Sound Transportation (BEST)

 A local environmental organization is strongly urging the provincial government to greatly increase funding for transit as part of today’s announced initiatives to tackle global warming. Better Environmentally Sound Transportation (BEST) asserts that the chronic shortage of funding for transit by both senior levels of government has increased reliance on personal vehicles throughout the province, and especially in Greater Vancouver where transit demand vastly outstrips supply.

[...]

“It’s not like people in this region don’t want to use transit”, said [Marion] Town [BEST Executive Director]. “Hundreds of people line up on SkyTrain platforms every morning and afternoon waiting to board overcrowded trains while 2-3 fully packed trains pass them by.”

[...]

Beyond the inconvenience of the transit shortage on students and other daily transit users, the region’s severe shortage of transit is hampering the opportunity to make a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Emissions from light duty vehicles account for approximately one-third of GHG emissions in the region. “Providing stable and predictable funding for transit in our cities is one of the fastest and easiest ways of accomplishing emission reductions”