Creating a Smarter Transportation System
On Wednesday I attended an SFU conference on Smart Integrated Transportation. The conference was attended by local elected officials, academics and practitioners from around the world. This is one of the best one day conferences I have attended.
The first presenter was from Australia from the transportation authority; he outlined the work that they are doing to make a smarter transportation network. They have integrated technology into the transportation system – for example, a driver can receive information related to congestion or construction via their smart phone or GPS device. Can you imagine receiving traffic or transit data in real time to allow you to plan your route and making decisions prior to arriving at the congestion?
Another presenter was Gunnar Soderholm, the Head of the Environmental and Health Administration for the City of Stockholm. Mr. Soderholm provided a wonderful overview of why Stockholm was the Green Capital of Europe. Mr. Soderhold focused on the introduction of a congestion fee.
The new fee was a focus of discussion in 2002 during a municipal election with final introduction of congestion pricing in 2006. The project started with a rough political start and it became a very large issue during the 2002 elections. After the election the congestion program was introduced, although it was not well accepted at the time it is now seen as an excellent program. The goal was to reduce congestion and increase accessibility, resulting in better air quality. There are 18 charge points, a charge is made when entering and exiting the centre of Stockholm. Results are a 20% decrease in traffic, 14% decrease of emissions, and a change in traffic patterns and modes of transport. The congestion charges vary during the day, the highest rate during peak periods, lower during the day and free in evenings and weekends. The presenter commented that with all the increase of buses and rapid transit lines the biggest lever for changing traffic patterns and modes of transportation was a congestion change. An interesting note, environmentally friendly cars do not pay the congestion fee, creating more financial incentives. The public opinion changed from 25% approval prior to introduction to 75% approval 2 years later.
Of course, what transportation conference in Vancouver would be complete without a presentation about the Olympics? One of the first items that were established was bi-weekly meetings with the major stakeholders – City of Vancouver, Village of Whistler, VANOC, BC Government and the integrated security unit. Again, we have heard this message over and over. We need to get all the stakeholders to the table – sound familiar? A major goal of the plan was to invite everyone downtown and leave your car at home. There was a 44% increase in trips into the downtown, trips into the downtown via a sustainable transit mode doubled and at the same time single occupancy vehicles dropped by 41%. Almost 80% of all spectators at downtown venues walked, cycled or took transit. Basically, we all agree the City of Vancouver, TransLink, the Province and VANOC did an excellent job.
The Vancouver Board of Trade presented the results of a survey on the transportation system during the Olympics, check the Board of Trade web site in early December for results http://www.boardoftrade.com/.
In the afternoon I participated in a break out session titled Funding Transportation System. It was interesting that all the people who joined this group were from the Metro Vancouver area. We agreed that we need all the stakeholders at the table with an open mind on how to fund transportation. It was also agreed that we need to do a better job communicating and educating all the stakeholders on the true cost of all transportation modes and who pays. We need to engage everyone on this conversation in a common discussion. Easier said than done.
This was a great conference! As soon as I receive the link to all the presentations I will add it to this blog.
