The sector is more stable than leisure travel, say hotels and tourism industry members

Bruce Constantineau
Sun

The number of international meetings held in Vancouver shot up by 70 per cent last year — the highest percentage increase of any North American city, according to a Union of International Associations report.

The report said the number of international organizations holding meetings in Vancouver rose from 33 in 2001 to 56 last year, as the meetings sector rebounded from the downturn caused by the September 2001 terrorist attacks.

“Canadian cities benefit from being a North American location without some of the political and security issues associated with the U.S.,” said Convention Centres of Canada executive director Rod Cameron.

“And a lot of U.S. groups don’t want to travel overseas now, so Canada is a good option for them as well.”

The report said the number of international meetings held in Montreal rose by 61 per cent last year (from 54 to 87) while the number of meetings in Toronto increased by 37 per cent (from 35 to 48). The number of meetings in Seattle dropped from 27 in 2001 to 24 last year.

The UIA report centres on meetings sponsored or organized by international organizations.

Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre general manager Barbara Maple said business at the convention centre dropped off only slightly following the terrorist attacks. The number of annual delegate days at the centre fell from 194,000 to 169,000 after 9/11 but it rebounded to more than 206,000 for the 12 months ending in March of this year.

Maple noted meeting and convention business is traditionally more stable than leisure travel, which dropped off substantially last year.

“Associations have annual meetings and it’s usually in their bylaws that they have to have them,” she said. “They obviously have a choice of where they can go but they can’t just choose to not have one.

“That’s why the business is more stable and less affected by outside events. We had a few meetings postponed this year [because of the SARS scare] but they usually come back.”

Maple noted the long-term planning associated with booking conventions makes it a steadier and more predictable business. VCEC officials now are looking to book business for 2010 and beyond, she said.

A recent PricewaterhouseCoopers study said the downturn in global leisure travel has made the meetings and conventions business a more important tourism industry revenue source than ever before.

The study said that before 2000, convention business accounted for 18 per cent of the revenue and 20 per cent of the profits of U.S. hotels. But those figures rose to 23 per cent and 27 per cent respectively last year when the downturn in leisure travel caused U.S. hotel occupancy rates to hit their lowest levels in 31 years.

Westin Bayshore Resort & Marina general manager Mark Andrew agrees that group and meeting business is more predictable than leisure travel and said meeting business at the hotel has bounced back strongly in recent months.

“We’ve had a steady climb in conference business year over year and that business has basically doubled [since a $50 million renovation was completed in 2000],” he said. “I could always ask for more but I’m very happy with the way it’s trending.”

Westin Grand Hotel general manager Stephen Darling said Vancouver is very fortunate to have a diversified tourism marketplace that generates business from many sources — including corporate, leisure, convention, film business and others.

“Seattle has relatively little leisure travel in their whole makeup,” he said. “They’re strong on conventions and strong on corporate travel, particularly related to Microsoft and Boeing, but there’s not as much leisure business.”

© Copyright  2003 Vancouver Sun

Transit officials plan to make the street a model for other routes

Maurice Bridge
Sun

VANCOUVER – Main Street is about to become a $6.4-million showcase for improved urban transit.

The Greater Vancouver Transit Authority (GVTA), the Greater Vancouver Regional District and Transport Canada plan to spend the money over the next three years on improvements like “bus bulges” and “queue jumpers” to turn the No. 3 Main bus route into a model for other routes.

It’s one of several innovative new programs by the transit authority and the district aimed at getting Lower Mainland commuters out of their cars and on to other modes of transportation.

The Main Street route, which is 8.2 kilometres long, is one of the most heavily used in the Lower Mainland. No. 3 buses carry an average of more than 23,000 people every day, and other buses on the same route at the downtown end add another 7,000. The No. 3 is standing-room-only from about 6:30 a.m. until nearly 10 a.m., and then again from mid-afternoon until about 7 p.m.

Only Broadway buses, with about 50,000 riders, and Granville buses, which reach 100,000 with all the suburban buses running in from Richmond, Delta, Surrey and White Rock, carry more riders on a daily basis.

But the problem isn’t the number of riders — it’s the frequency of the buses. Heavy commercial and private-vehicle traffic on Main, plus a lot of traffic and pedestrian stop-lights, means buses get jammed in the flow.

Despite a bylaw requiring drivers to give right-of-way to a bus moving back into traffic from the curb, one driver laments that “even the cops don’t let us in”.

In the mornings, 16 per cent of northbound buses run late, and 22 per cent of southbound buses. In the evenings, late southbounds drop to 22 per cent, but northbounds record a dismal 83-per-cent late-rate.

“This is the problem of the banana service,” says Stephen Rees, program manager for transportation policy at the Greater Vancouver Transit Authority (GVTA), whose job it is to make the Main Street showcase a reality. “You know, the buses only come in bunches.”

It’s a concept easily understood by anyone who has waited too long on a rainy day at a stop without a shelter, and Main Street has plenty of those.

“In congested conditions, the front bus starts getting later and later as it’s delayed, and it picks up more and more people who were waiting for the bus behind.

“Eventually, what happens is the bus behind, because it’s not picking up so many people, catches up to the bus in front. So instead of one bus every five minutes, you’ve got three buses every 15.

“The idea of regularizing the system is to keep that spacing even, so that people see a five-minute frequency and not a 15-minute frequency.”

The showcase project plans to redesign the streetscape with “bus bulges” — extensions of the curb at bus stops and intersections that allow buses to load and unload passengers without pulling out of traffic. These also make street crossings narrower, reducing the time needed for pedestrian-crossing signals and speeding up the flow of all traffic.

“Queue jumpers” — short , dedicated bus lanes at congestion points along the route — will allow buses to move quickly past areas that currently slow them down.

A signal-priority system will allow buses to “hold” green lights long enough to get them through intersections, reducing the number of stops for red lights. Better bus stops, with electronic displays similar to those used on the No. 98 B-Line are to be included to make using the bus more attractive to a wider range of riders.

The three-year project aims to improve efficiency by 10 to 15 per cent, and the GVTA suggests the freed-up resources could be used to increase bus service along Main by up to 20 per cent.

Rees notes that the point is not simply to make the buses go faster. That could be achieved by turning the curb lane over exclusively to buses, he says, but it wouldn’t achieve the desired goals.

“What that does is, it antagonizes people, because it puts fast traffic next to people who are walking on the sidewalks, and when the sidewalks are crowded, that’s an uncomfortable feeling for everybody.

“It also gives people the wrong impression that what we’re trying to do is just speed up the buses and get you through your neighborhood, and that’s not the idea at all.

He adds that the aim of the Main Street showcase is not simply to push the GVTA agenda, but to work with the city.

“Yes, we’ll get better transit reliability,” he says, “but also there should be considerable improvements in the way the street works, commercially and socially.”

[email protected]

– – –

ABOUT #3

Daily riders on Main Street buses: 30,000

Percentage of non-transferring riders: 70

Length of route: 8.2 kilometres

Frequency of No. 3 buses: 4-5 minutes (day); 7-8 minutes (evening)

Vehicles per day on Main Street: 15,000 (south of Broadway); 25,000 (north of Broadway to Dunsmuir Viaduct)

Percentage of late No. 3 northbounds in the afternoon: 83

© Copyright  2003 Vancouver Sun

Sun

Frank Luba
Province

Residents of the Greater Vancouver Regional District will pay increased property taxes, higher transit fares and a controversial new parking fee to pay for $1.9 billion worth of roads, bridges and public transit approved yesterday by TransLink, the regional transportation agency.

Details of the parking fee have yet to be worked out but that particular proposal has incensed the owners of shopping malls and commercial buildings.

“It simply won’t get people out of their cars,” said Retail B.C. president Mark Startup.

TransLink board members were divided in their support for the ambitious plan for 2005-2007, to be paid for by new taxes, fees and fares that would raise about $100 million a year.

Board chairman Doug McCallum refused to allow the options to be separated for individual votes and debates.

Although challenged by Vancouver Coun. Fred Bass, the board supported McCallum’s ruling and eventually approved the plan.

McCallum acknowledged there were problems with the plan but hailed the final decision.

“We have parts of the plan that people don’t like and we need to work with those people as we go over the next few years . . . to listen to their concerns,” he said.

“I think it’s a historic day for transportation in our region, that we’re going to move ahead now.”

Bass voted against the plan, breaking ranks with his fellow COPE members from Vancouver: Mayor Larry Campbell and Coun. David Cadman.

Bass objected to the plan because of the financial risk involved in building the $1.5- to $1.7-billion rapid transit line proposed to link Richmond, Vancouver International Airport and Vancouver. TransLink’s plan includes a $370-million contribution to the cost of the so-called RAV line, with the remainder to be raised by the federal and provincial governments and a private partner.

Bass said the plan lacked support for buses, which carry more than 70 per cent of all transit users. He also objected to backing a plan that isn’t funded beyond 2007.

The $1.9-billion three-year plan is part of a proposed $3.9-billion package of transportation needs that TransLink is proposing for the next 10 years.

“To push through a plan that incorporates the biggest public project ever to be done [in the Lower Mainland] and to not have the money in hand, not know where it’s coming from, and to spend all our money on RAV and roads is wrong,” said Bass.

TransLink’s plan was supported by groups as diverse as the B.C. Federation of Labour — whose president Jim Sinclair spoke out in favour of it at the last public meeting on the plan — the B.C. Automobile Association and transit advocates Better Environmentally Sound Transportation.

But the board’s approval was a bitter pill for the Rethink RAV Coalition. The group fought the plan because it opposed the rapid transit line going down the Cambie Heritage Boulevard in the city of Vancouver when the Arbutus corridor would be less expensive.

Spokesman Don Toffaletto was “extremely disappointed.”

“We think it’s time property owners and renters that are going to be hit with this [increased costs] started some kind of revolt,” said Toffaletto.

Besides Bass, board members who opposed the plan were Pitt Meadows Mayor Don MacLean, New Westminster Mayor Wayne Wright and North Vancouver City Mayor Barbara Sharp.

Leading the group in favour of the plan were McCallum, who is mayor of Surrey, and Surrey Coun. Marvin Hunt, who will now have to steer the proposal through approval for property tax increases by the GVRD board, where he is the chairman. Also in support were Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie, Langley City Mayor Marlene Grinnell, Port Moody Mayor Joe Trasolini and Port Coquitlam Mayor Scott Young.

WHERE ALL THOSE MILLIONS ARE GOING TO BE SPENT

Some highlights from TransLink’s $1.9-billion capital plan approved yesterday:

ROADS

:: Major roads, $105 million (a further $125 million accumulated in earlier years).

:: Minor roads, $60 million.

:: Transit-related roads, $9 million.

BRIDGES

:: Rehabilitation of Pattullo, Knight Street and Westham Island bridges, $54 million.

:: New Fraser River crossing between Langley and Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows, $600 million (to be paid for with tolls).

TRANSIT

:: Contribution of $370 million to Richmond-Airport-Vancouver rapid-transit project (which costs between $1.5 billion and $1.7 billion).

:: Northeast-sector rapid transit, $400 million (contribution toward estimated final cost of $900 million if SkyTrain technology is used).

:: Replacing 492 bus and custom vehicles (including new trolleys), $312 million.

:: Maintaining infrastructure, including new depots and new maintenance centre, $200 million.

:: Expanding bus and HandyDart fleet by 156 vehicles, $59 million.

:: Payments toward 34 new SkyTrain cars, $84 million.

:: New West Coast Express station and spare locomotive, $10 million.

:: Cycling infrastructure, $15 million.

:: SeaBus retrofit, $5 million.

HOW IT WILL BE PAID FOR, BEGINNING IN JANUARY 2005

:: PROPERTY TAX :: TransLink will raise $56 million to $58 million annually from property tax by charging an extra $20 per $100,000 of assessed value.

That works out to another $61 on the average assessed value of $309,000, from which TransLink already takes about $89.

:: TRANSIT FARES :: These fares, which rose in 2002 by 25 cents for single-zone and 50 cents for two- and three-zone rides, will go up by about six per cent to raise another $11 million to $15 million annually.

Exactly how that will be done hasn’t been determined but it basically works out to about 10 cents more on a single-zone fare, which is currently $2.

:: PARKING TAX :: Since discussion began about TransLink’s new plan, the proposal focused on increasing parking taxes on off-street pay parking from seven per cent to 21 per cent in order to raise $25 million to 26 million annually.

Because of widespread opposition from downtown Vancouver, where the bulk of pay parking exists, the other option has been chosen — a tax on either the parking-lot area or number of parking stalls across the region, which would cost about $28 per stall.

This has raised great opposition from shopping malls and commercial buildings. Exact details on the stall tax have yet to be worked out but the seven per cent on off-street pay parking will be retained.

© Copyright 2003 The Province

10-year program includes two new rapid transit lines and new roads

William Boei
Sun

TransLink approved a $4-billion, 10-year regional transportation plan Wednesday, despite criticism of a new tax on free-parking spaces and a financial strategy that depends on the generosity of prime minister-designate Paul Martin.

The plan calls for an ambitious building program that includes two rapid transit lines, new roads, a new Fraser River crossing and a modest expansion of TransLink’s bus fleet, all by 2013.

Most TransLink directors saw the plan as the necessary first step in a fight against urban sprawl and traffic congestion in Greater Vancouver.

There were few quibbles about the plan itself but many about the financial strategy, which includes an increase in property taxes, the new parking tax and transit fare hikes tied to inflation to finance the first three years.

Some directors didn’t like the new parking tax, others complained that property taxes are an unfair way to fund transit, and some demanded that transit service be improved before fares are increased again.

But most voted for the plan, agreeing with chief executive Pat Jacobsen that turning it down risked plunging TransLink into another financial crisis like one three years ago that led to project delays and a four-month transit strike in 2001.

The plant counts on Martin to deliver a big chunk of federal fuel-tax revenue to pay for the last seven years.

If he fails to come through, TransLink will fall back on fare increases, the parking tax and delaying some programs, Jacobsen said.

“But our core strategy remains to secure the federal gas tax,” she added. “We will solicit the support of the municipalities and the business community to that end.”

Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell said he expects Martin to deliver.

“He is dedicated to helping municipalities,” Campbell said. “He recognizes that 80 per cent of the people of Canada live in municipalities, and that they need help with their infrastructure.”

Campbell won his fight against the proposed tripling of an existing tax on paid offstreet parking, which would have hit downtown Vancouver especially hard. Instead, the new tax will require the owners of free parking spaces at shopping malls and office parks to pay about $30 per parking space per year, or eight cents a day.

“We should not be carrying the weight of the whole TransLink system in the city of Vancouver,” Campbell told the board.

Some mayors of mall-rich municipalities, including Richmond‘s Malcolm Brodie, grumbled about the switch but accepted an assurance from Jacobsen that merchants and mall owners will be consulted, and that the tax will be implemented as painlessly as possible.

Later, Campbell told reporters that if the tax is the difference between a store’s success and failure, “they shouldn’t be in business.”

He said Greater Vancouver has no choice but to spend money on transportation infrastructure.

“You have to pay for it, that’s all there is to it,” Campbell said. “The option is to end up with complete and total gridlock here, where businesses can’t move and we can’t move goods.

“There’s no free ride here. I wish there was.”

Wednesday’s meeting appear-ed to widen a rift between Vancouver‘s TransLink directors, with Campbell and Councillor David Cadman on one side and Councillor Fred Bass on the other.

Bass said the 10-year plan pays too much attention to rapid transit projects and road-building at the expense of expanding the bus fleet. But his attempt to have each item in the plan put to individual votes was rejected by chairman Doug McCallum. Bass ended up voting against the financial plan, while Campbell and Cadman supported it.

Bass called the process undemocratic and the TransLink board “a kangaroo court.” As he spoke, Campbell folded his hands and bowed his head, as if praying.

Green transit advocate Ray Straatsma agreed with Bass that the plan has weaknesses, but said it was a worthwhile compromise

“Do we like everything in the plan?” Straatsma asked. “No. Could it be better? Yes. But on balance, I think TransLink made a very important decision today, and its a decision in the right direction.”

Straatsma, policy director for Better Environmentally Sound Transportation (BEST) said challenges include the lack of firm financing for seven-tenths of the plan, and the need to come to grips with land use issues to prevent urban sprawl.

Former Vancouver councillor and TransLink chairman George Puil, who lost his seat in the wake of TransLink’s last financial crisis, said TransLink made the right choice Wednesday, although he predicted it may eventually have to reconsider a vehicle levy.

“You have to think of what’s best for the region,” Puil said. “I think they’re moving in the right direction.”

[email protected]

– – –

TRANSLINK’S 10-YEAR PLAN

The 10-year plan adopted Wednesday by TransLink, the Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority, includes:

– Completing the Richmond-

Airport-Vancouver rapid transit line before 2010.

– Working concurrently on a rapid transit line to fast-growing northeastern municipalities, and planning a third line west on Broadway.

– A new bridge over the Fraser River in the northeast sector.

– Twinning the Dollarton Bridge.

– A new North Fraser perimeter road.

-Widening the Fraser Highway.

– Expanding the U-Pass program from 60,000 students to 100,000 by 2007.

– Expanding transit pass programs to include employee groups who work near transit facilities.

– Boosting transit, cycling and walking as alternatives to driving.

– Increasing bus service capacity by one-third by 2013.

– More use of commuter ferries.

– Replacing aging SkyTrain cars and older buses.

© Copyright  2003 Vancouver Sun

Sun

David Carrigg
Van. Courier

Residents of high-rise condo developments sprouting up around Coal Harbour and Triangle West will no longer have to trudge 12 blocks up Bute Street to Davie to do their grocery shopping.

Next summer, they’ll be able to cross West Hastings at Bute and shop in a 26,000-square-foot Urban Fare grocery store, part of a 300-foot residential tower being built at the southwest corner of the intersection.

The $20-million development will be the first along Bute between Melville and West Cordova to allow retail outlets, in what’s being labelled the “Bute Street High Street” retail district.

When public meetings were held in the fall to discuss including a grocery store in the project, the response was overwhelming, said Mark Ehman, a partner with Downs Archambault Architects, the company designing the project at 1201 West Hastings.

“All the residents were very keen on having a grocery store in their community. There were no opponents,” said Ehman, adding the Urban Fare store will be smaller than a typical supermarket.

Currently, residents of the many glass-clad residential towers between Georgia Street and Waterfront Road and Thurlow and Jervis streets must walk, cycle or drive to the Super Valu at the corner of Davie and Bute streets to go grocery shopping.

One man passing by where the proposed Urban Fare will be located was laden down with four Super Valu shopping bags. The man said he lived in one of the new towers on West Hastings Street and was looking forward to stepping across the road for goods, instead of walking uphill 12 blocks.

On Thursday, city staff will request that restrictions on retail along the north four blocks of Bute Street be lifted. The report was prompted by several requests from developers to include retail space in residential developments on that portion of Bute.

The retail restrictions were imposed about 10 years ago when the Coal Harbour and Triangle West developments were proposed.

At the time, Robson Street retailers opposed the idea of permitting stores in the neighbourhood, because of fears of competition.

But the report going to council says Bute Street is now the primary pedestrian route linking Coal Harbour and Triangle West with Robson Street and the West End.

“It is in the public interest to establish a neighbourhood commercial centre for the growing resident population in the area,” says the report by development planner Anita Molaro. The report stresses the area will cater to smaller, community-based retail outlets, rather than the kinds of destination boutiques found along Robson Street.

Corene West, executive director of the Robson Street Business Improvement Association, said the association has heard rumblings about the creation of a shopping precinct on Bute Street, but she did not have enough information to comment.

Besides the grocery store, Ehman said the $20-million development at 1201 West Hastings St. will include four live/work townhouses at the base of the building and 136 condo units.

Three blocks south, at the corner of Bute and Melville streets, a development application has been filed for a 400-foot tower, with 7,500 square feet of retail space on the ground floor.

A proposal has also been forwarded for a one-level restaurant at the corner of Cordova and Bute streets.

 

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