According to the latest update on Squamish's transportation plan, a monorail isn't in the works, but a passenger ferry might be.
Squamish's transit issues are numerous and complex and community development director Mick Gottardi has his work cut out trying to establish the multi-modal transportation plan that encompasses all forms of transportation that might be feasible over the next 20 years.
The 86-page report and the three-hour presentation during a Committee of the Whole meeting Tuesday (Jan. 4) left one councillor "cautiously optimistic."
"I remain cautiously optimistic but that's as positive as I can be about it," said Coun. Bryan Raiser. "It's just that it's been so long coming - I want connectivity between our neighbourhoods and I've wanted that for so long.
"I think we're going to get there but it's not going to be easy. This three hours is just a drop in the bucket of what this whole process is going to take."
The process of formulating a transportation plan is a two-stage process and the report presented to council is the first stage. The study presented on Tuesday aimed to determine where Squamish is with transportation modes and what the effect on them will be in 2031 if there are no improvements.
That report, along with dozens of surveys, will be presented to the public at the end of January.
The next step is the production of a Multi-Modal Transportation Plan, which will determine Squamish's strategy for developing transportation modes over the next 20 years.
Gottardi's report outlined the current transportation system's issues and opportunities, a system Mayor Greg Gardner said isn't failing at the moment. However, he said on Thursday (Jan. 6), transportation modes need to diversify.
At the moment, 88 per cent of the transportation in Squamish is auto traffic and the aim is to formulate a plan that will change that. If the current auto traffic standards remain, by 2031 it is expected that traffic at several highway intersections would be severely delayed many days of the year.
"Generally it is the goal of the District of Squamish to lower the percentage of auto travel and to support alternative methods of transportation to work," Gardner said. "We haven't set any specific targets at this time but that is our goal generally."
Gottardi said the high level of cycling interest in Squamish is an opportunity for local officials, although most councillors said improving local transit should be the main priority.
"When you're looking at alternate forms of transportation, it really comes down to things like transit, biking or walking," said Coun. Doug Race. "And of those three, transit really is the one that makes the most sense because there's people who have physical limitations, there's terrain issues and weather issues.
"So the focus in the short term, apart from obvious things like improving some of the biking corridors, will focus on transit."
One resident tends to agree.
"The system needs to improve," Chris Gielow said. "There are no buses on Sundays or holidays."
Gottardi recognized these issues in his presentations - infrequent and unreliable service throughout the day with only two buses serving three routes, no Sunday and holiday service, indirect routing, limited commuter service to Whistler and no service to Metro Vancouver.
"Improving local transit service is the top transportation priority by a wide margin," he said.
Council members also discussed expanding transit to other types of service such as passenger ferries and monorails - options that were researched extensively in preparation for the 2010 Olympics. The ferry was considered a feasible option.
"There was a lot of work done on rail transportation and that was determined not to be a realistic goal," Gardner said. "However, passenger ferry transportation was something that came very close to being viable on an operating cost basis at that time.
"There would definitely have to be a government investment in the infrastructure, primarily the terminals, but that is a viable goal in the future."
In his report, Gottardi also analyzed every intersection in Squamish to find congestion issues and during peak periods there were some potential delays.
Gardner said the infrequent peak times in the corridor made it difficult to plan for such issues.
"The most significant problems arise on Friday evenings and Sunday evenings, obviously because of traffic to Whistler," he said. "It's very difficult, however, to develop a whole transportation plan around two peak periods and only in the winter months."
He said the suggested way to deal with congestion on the highway is to make sure alternate routes connecting neighbourhoods are available.
"Comments made it clear the best way to deal with that was to make sure there were routes available for the local traffic to get from point A to point B and avoid those traffic backups - Government Road, Loggers Lane and crossings on the highway," he said.
The public information session will be an opportunity for the public to receive information and give their input.
