Bridge Traffic

For purpose of illustration, below is a map overlaid with the traffic volume on the main bridges of the Vancouver area.

Traffic on the Main bridges of the greater Vancouver area (click on the map for more detail)

Some comments on it:

Traffic

• Traffic volume distribution is hourly, for weekday, and estimated when data is not available [3]
• truck traffic on Knight bridge is estimated at 15% of the overall traffic
• Red line indicate the capacity of the bridge, assuming a 1400 vehicle/hr capacity per lane
• For bridge over the Fraser, A suggested Congestion pricing toll [5] has been added in yellow

below is the tabulaton of weekday daily traffic, and source for the considered bridge

Bridge	Juridiction	Lanes	Traffic
Arthur Laing Bridge	YVR	4	84,000 [2]
Oak Bridge	Province	4	80,700 [1][4]
Knight Bridge	Translink	4	99,500 [2]
QueensBorough Bridge	Province	4	84,000 [2]
George Massey Tunnel	Province	4	89,500 [1]
Alex Fraser Bridge	Province	6	117,500 [1]
Pattullo Bridge	Translink	4	74,500 [2]
Port Mann Bridge	Province	5	116,000 [1]
Iron Workers Bridge	Province	6	127,400 [1]
Lions gate Bridge	Province	3	63,000 [1]

Comments on the Congestion pricing data

They come from the thesis of Peter Wightman [5], which is the most complete work I have uncovered on the topic applied on the Vancouver area, but still limited on the Fraser crossing bridges.

• toll is applied once the traffic volume exceed the road capacity
• Price elasticity demand is assumed at -0.2 peak hours, and -0.25 off peak, That is pricing evaluation has been done in 2006, assuming the transit option of the time, i.e. no Canada line and no transit over Port Mann bridge. Another study suggests a price elasticity demand closer to 0.35, in case of improved transit (i.e. Congestion regulation could be achieved with significant lower toll that those envisioned by [5], and revenue of congestion pricing too)

For information, below are the estimated revenue of congestion pricing, in the case of all bridge crossing the Fraser tolled (this assuming the 2006 situation, and a relatively low elasticity of -0.2 peak, and -0.25 off peak period) according to [5].

Bridge	daily revenue (South dir)	daily revenue (North dir)
George Massey Tunnel	89,600	64,400
Alex Fraser Bridge	126,000	67,200
Pattullo Bridge	35,000	21,000
Port Mann Bridge	271,600	90,300
Total (daily)	765,100
Total Annual	191,275,000

It is worth to note that congestion pricing could apply only when bridge reach capacity. At the exception of the Port Mann bridge West bound, that is an average of only 4 hours per bridge (or put in other way, crossing a bridge could be free 20hours per day),… but still generating close to 200 millions of annual revenue only on the bridge crossing the Fraser river.

it is also worth to notice that under a congestion pricing scheme as proposed by [5], the Port Mann bridge toll could have been lower than the one considered by the province (in green on the map above) most of the time…and the Pattullo bridge needs to be tolled less than 3hrs per day (per direction).

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[1] Number from BC MOT as of Sept 2010 (weekday average on the month

[2] Number from Bridging the Infrastructure Gap, Get Moving BC, Sept 2008. Data are mostly from 2006

[3] I got hourly distribution only for BC MOT bridge, hourly distribution is estimated for other bridge to provide an idea of level of congestion on them (and eventually pricing level/period). While data Provincial bidge are from 2010, and other bridge from 2006, it has been no noticeable increase in traffic in the interim, what is consistent with a longer trend already exhibited in a gateway program definition report of january 2006

[4] There is a discrepancy with number from the MovingBC report[2] eventually due to the fact, that the authors of this report overlooked the fact that the traffic counter is installed south of the Sea Island exit ramp on the Highway 99 south bound. That explains why there is a traffic increase on that bridge

[5] From Freeway to feeway: Congestion pricing policies for BC’s Fraser River crossing, Peter Wightman, Simon Fraser University, 2008

[6] Estimating Commuter Mode choice: A discrete choice Analysis impact of road pricing and parking charge, Washbrook, Haider and Jaccard, Transportation, 2006.

[7] Toll for new Port Mann Bridge will be $5.15 for casual users, Damian Inwood, The province, June 2010.

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Gordon’s Transportation Legacy

Below, a little breakdown of the provincial transportation infrastructure investment in the Greater Vancouver area (Translink jurisdiction) under Gordon’s Campbell reign so far (note that we discount most of the road infrastructure project to retain only the Gateway related and currently engaged one)

Project	Current cost (in Billion)[1]	Estimated original cost (in Billion)[2]	Over budget	share of the Province[12]
Road
Port Mann Bridge / Highway 1	$3.3[3]	$1.5[4]	114%	100%
South Fraser Perimeter	$1.1[5]	$0.8[4]	37.5 %	100%
Pitt river bridge	$0.108	$0.130[6]	-20%[7]	55%
Total road	$4.508	$2.43	86%	98%
Transit
Canada Line	$0.430[8]	$0.415[9]	3%[10]	21.5%
Total Public transit	0.430	$0.415	3%	21.5%

Under the Campbell leadership, The BC government is spending on road infrastructures   10 times more than on public transit ones, and still counting…and  that

• In the Translink area jurisdiction alone
• Taking account only the “gateway” project!

Is it justified by a transportation mode split reason?

Not really:

	Public transit	Drive
Commuter Mode split[11]	16.5%	74.4%
Province investment	8.7%	91.3%
$ per commuter	$2667	6201$

When come transportation infrastructure, the provincial government spend nearly 3 times more per driving commuter than per transit user

One could note that road are not only for commuter use, but also for goods movement etc…, we have to answer that in Vancouver area, road infrastructure are added to address congestion essentially induced by commuters use since there is no congestion due to good movement on the road enhanced by the province government. The picture below can give an idea of the congestion type:

congestion related to goods movement in UK

traffic on the highway one

Does someone still believe that the BC government is promoting Transit use?

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[1] It is the cost effectively paid by the province to the project so far

[2] It is the cost made public at the time of the political decision to go ahead with the project, and committed provincial contribution at this time

[3] http://www.vancouversun.com/story_print.html?id=1336991&sponsor

[4] http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/gateway/reports/Gateway_PDR_013106.pdf
or http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/gateway/reports/Gateway_PDR-ExecSumm.pdf

[5] http://www.bclocalnews.com/surrey_area/surreyleader/news/60823757.html

[6] The Pitt River bridge and Mary Hill Interchange, has been budgeted as part of the North Fraser Perimeter Road and not individually. North perimeter road extending from New Westminster to Mission is budgeted in total at $0.4 Billion, including the Pitt River and Mary Hill Interchange (see [4])

[7] The overall cost the project is $198 million, so well over what has been budgeted under the Gateway Project at time of political acceptation, but thanks to a contribution of $90 million from the Federal government, the cost for the province has been reduced accordingly (http://www.tc.gc.ca/mediaroom/releases/nat/2007/07-h020e.htm).

[8] http://www.gov.bc.ca/fortherecord/canadaline/cl_transportation.html?src=/transportation/cl_transportation.html

[9] http://www.canadaline.ca/files/uploads/docs/doc752.pdf

[10] This is in fact the difference between the number published by the government, and the one reported by an audit agency of Canada Line Rapid Transit Inc.

[11] http://www12.statcan.ca/census-recensement/2006/as-sa/97-561/p35-eng.cfm

[12]represents the share of the province in the financing of the overall project