Agenda Index City of Vancouver

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

RECOMMENDATION

COUNCIL POLICY

The City of Vancouver Transportation Plan, approved on May 27, 1997, includes the following policies:

SUMMARY

The 1997 City Transportation Plan contains a recommendation to begin an annual program of monitoring and reporting. This report recommends a package of improved monitoring activities to be conducted in the City and regionally.

The proposed City monitoring program includes improved data collection for pedestrians, bicyclists, general traffic, trucks and parking. In addition, funding is provided for staff to conduct the monitoring program, evaluate progress made, and report on actions required to achieve Transportation Plan goals. As summarized in Appendix C, the proposed additional annual City monitoring expenditure, starting in 1999, would be $148,000. There would be additional one-time startup costs for 1999 of $58,000.

In addition, the report recommends that studies of commercial/retail pedestrian volumes, travel times, and downtown parking be conducted at regular intervals (every 5 or 10 years), in conjunction with GVTA data collection processes. Staff will report separately on these items to obtain funding in the year of implementation. The commercial/retail pedestrian volume study is recommended for consideration in the year 2000.

It is also recommended the GVRD and GVTA conduct/coordinate an enhanced regional data collection program (Appendix D) in order to provide a ongoing record of transportation activity including trip modes, origins/destinations, travel times, goods movement, and transit crowding and reliability.

The regional transportation system serves close to two million residents, travelling in more than a million vehicles, on over 10,000 kilometres of roads, trackage and ferry lanes, at a total cost of several billion dollars annually. In this context, the proposed additional City monitoring costs (about the cost of two traffic signals) are relatively small. Overall the proposed regional monitoring funding requirements would likely be increased but in the same order of magnitude as historical GVRD/BC Transit expenditure levels.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this report is to recommend the approval of an enhanced transportation monitoring program, as directed in the Vancouver Transportation Plan.

BACKGROUND

In 1993 the GVRD completed Transport 2021 - A Long Range Transportation Plan for Greater Vancouver. The development of this Plan required a good understanding of an array of current and historical land use and transportation information.

In 1997, Council adopted the City of Vancouver Transportation Plan which outlines an overall transportation strategy, set of policies and related actions. Policies include an increased emphasis on transit, limited expectation of increased overall road capacity, efficient goods movement, local neighborhood traffic calming, and a more comfortable biking and walking environment. The Plan also developed targets (Appendix B) for the City using similar information that was used to develop Transport 2021. In fact, achieving the targets in the Vancouver Transportation Plan assumes the implementation and success of Transport 2021. Regular monitoring of the transportation system is a major element of the plan, with a number of specific actions listed in Appendix A.

On Dec 9, 1997, Council reviewed the Transportation Plan action items scheduled for completion in 3 years and recommended:

“ That the General Manager of Engineering Services and the General Manager of Community Services report back early in 1998 on a Plan to collect data and monitor changes to the Transportation System; the report back to include an implementation plan to measure compliance.”

Staff reported in 1998 on the cost of a monitoring program relative to other priorities (Rapid Transit, Downtown Transportation Plan). This report describes the requirements for data collection and monitoring.

INTRODUCTION

It is important to understand how the transportation system is functioning, and to be able to assess if current trends and proposed changes are consistent with transportation policy.

The ability to understand the system is only as good as the level of information available. A good monitoring program has many elements ranging from sophisticated region-wide origin/destination surveys, to a simple count of traffic on local residential streets experiencing “rat running” pressures from adjacent heavily traveled major arterials. This information has to be collected by the GVRD, GVTA, and member municipalities.

The report below recommends enhanced Regional (GVRD/GVTA) and City monitoring programs.

REGIONAL MONITORING

The emerging Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority (GVTA) will be assuming responsibility for regional transportation policy development and plan implementation. The GVTA is required, within 18 months, to develop a Strategic Transportation Plan.

It is important that the GVRD continue to monitor the success of the Livable Region Strategic (Land Use) Plan, and that the GVTA continue and expand on the collection of transportation data. Certainly, the proposed co-management of the Major road Network (MRN) between the GVTA and the City is dependent on knowing the number of people projected and actually moving on the MRN.

This report recommends the GVTA carry out the following (See Appendix D for a more comprehensive description):

· Major travel surveys including telephone interviews, trip diary surveys, etc.
· Transit surveys and usage counts
· Screen line vehicle occupancy and classification counts
· Travel time/delay/congestion surveys
· Goods movement surveys
· monitoring auto ownership, vehicle usage (e.g. kilometres driven), performance measures (e.g. vehicle kilometres/capita), and environmental, land use and demographic indicators.
· Improvements to the Regional transportation model.

It is proposed that City and GVTA staff work together with the other municipalities (through one of the existing staff committees) to standardize and coordinate the data collection and modeling activities for the region and member municipalities.

CITY MONITORING

In addition to the regional data collection program, it is important the City expand its own monitoring program. The City currently collects the minimum data necessary to operate its own facilities. For example, intersections with traffic signals are monitored once every 2 years to ensure the signals are operating correctly, and special counts are taken on bicycle routes and in neighbourhoods with potential vehicle shortcutting. From time to time, special studies such as pedestrian densities have been undertaken.

However, this program has been reduced in successive budget management plans. In order to achieve Transportation Plan objectives, the following is recommended:

1. Annual Monitoring Programs.

2. Periodically Conducted Transportation Studies

3. Neighbourhood Transportation Monitoring

4. Traffic Safety

5. Land Use/Demographics

ANNUAL REPORTING

The Transportation Plan recommends reporting at regular intervals on progress made and measures needed to achieve Plan targets. It is recommended staff report back annually with a description of the state of the transportation system and supporting data. This report would reference Transportation Plan policies, actions and targets, and would discuss current City and Regional transportation developments and may suggest new directions. The report should be attractive and easily understandable to the public. For example, information on
changing demand and performance measures such as mode split, travel speeds/congestion,

bicycle volumes should be presented with understandable maps and graphs. The documents should be available in full or summary brochure form. Annual printing costs would be up to $3,000.

TRANSPORTATION MONITORING STAFF

In the past, a Civil Engineer I position was allocated to transportation monitoring and forecasting. However, due to budget restrictions and increased workloads on other, higher transportation priorities, this staff position was reallocated.

There is insufficient staff to analyse an expanded monitoring program and provide Council with an annual report on the state of the transportation system. Therefore, it is recommended that a Civil Engineer I position be approved to coordinate and evaluate the data received in the monitoring program and reporting activities discussed above, including working with the GVTA and Province. The cost would be $69,000 annually, and a $12,000 one time office cost. An existing support position can be re-assigned within Engineering Services to assist in the collection and analysis of the data.

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

As summarized in Appendix C, the proposed additional annual City monitoring expenditure would be $148,000. The one time costs for 1999 only, would be $58,000. The one time costs for the year 2000 only (in advance), would be up to $20,000. These expenses would be funded out of the Operating Budget, with no offset, as the improvements represent an increased level of service.

Staff will report in future on:

The regional transportation system serves close to two million residents, travelling in more than a million vehicles, on over 10,000 kilometres of roads, trackage and ferry lanes, at a total cost of several billion dollars annually. In this context, the proposed additional City monitoring costs (about the cost of two traffic signals) are relatively small. Overall the proposed regional monitoring funding requirements would likely be increased but in the same order of magnitude as historical GVRD/BC Transit expenditure levels.

- - - - -

APPENDIX A: CITY TRANSPORTATION PLAN MONITORING ACTIONS, APPROVED MAY 27, 1997

APPENDIX B - TRANSPORTATION PLAN MODE SPLIT TARGETS

Target Peak Volumes (Percentage) For 2021

Mode & Year

All trip purposes between

6 am - 9 am

Downtown

%

Central Broadway

%

UBC
%

Rest of City

    %

All of City

%

FOR 1992

Auto Driver

46

62

55

53

52

Auto Passenger

9

12

12

18

15

Transit

34

15

20

12

19

Walk

9

9

7

14

11

Bike

2

2

6

3

3

Total (all modes)

100

100

100

100

100

Auto Occupancy

1.21

1.20

1.22

1.34

1.28

FOR 2021

Auto Driver

32

39

35

50

43

Auto Passenger

10

12

15

18

15

Transit

44

38

36

15

27

Walk

10

9

10

14

12

Bike

4

3

4

4

4

Total (all modes)

100

100

100

100

100

Auto Occupancy

1.31

1.30

1.44

1.35

1.35

Mode & Year
All trip purposes between
6 am - 9 am

Downtown

Central Broadway

UBC

Rest of City

All of City

FOR 1992

Auto Driver

43,100

15,000

14,700

104,400

177,200

Auto Passenger

8,800

3,000

3,200

35,100

50,200

Transit

32,000

3,600

5,400

22,800

63,800

Walk & Bike

10,300

2,700

3,600

32,600

49,200

Total (all modes)

94,700

24,300

26,900

194,900

342,100

Auto Occupancy

1.21

1.20

1.22

1.34

1.28

FOR 2021

Auto Driver

38,700

12,000

12,000

112,800

175,500

Auto Passenger

11,900

3,700

5,300

39,900

60,800

Transit

52,400

11,600

12,500

33,000

109,500

Bike & Walk

16,800

3,700

4,600

39,700

64,800

Total (all modes)

120,400

30,900

34,400

225,400

411,100

Total Occupancy

1.31

1.30

1.44

1.35

1.35

APPENDIX B (CONTINUED) - TRANSPORTATION PLAN MODE SPLIT TARGETS ...CONTINUED

Target Daily Volumes For 2021

Mode & Year

All trip purposes between

24 hours

Downtown

%

Central Broadway

%

UBC
%

Rest of City

    %

FOR 1992

Auto Driver

49

NA

59

53

Auto Passenger

13

NA

18

18

Transit

23

NA

14

11

Walk & Bike

15

NA

9

18

Total (all modes)

100

NA

100

100

Auto Occupancy

1.27

NA

1.31

1.34

FOR 2021

Auto Driver

36

45

41

46

Auto Passenger

12

15

16

16

Transit

34

25

33

19

Walk & Bike

18

15

10

19

Total (all modes)

100

100

100

100

Auto Occupancy

1.33

1.33

1.39

1.35

APPENDIX C -- PROPOSED TRANSPORTATION MONITORING PROGRAM, OPERATING BUDGET ADDITIONAL EXPENDITURES

Monitoring Items +

Annual Cost Increase

Additional One Time Costs, 1999

Periodic Costs++

Intersection Volumes -Pedestrians, Bicycles, general traffic

$15,000

   

Bicycle Volumes

$12,000

   

Arterial General Traffic Volumes - Count Annually

$29,000

$20,000 (for 10 automatic counters)

$26,000 (for 6 detector loops)

 

Truck Volume Survey

$17,000

   

Expand Parking Inventory survey to include Central Broadway

$3,000

   

Commercial/Retail Area Pedestrian Volumes

   

Up to $20,000 every 10 years (specific costs will be determined after consulting the Real Estate Board and BIA’s re. data collection needs and cost sharing)

Travel Time /Delay Studies

   

About $60,000 every 5 years (coordinated with GVTA)

Central Area Employee Work Trip/Parking Study

   

about $60,000 every 10 years

Annual Transportation Report Printing Costs

up to $3000

   

Monitoring manager Civil Engineer 1

$69,000

$12,000 (office costs)

 

Totals

$148,000

$58,000

 

+ Neighbourhood transportation monitoring costs will be reported separately

++ these are not new programs; however, it is proposed to conduct the data collection regularly as noted.

APPENDIX D

RECOMMENDED REGIONAL DATA COLLECTION RESPONSIBILITIES

Many transportation monitoring functions should be conducted by the GVTA because of the regional nature of the data, ease of coordination with participating municipalities, cost effectiveness and primary relevance to regional transportation policy and management decision making. GVRD staff have indicated the GVTA will be looking for input from the municipalities on improving its monitoring programs.

This report recommends the GVTA carry out the following:

- Major Regional Travel Surveys (Including Telephone Interviews, Trip Diary Surveys)

- Screen Line Occupancy/Classification Counts

- Travel Time/Delay/Congestion

-Goods Movement (Trucks)

- Transit

- Other Regional Monitoring


- Enhanced Regional Transportation Computer Modeling

* * * *


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