In New Westminster, we're all too familiar with traffic congestion. Our geographic location at the centre of Metro Vancouver means that literally hundreds of thousands of vehicles move through our city each day. For years, city councils and staff have laboured to find workable solutions to address the problem. But, like the region itself, it keeps growing.
Over the next 30 years, nearly a million more people will move into our region. If all of these new residents use a vehicle to commute to and from work each day, it would add the equivalent of cars lined up from New Westminster to Winnipeg onto our streets. The anticipated cost to our collective health and the economy from the added congestion that would result would be staggering. Clearly, this is a serious problem that needs to be solved.
In early 2014 the Mayors' Council, representing 23 local elected governments in Metro Vancouver, came together to formulate a plan for moving forward. Rolling up their sleeves, the mayors developed a historic action plan that responded to the needs of each municipality, focusing on ways to reduce congestion and add more transportation options for our growing communities.
Here in New Westminster, initiatives in the plan include increased frequency of local bus service, additional HandyDart service for our seniors and those with mobility challenges, cycling and pedestrian improvements with better connections to transit, upgrades to the major road network to ease traffic congestion within our boundaries, a new and safer Pattullo Bridge with improved connections through the city, and 100 new SkyTrain cars on the Expo and Millennium lines for faster and more reliable service.
Taken together, the Mayors' Council Transportation and Transit Plan will reduce traffic congestion in the region by 20 per cent resulting in time savings of 20 to 30 minutes a day on commutes.
For our community, providing more transit and transportation choices means less cars on the road, while moving those that do need to travel in our city through efficiently. The result is increased livability and a better quality of life for everyone.
This week, ballots start arriving in mail asking residents if they support an increase in the provincial sales tax (PST) of 0.5 per cent to fund the plan, with all revenues and expenditures audited on an annual basis. Voting Yes means that we can get to work reducing congestion and providing transportation and transit options to our citizens right away, rather than waiting for a significant problem to get even worse.
As mayor, I've been very clear in my support for this action plan. In casting my vote, I'll be thinking about the need to protect community livability for all residents, whether seniors, families, commuters or business owners.
But also added to the mix will be my responsibilities as a dad to my three young children, who along with their peers are ultimately the ones that will have to live in the future with the consequences of the actions we take - or fail to take - today.
I'll be voting Yes, and I encourage my fellow citizens to as well.
Jonathan Cote is the mayor of New Westminster.
