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CITY OF VANCOUVER
ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT
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Date:
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May 31, 2004
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Author:
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Scott Edwards
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Phone No.:
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7336
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RTS No.:
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04288
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CC File No.:
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8026
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Meeting Date:
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June 8, 2004
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TO:
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Standing Committee on Transportation & Traffic
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FROM:
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General Manager of Engineering Services
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SUBJECT:
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Vancouver-UBC Area Transit Plan Public Advisory Committee
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RECOMMENDATION
THAT Council receive the Terms of Reference for the Public Advisory Committee for the Vancouver - UBC Area Transit Plan and refer them to the PAC for review and report back.
GENERAL MANAGER'S COMMENTS
The General Manager of Engineering Services recommends approval of the foregoing.
COUNCIL POLICY
At its April 6, 2004 meeting, Council endorsed participation in the Vancouver-UBC Area Transit Plan.
Council has existing policies identifying Transit as one of the top transportation priorities for the City of Vancouver. Reinforcing the importance of Transit within the City are the following reports:
- Transportation Plan (1997),
- Vancouver Transit Strategy, (2002)
- Downtown Transportation Plan, (2002)
- Livable Region Strategic Plan, prepared by the GVRD and endorsed by Vancouver City Council.
PURPOSE
This report provides Council with an outline of the process undertaken for soliciting nominations for the Public Advisory Committee of the Area Transit Plan, provides the Draft Terms of Reference for the Committee, and outlines the project schedule for major milestones associated with the Area Transit Plan.
BACKGROUND
To date, TransLink has completed six Area Transit Plans, with the City of Vancouver and UBC being the last area to be undertaken in the region. The Area Transit Plans are intended to identify 1-5 year priorities for improving local transit service within municipalities and the region. The Vancouver - UBC Area Transit Plan will focus on local service improvements and enhanced connections to the region. The planning horizon for the process is to extend through 2010. An important component of the Area Transit Plan is the Public Consultation Process. One major task of the Public Advisory Committee is to assist in the development of the consultation process.
DISCUSSION
The public consultation process will be developed by the Public Advisory Committee, the staff working group and the Steering Committee. It is intended that the public consultation process will be open to broad representation within the community including:
- area residents;
- current and future transit customers;
- Transit operating personnel, and
- stakeholder groups including business, neighbourhood and community associations,
- transportation advocacy groups,
- seniors and students.
Although the consultation process is not yet fully developed, a number of methods and techniques have been employed in similar projects. Diagram #1 shows a number of potential sources of input to the process. Draft information regarding the Public consultation process is attached in Appendix A. This and other information will be reviewed with the Public Advisory Committee and reported back to Council.
The public will be involved in providing input through methods including open houses, focus groups, workshops and formal public meetings, market research surveys, stakeholder meetings, and feedback and input obtained through means such as a dedicated website for the Vancouver-UBC Area Transit Plan.
Public Advisory Committee
Public Advisory Committees have been used in previous Area Transit Plans and are useful in assisting with the development of the public consultation program, providing their own input, and exploring ideas to improve the existing transit system. This committee would consist of individuals who represent the City of Vancouver and UBC communities and have an interest in transit and transportation.
Nominations for interested parties were sought from the community through newspaper ads, direct mailing, and the City's web page. Newspaper ads were included in the following publications:
- Courier (East, West and Downtown editions),
- Voice,
- Link,
- Ming Pao,
- Sing Tao, and
- The Georgia Straight.
Interest in the Public Advisory Committee has been strong as we had received more than 50 applications from interested parties. Recommendations for participants in the Public Advisory Committee will be brought to Council separately.
Specific groups are being targeted for their involvement and some of this work is already in the planning stage. One such example of consultation already planned is a series of focus groups with Coast Mountain Bus Company staff. This type of consultation has worked well in previous reviews of transit services as the bus operators have valuable first hand knowledge of the transit system.
The DRAFT Terms of Reference for the Public Advisory Committee is attached as Appendix B. The information contained within was distributed as part of an information package to interested members. The information package included a copy of the recent newspaper ad, a copy of the Terms of Reference, and a nomination & Application form. All of this information was also available on the City's web page.
www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/engsvcs/transport/ubcplan
Work Program
An overview of the project time schedule has been attached in Appendix C. Updates to this schedule will be provided to Council as the project proceeds. These updates will include invitations to scheduled public process events and notifications of any major milestones that have been reached.
Diagram 1 - Public Process inputs
FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS
Costs associated with the Area Transit Plan have been included in the Area Transit Plan budget which was approved by Council's Standing Committee of Transportation and Traffic at their April 6th, 2004 meeting.
CONCLUSION
Staff recommends that Council receive the updates to the Vancouver-UBC Area Transit Plan including the Draft Terms of Reference, the public process, and the project schedule.
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Appendix A
Vancouver - UBC Area Transit Plan
DRAFT Public Involvement Process
The Area Transit Planning process typically involves public consultation in a variety of forms. The intent of public involvement in the development of a 5 year transit service plan is to obtain the views of current transit users on the main issues with existing services as well as their thoughts on future opportunities and priorities. Moreover, TransLink seeks broad community representation to obtain the opinions of residents who are potential transit users, people who would use transit if the service met their needs.
There is a high level of interest and expectation from the residents of UBC and Vancouver to be consulted during the development of the Vancouver - UBC Area Transit Plan. There is also a rich and diverse range of stakeholder groups that are interested in becoming involved with the development of the plan.
TransLink's objectives for public involvement in the plan may be summarized as follows:
The public involvement process is designed to capture the ideas from the public and stakeholders at key decision points during the plan development. There are several streams of input to the plan through which the public may participate as illustrated in the concept drawing.
The City of Vancouver, UBC and the UEL have direct sponsorship of the Public Advisory Committee through appointments to the committee. TransLink and the project Steering Committee have drafted terms of reference to guide the Public Advisory Committee and specify its role. The membership consists of an appointee from UBC and the UEL, and up to 18 appointments from the City of Vancouver.
The PAC has a dual role: it is the first point of public contact for the planning project staff to refine the broader consultation process and it provides a consistent `touchstone' representing public interests during the entire plan development. The PAC will provide feedback on the design of the consultation process, including the venues, schedule, stakeholder groups contacted, materials used at the meetings etc. It will also review and provide comment on the content of the quantitative market research undertaken through TransLink's marketing research department.
In addition to regularly scheduled meetings with the Public Advisory Committee, the consultation process has three other strategies. One strategy is to reach out to the stakeholder groups that are organized by attending their meetings to present information and obtain feedback. This strategy is shown in orange on the diagram. CMBC bus operators are an important key informant to the planning process and TransLink will organize at least two focus groups with them to obtain feedback, and may also hold `open house' type sessions at the operations centres.
The second strategy shown in light blue on the concept diagram, is to seek input from individuals through scheduling public open houses in a variety of locations across the City and UBC to capture opinions from those interested. Typically the PAC will provide some guidance with respect to the materials used, the venues and times of the open houses. As discussed below, the scheduling of the open houses occurs around two phases of the plan development.
Thirdly, TransLink will commission a telephone survey to obtain statistically reliable data from residents about travel behaviour, mode use, mode preferences, transit service change opinions, and predicted mode or travel behaviour change due to transit service changes. The results of this market research are published separately as a `technical report' and will inform some of the key directions of the plan.
The consultation schedule will revolve around the two main phases of the plan development: (1) market analysis and issue identification; and (2) defining future transit service options. During the first phase the project team will evaluate TransLink's existing travel data, transit route ridership data, customer satisfaction data.
This information will be shared with the PAC and other public as a means to generate discussion and feedback on their view of system performance and areas for improvement. The outcome of Phase One consultation will be a snap shot of system performance and opportunity for improvement that has been validated by the public.
Phase Two public consultation is to obtain feedback on the transit service changes that have been identified in response to the performance issues and service needs identified in Phase 1. The stakeholder groups and the public open houses will be provided with information about the outcome from Phase 1 and a presentation of proposed service changes. The input received during this phase of consultation will be considered in the development of the final draft plan. Service concepts that are not well received will be revisited, and priorities for implementation defined as well.
Typically, Area Transit Plan development includes two rounds of consultation before presenting the draft Plan to TransLink's Board for information and referral back to the municipal councils. The PAC and project Steering Committee may modify this schedule during the course of events to meet plan expectations.
Appendix B
DRAFT Terms of Reference for the Public Advisory Committee
Purpose
The Terms of Reference for the Public Advisory Committee (PAC) sets out the operating procedures and mandate for the committee.
Membership
A Public Advisory Committee (PAC) will be nominated by the City of Vancouver council and by UBC to assist in the development of each Area Transit Plan.
It is recommended that the PAC should be large enough to obtain representation at meetings, but small to easily encourage a free flow of discussion among members and staff. A number between 15 -20 is considered optimal. The PAC should include transit customers and members from a variety of community stakeholders groups interested in improving the transit service. Membership should be widely reflective of the community and should include representatives from the following key stakeholder groups: transit users; persons with disabilities; the business community; major ethnic communities; seniors; and students. PAC members will not include employees of any operating subsidiaries of TransLink, as separate forums exist for their input.
Meetings & Coordination
The PAC is expected to meet with the UBC/Vancouver Area Transit Plan project team about 6 to7 times through the course of the project at particular milestones or at request of the Project Manager. Specific dates, times and places for these meetings will be identified through a discussion of the project work plan with the PAC members. An initial meeting will introduce staff members and any consultants, and the project Terms of Reference. Subsequent meetings are held at each stage of the Plan preparation with the release of key project reports/deliverables outlined below.
All key plan documents will be distributed to the PAC for their comments and input. Each PAC meeting will be used to facilitate and maximise discussion among the PAC members on specific plan themes contained in the documents. Towards this end, it is recommended that each PAC meeting have a specific objective in order to make them focused and meaningful for PAC members. The suggested PAC meeting topics and objectives are as follows:
i) Introductory meeting to introduce key players and PAC Terms of Reference, present the project terms of reference, establish plan context and objectives. The PAC will be requested to provide input on the public consultation process and to explore ideas and provide input during the project;
ii) Discussion of key transit operating characteristics, issues and objectives as well as planning for the first public input opportunity;
iii) Discussion of key TransLink and municipal support policy and action measures to make transit work better for them - improved bus stops, more transit priority measures, different fare polices etc.;
iv) Development of key transit markets, transit service concepts and planning for the second round of public input;
v) Discussion of the evaluation of the service concepts; and
vi) Focus on comments on draft and final plan.
Mandate
The role of the PAC will be to advise, review and provide input to the Project Team, the Project Manager and any consultants on both the process and the content of the following components of the Area Transit Plan (ATP):
i. The types, timing and format of public consultation methods which should be used during the preparation of the ATP;
ii. The overall objectives for the ATP and its linkages and integration with other major planned transportation service initiatives;
iii. The major transit issues which should be examined in the project, and added to those issues identified in the public consultation process and through an analysis of existing transit ridership information, market research and other information;
iv. The development of several strategy options for improving transit services in the study area, including conventional and alternative service designs to address the transit issues identified in the project and to respond to market research; the development of criteria to be used to assess the options; and the evaluation of these service options using these criteria; and
v. The recommended short (i.e., year one) medium-term transit (i.e., 2-5 years) improvement plan for the ATP, along with implementation, staging and monitoring strategies. The implementation strategy will also outline the actions that are required by the GVTA, municipalities and other agencies for the successful implementation of the preferred transit strategy, in terms of transit priority measures, bus stop and land use changes, marketing plans and other supporting policies.
Reporting
The PAC as a whole, or individual members representing a specific municipality or stakeholder groups, have the option of preparing their own report on the Plan's conclusions and recommendations and final report, or interim project reports. As well, they can provide progress reports during the course of the project to their respective stakeholder groups.
The transit service improvement plans for the ATP recommended by the PAC and Project Team, composed of municipal and TransLink staff, will be subject to prioritization by the Project Manager, TransLink, and the Steering Committee, and subject to approval by the GVTA Board. The components of the Plans, as developed, will be reviewed and receive input from local council(s).
Project Organization
Appendix C - Vancouver-UBC Area Transit Plan Project Schedule of Major Tasks
