BCTA-TransLink exchange fire over parking tax, congestion, other GVRD issues

LANGLEY, B.C. — The largest carrier group in B.C. is once again taking TransLink to task — this time for the transportation agency’s “failure to uphold its promise to address the inequities” of the controversial parking tax.

The B.C. Trucking Association, which calls the parking lot levy a “disguised property tax,” has sent TransLink CEO Pat Jacobsen a strongly worded letter indicating its board has decided the association will now categorically oppose the parking tax.

Furthermore, BCTA is suspending its participation in all TransLink consultative processes “designed to increase revenues for the agency.”

The BCTA claims that TransLink — the government agency responsible for the Greater Vancouver Regional District’s (GVRD) major roads, bridges and transit system — has backpedaled from a prior commitment to exempt from the parking tax areas used by trucks and buses to park, store, service, or conduct business operations.

Despite TransLink’s point that congestion has improved, vehicle
trips have skyrocketed while road capacity is frozen, says BCTA

“It is clear the solution that TransLink committed to earlier this year (i.e., providing an exemption to areas) is not likely to be implemented at any point in the near future,” wrote BCTA President Paul Landry in the letter. “The (BCTA’s) position on the parking tax has shifted from reluctant acceptance, provided that certain reforms were made for the 2007 taxation year, to outright firm opposition.”

As TodaysTrucking.com reported last week (link below), Landry issued a separate editorial recently criticizing the agency for being cash-strapped despite enjoying record revenue windfalls driven by increased fuel and property taxes, and a boost in public transit ridership.

BCTA accused TransLink of letting annual expenditures balloon from $640 million in 2003 to a projected $1.185 billion by 2010.

“TransLink’s failure to resolve our transportation problems results from continued efforts to apply traditional public transit solutions to a service area characterized by waterways with limited bridge capacity, an indefatigable focus on large, expensive, inflexible mega-projects, a refusal to fully explore potential private sector solutions, and paying only lip service to its roads and bridges responsibilities,” Landry wrote.

In an email to Today’s Trucking, TransLink communications officer Ken Hardie denied the agency has empty pockets, stressing “there is no financial crisis at TransLink.”

He countered the charge that the agency doesn’t invest sufficiently in roads and bridges, saying TransLink has spent $98 million on 300 road improvement projects and $141 million for upkeep and maintenance over the last six years. TransLink’s Three Year Plan also includes $236 million for eight new roads over the next two years, he says.

Hardie also took exception with BCTA’s claim that the GVRD’s transportation system is gridlocked and deteriorating, pointing out that the Lower Mainland has performed better than other jurisdictions across Canada.

TransLink says it has put millions into roads
and bridges over the last six years

“The percentage of our road network rated as ‘congested’ during peak rush hour periods is 8 percent … This goal has been achieved in spite of the fact that an additional vehicle is added to the region’s road system every 23 minutes,” says Hardie, who cites a Stats Canada report showing average commute times were shorter in 2005 than in 1995 — opposite of trends in other major cities.

In a counter-response sent to TodaysTrucking.com, BCTA’s Landry refuted many of those claims, including TransLink’s suggestion that congestion has improved in the Lower Mainland during peak hours.

“I do not know how TransLink measures congestion, so I cannot respond directly to this measurement or benchmark except to say it seems to contrast with the fact that GVRD vehicle trips have risen dramatically while road capacity has generally remained stagnant,” says Landry, pointing out that the Greater Vancouver 2004 Trip Diary reports that the number of daily trips made by travelers had grown by 900,000 (16.5 percent) since 1999.

With transit’s share of the increase being 124,700 trips, and assuming that walking and biking account for another 12.7 percent of trips, “this means that the GVRD experienced an increase of 688,500 vehicle trips,” says Landry. “Moreover, the trip diary concludes that “due to constrained capacity of the transportation system and significantly increased trips for recreational and personal business … the typical PM rush-hour period has increased by almost one hour from 1999 to 2004 and it now lasts close to 5 hours.”

Also, while TransLink deals with municipal roads and bridges, it is reasonable to conclude, says Landry, that the 30 percent spike in average highway trip times spills over to the TransLink-managed GVRD network as well.

Landry also says the Stats Canada study that reported a decrease in commute times “may be flawed” due to a low sample size and is currently being reviewed by the provincial government for accuracy.

As for spending, Landry qualifies the agency’s record of $236 million for eight new roads by pointing out the project totaled only 11 percent of TransLink’s $2.125 billion projected expenditures, when 38 percent of its revenues comes from road users.

“(TransLink) likes to talk about how much the organization spends on (roads), but when you put it in percentage terms, it’s miniscule,” Landry says in an interview. “These are the games they play.”