Transportation managers who make decisions on how often buses should run, whether park-and-ride lots should be built, where roads should be improved and where bike lanes are needed say they’re counting on the public to weigh in on the issues – quite literally.
TransLink and other partner transportation agencies have hired polling company Ipsos Reid to conduct a regional survey of Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley residents, which tracks where people travel and how they get there. The detailed survey, conducted every five years, is a bit like a transportation census, said Chris Bryan, spokesman for TransLink.
“It’s definitely a deep dive when it comes to understanding how (people) get around the region,” said Bryan.
Whether you drove your daughter to dance class, took the SeaBus to work, or walked to school – TransLink wants to know.
That information is key to making future decisions about how to build the transportation, said Bryan. “It touches everything from where we put bus stops to money we provide to municipalities to improve their own biking and walking infrastructure as well as improvements to roads.”
Invitations to take part in the online survey have been sent to 400,000 households across Metro Vancouver, who are then asked to record all trips taken by household members on specific days and log in online to fill out the survey.
TransLink is aiming to get back surveys from 27,000 households including about 2,300 on the North Shore. The survey is expected to wrap up in December with results available in the second half of 2018.
At the same time, the mobility pricing commission examining the possibility of road tolls in Metro Vancouver is also seeking public comment on what people see as the biggest transportation headaches. The public can fill out their survey online at itstimemv.ca.
