Past Decisions Are Catching Us Up
About 30 years or so ago, decisions were made around the Vancouver
region that "we are not going to give in to the automobile and look
like Seattle" - referring of course to the massive freeway build-up
in the downtown Seattle core and the impact it had on those who were
displaced and on the city's skyline.
Vancouver might have ended up with a waterfront freeway and several
major connectors out into the suburbs - at massive cost (for that time)
and with major impact on the "livability" of the downtown core
and some of the surrounding areas.
Instead, we have no freeways in the actual Vancouver city at all baring
the small piece of Highway 1 which skirts the Eastern edge just long
enough to get to the Iron Workers Second Narrows Bridge where it flies off
to North Vancouver and eventually Horseshoe Bay on its way to Vancouver
Island. Instead, we have a few 4-lane urban streets with no parking on
them - but traffic lights every few blocks and no coordination or limited
access. In addition, we have even fewer 6-lane (at rush-hour) streets,
some with HOV lanes in one direction at each rush-hour.
In the days of my youth, I lived in Point Grey near the University of
BC, a suburb close to downtown Vancouver - and in fact still within the
confines of the city of Vancouver (as opposed to being in Burnaby or
Richmond, both of which border Vancouver but are part of the growing urban
area now known formally as the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD).
Back then, Burnaby was pockets of houses and industry surrounded by
tracts of second growth forest and Richmond was mostly farm land. Beyond
these two border municipalities were small towns, and getting to them was
sometimes an all-day trip.
Today, I live in one of those "distant" suburbs - and there
have been days when I've ended up traversing the distance to downtown
Vancouver 3 times for various reasons.
My wife is an Urban Geographer, and when we looked for a house, we
looked at virtually every area within 75 miles of downtown Vancouver. We
were looking for that magical combination of affordable housing and
reasonable access, coupled with a neighborhood that we hoped would be
conducive to raising a couple of active pre-teen boys.
In looking, Shirley spent time looking at long term plans for the GVRD
and various municipalities - and at projected growth and such.
We discovered that there are several highway projects which have been
on the books for at least 30 years - and that every now and then, various
people and councils bring up the prospect of actually working on them.
Typically at these times, the projects never get farther than setting
aside some land for access, since there is never any funding available for
such "anti-green" projects.
The problem is that there has been no coordination in the direction of
growth in the region, and no funding towards putting in alternative
transportation. The public transit system is almost identical to what it
was when I was a youth, 30 years ago. It goes a bit farther out, but it
still shares the roads with cars, and the roads have not gotten much, if
any better or wider.
During a recent bus strike, it was amazing to note that the traffic
actually ran better, even though there was supposedly more cars due to the
lack of busses. The fact is that in normal times, the busses stopping
every couple of blocks drive the other HOV vehicles to change lanes to get
around them, causing delays and increasing the likelihood of accident.
In recent years (first riders were at the time of Expo 86) we acquired
the "Skytrain" system - elevated guideways with driverless
trains of up to 6 cars, built at the cost of literally Billions of
dollars. This system is fine if you live along it - but in order to push
people to use it, the rest of the regional transit system was re-jigged to
pretty much only take people to the skytrain except for some special
routes run mostly at rush-hour. For many people, this has actually meant
an increase in their transit time.
What the politicians in the region don't seem to realize is that the
problem goes much deeper than just a lack of centralized transit - and
that there is nothing that can be layered onto the existing situation that
will correct the problems in any time less than the decades.
Anonymity Is the Disease
We have moved away from living and working in our neighborhood - living
near our neighbors for a lifetime, and knowing everyone. This has allowed
us to ignore what goes on around us as "none of our business" -
resulting in increased vandalism, garbage in the streets, and general
human misery. We get to the point where we live three different lives; one
each for work, commuting, and home.
At work we commune with our co-workers
At home we commune with our family and cocoon to keep from having to
interact with strangers.
On the commute we turn off our ethics and morals and simply try to get
it over with as fast as possible.
Urban Sprawl is one of the Causes
The post-war desire for the single-family dwelling has pushed us
farther and farther from where we work in many cases. This has caused us
to spend more time commuting - time that isn't productive because we can't
usually do much more than sit and stare blankly at the advertising around
us.
If we end up living enough off the transit lines that the commute would
be absurd, we end up with a car - and to support the car we end up either
working longer hours (overtime, or to get that extra bonus) or second and
third jobs.
Multi-media Communications is Another Cause
We are inundated with images and sound of "the good life"
from advertisers and program creators. TV has portrayed people allegedly
in similar circumstances to ours, but with better cars, new furniture, and
other worldly goods which are really either out of our reach or of newer
style than we have. The desire is created, we fulfill it, and we have to
work harder just to keep up.
Again, to keep up with our desires we end up working longer or at
second jobs.
Road Rage is the Symptom
With all this working, lowered quality of life, less contact with our
neighbors (no time and we haven't lived near them long enough to get to
know them) we lose contact with the humanity around us. We've "paid
the government" so much in tax that we feel the world owes us a duty
to fix things we perceive as wrong - and get upset even more because it
doesn't happen.
I watch people throw garbage out of their cars - and in conversations
over the past few years have uncovered an attitude that "this makes
work for all those over-paid municipal workers - I'm paying for them
anyway, so why not?".
I watch people bob and weave in and out of traffic with no signals, at
speeds much greater than prevailing traffic, and in complete indifference
to the havoc created in their wake. Their selfishness comes of the
virtually complete anonymity the automobile affords them.
Our lives have turned into a series of frustrations; not enough
material goods (blame the advertisers), not enough time to enjoy what we
have (blame the second job and long hours), few or no friends we can talk
to (blame lack of time and our average 3 years in any one home)
Technology May Help But I Doubt It
I've spent most of the past 15 years working from my home. Only a few
months have been spent actually commuting to an office in all that time.
My office is 3 feet from my bedroom - another problem altogether that I'll
deal with in other columns - which means I don't waste much time on
commuting.
On the other hand, I do end up driving during the commuter rush
sometimes - rarely to the same destination though, so I get to see a
cross-section of the people and conditions. I also get to drive at
virtually all times of the day and night, so I have a perspective on
differences in that respect too.
But I end up working long hours anyway - and many people I know in the
same situation do also.
0911 Was a Wake-Up Call
I've noticed a distinct increase in the number of people who are
working at being less anonymous. They are meeting and greeting their
neighbors, greeting people they meet in their daily lives, and trying to
ensure that they don't make the mistake of letting terrorists go
unquestioned around them. Whether this trend continues or not is another
thing, but I certainly hope so.
I still see some pretty bad and aggressive driving - but I'm catching
more peoples' eyes and am seeing more apologies too. It is as if we have
suddenly been shown that there are people out there other than just
ourselves. The increase in charity giving has also been a good indication.
All in all, I feel there is hope - we here in BC have a new government
that seems to be open to change. We'll see if they can put some spring
into the step of the general population with some well placed changes in
policy.
In the mean time, it seems that the general population, at least around
here, have come awake to the dangers of anonymity - hopefully in time.
richard
