Growth is key to transit success and to reducing carbon footprint
Kelly Sinoski
Sun
Peter Busby says more jobs, residences are needed near stations. Photograph by: Ian Smith, Vancouver Sun
As the Canada Line starts snaking its way through downtown Vancouver and over to Richmond, plans are afoot to build up the areas around the rapid transit stations.
Architect Peter Busby, of Busby Perkins and Will, said both Vancouver and Richmond must create more jobs and residences around the stations to encourage more people to live, work and shop in the areas, use transit and reduce the carbon footprint.
But while Richmond has already rezoned and redeveloped property along the Canada Line, Vancouver has just started studying what it would like to see along the Cambie corridor, much of which is still zoned single-family residential.
Busby said it’s “remarkable” that Vancouver hasn’t already decided how to develop the area.
“When you invest $2 billion in infrastructure like that, you have to get something for it,” he said. “It’s the responsibility of cities to take those stations and upzone them for use of the public.”
Busby noted most people are comfortable walking only 400 metres to catch a bus or train. By developing mixed-used density within that radius, which amounts to about six to eight blocks, cities could see another 1,000 people living there and 2,000 working there, as well as increased grocery stores and retail.
He points to the Millennium and Expo lines, which have transformed areas around the Metrotown, Gilmore, Brentwood, Joyce Street and Edmonds stations.
“There are so many reasons why you want to do that,” he said. “The carbon footprint goes down, you use less fuel and there’s more [transit] ridership.
“If it’s convenient, more people will use it — and we need riders to pay the fares to pay for it.”
TransLink is responsible for any ridership shortfalls on the Canada Line after it opens this week. It is predicting it will see 100,000 people per day on the line — but not until 2013, meaning it will have to subsidize the line until then.
In his study on ecodensity, Busby noted Metro Vancouver must densify if it’s to accommodate another million people within the next 30 years and still curtail greenhouse gas emissions.
He predicts that within 25 years, Vancouver will be as dense as Zurich and in 50 years, as dense as London. In downtown Vancouver, for instance, many people don’t even have cars, preferring to bike, walk, take transit or use co-op vehicles.
As a result, downtown residents create about 1.5 tonnes of greenhouse gases per year per person, while emissions are four times that for those who live in the suburbs and rely on their cars.
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