The necessary steps to clear up lower mainland traffic
1. Reduce the number of translink management and board members.2. Public funded Double decker highway on Hastings street. The upper level will have no exits from the down town core and goes straight to Hwy. 1. The old Hastings can be used by local traffic and also a slower way to get to Hwy 1. This needs to be done also for emergency readiness in the case of an emergency event. There is no major highway going near Vancouver , in Toronto the Gardiner express way wraps around the downtown core. Vancouver has 1st ave, 12th, Hastings, Oak street ...all of which have a quadrillion lights and heavy traffic and long stretches before you hit the downtown core. The millions wasted on other projects that do not matter can go towards this new through way. Also in Surrey 88th street needs be a double decker road way up until near King George all the way to Hwy 91 this one with exits and entrance at major intersections. 88 is a east indian bazaar. Also, do what the engineers should have done 30 years ago, eliminate the stop light on Hwy 91 at 72, this is a Highway and a busy one ! A overpass or under pass should have been built instead of putting a stop light on the Highway as they do in rural Saskatchewan.
3. The transit system needs to be overhauled. More buses during rush hour, one every 5 minutes like in Toronto. Also to free up highway congestion , which gets worse every year, seniors and students should have a free transit pass which will encourage them to ride instead of taking their car to school or activity thus freeing up road ways.
4. Future expansions need more public input , not corporate money hand outs. High speed train that would make the commute from Abbotsford to Vancouver in 25 minutes, running in the middle of Hwy 1 . Commuters from Abbotsford , Langley , Surrey would leave their cars at home if they saved one hour each way. The sky train would be links between major fast train terminals so riders would not have to take a bus to get to major intersections. Hwy 99 high speed rail would also be implemented.
5. Commuters on the highways will not leave their cars at home unless they can get to work faster, more economically, and with less hassle then driving. As it is right now the translink system is sluggish, the bus to sky train transfers can make a 25 minute car drive be a one hour bus ride on the same road. Its busy and inefficient this is why commuters pay for their gas, parking and maintenance for riding translink is a circus act gone bad.
6. New Schools should be designed with housing around the perimeter field so parents can watch their kids go to school from their kitchen window while drinking their morning coffee. The second tier housing around the main tier so that although they will have to walk their kids to school, its close enough not to drive and cause more traffic and accidents at school zones.
