Vancouver Sun
To District of North Vancouver Mayor Mike Little, the kilometres-long traffic jams North Shore commuters face every day at the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge are emblematic of the transportation issues all of Metro Vancouver is facing.
And officials will be looking to Ottawa for help in dealing with them.
The aging crossing, which has had the same lane capacity since 1968, carries some 160,000 vehicles per day, which leads to lineups 11- to 12-kilometres long of commuters struggling to get to jobs that pay well, but often not well enough for them to put down roots in the region’s increasingly expensive housing. …
Replacing the Massey Tunnel and dealing with traffic congestion that will migrate north from an expanded crossing is a key priority for Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie. But he’s also acutely aware of the need for proposed rapid bus transit as part of that project.
“We’ve been working with the province on (TransLink’s) operating side of things, but certainly it would be a priority to get operating support from the feds,” said Brodie, who is also vice-chairman of TransLink’s advisory mayors council. “And also capital dollars.”
Brodie said it’s early days in the federal campaign, so he hasn’t had many chances to lobby candidates, but every time he’s seen incumbent MPs in recent years “there’s some kind of discussion about public transportation and the need for it.”
“There’s been a huge emphasis on our housing crisis and it’s all dependent upon transit-oriented development,” Brodie said. “So if we don’t have money for that transit, that whole approach has great limitations.” …