I was giving an extreme example.

I lived in Langley for many years actually so I am familar with its “vibrancy”.

The problem is that most suburbs have low density and/or spaghetti-style street layouts (like Walnut Grove) that are difficult to serve efficiently and cost-effectively.

Plus, even if the service was there at the levels you desire, most people would continue to choose their private vehicles – because that is why they live in the suburbs to begin with; it is the culture of the suburb.

Most are uber-committed to their cars because they own at least two of them, and their suburban home’s grandest feature is its two-car garage.

I agree the vehicle levy isn’t perfect, but until we get distance-based vehicle insurance and tolling, it is all TransLink has. Blair, you should be a huge promote rof distance-based tolling/insurance etc – it sounds like you’d be a big winner because of your lifestyle.

And, regarding your rant about the martyrs South of Fraser… if I were King of the city-state of Vancouver, I’d start charging the SOF residents for the opportunity cost of allowing you to live on land that we should be using to grow food.

Hmmm…perhaps I’d assess my charge using a vehicle levy.

People have the mistaken notion that TransLink is only bus/SkyTrain/SeaBus. Translink also is responsible for regional roads, bridges and tunnel.

And anyone who thinks that we enjoy a ‘gold-plated’ transit system lives a lot further away than Walnut Grove.

Who said I live anywhere near Aldergrove? I live in Walnut Grove and commute, by foot, to my work, but even then I pay through my nose for a transit levy and get virtually no service for it. I can’t go down the major north-south corridor to where the best shopping is located, I can’t get to a regional court, hell it is faster on most days to walk the distance to the major recreation center (which is on a bus route) even though I live mere minutes from the local “transit hub” because the service is so limited, then, TranLink suggests a “parking stall tax” where companies, like mine, that are not served by transit, are expected to pay for our parking stalls because we need parking to let people come and go meanwhile the folks who have ALL THE TRANSIT SERVICE don’t pay a cent because, oddly enough, they don’t need parking spaces .

What really peaves us off, is we pay for your gold-plated transit and then get treated like rubes by ignorant folk like you who have no clue what vibrant communities we have. Langley has a net positive employment, that means more people COME HERE for work than leave the community. We don’t commute to the north shore, they come here. Look at traffic at 5 pm any workday and check out where the traffic is most backed up, the answer (as you don’t know) is westward.

TransLink is like some bizarrely shaped cow, it is fed on the levy’s from the area south of the Fraser, is milked in the Metro core and s…ts on the northeast. Well we are tired of providing the fodder that keeps you fat off the teat.

That is B.S. If you chose to live in an obscure cul-de-sac in Aldergrove and commute to West Vancouver, you should pay through the nose for transportation both for the distance travelled, and for the extra subsidy required to serve you in such a remote low-ridership location.

The vehicle levy may not be fairest system, but they have to work within the current system.

Soon, I we will be moving to distance-based highway tolls, vehicle insurance and TransLink fare structure – that will ensure that those who are the biggest users are the ones who are paying.

And, then people will better consider their choice of residence and stop demanding that TransLink meet their every need.

You don’t have to convince me about the structure; I understand firsthand about that. Decades.

But, I submit that none of that matters, given the present political master, namely TransLink.

The quick answer is you are being misled and TransLink is being a bit disingenuous with their web site.

Our benign overlords and the contractor forked out the original outlay, but only with the understanding that they will get their investment back in spades. It is something akin to your bank bragging on their website about providing you with a new home when all they did is give you a mortgage that you still have to pay off….with interest.

Bus fare is different, you never pay off the bus, with your fare, the outlay for the capital investment for the bus is covered by the regional levy and your fare only pays to maintain the bus and pay for the driver. If you charged the equivalent of a toll on your average bus trip you’d pay 3-10 times as much per trip (depending on bus type and route).

There’s clearly a disconnect here. You say you pay for the Golden Ears bridge when you pay your toll to cross (and imply that it’s not part of TransLink’s purview).

TransLink’s web site extolls the wonders of the Gateway program and has a page devoted to ‘your’ bridge.

Who’s wrong?

Maybe you think that, when you pay your fare on the bus that the bus now belongs to you.

Let’s look at your suggested trip: #388 takes 1 hour 26 minutes for the first leg then a 14 minute layover before another 53 minute trip turning my quick trip to Richmond into a 2 hour and 30 minute journey, Odysseus would ask whether the trip was worth it. Using the Skytrain with the connectors is still over two hours, so for a return trip on a workday you would expect to spend over 4 hours. Try and get to the Olympic oval for an event and the trip planner responds that the trip is too long or has too many transfers to be practical.

Otis,

Translink did not supply us with a ‘shiny new bridge’, our bridge is a P3 that I pay for in a toll every time I cross.

Shane,

You write “I suggest that we can’t expect public transport to support us wherever we choose to live.” well my response to that one is simple: if public transport isn’t willing to support us then why should we be expected to support it with our Translink levy. I’d be happy to take all the money the folks in the valley pour into the relentless maw that is Translink and pool it to provide road and transit service out here. The only problem with my plan is that since the Valley’s tax base is supporting your Cadillac transit system in town I’d have to read more stories about the “bus rider’s union” whining that they have to pay even more based on your Chevy tax base in town.

Both my parents grew up in Hungary, and I have never heard the use of such an expression in my life. But then again, my parents don’t have a problem with Roma. My mother grew up in a neighbourhood adjacent to a Roma settlement, and has never said a bad word against them.
P.S. You are about as funny as a hernia.