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Jon Ferry
Province

Despite all the self-righteous chatter about people in Metro Vancouver needing to get out of their SUVs and start riding bicycles or taking transit, the vast majority of folks who travel around our region daily still do so by motor vehicle.

The region’s outdated traffic-management system, meanwhile, guarantees that getting in and out of the city of Vancouver can sometimes be a nightmare.

So closing one or two lanes of the Burrard Street Bridge to auto traffic this summer, as Vancouver city council appears set to do, will likely simply compound the misery.

On the other hand, there is an outside chance this brave new experiment could prove a progressive step toward promoting an increasingly green city, as a majority of Vancouver councillors undoubtedly believe.

The travelling public will have six months to give it a thorough road test — unless, of course, a public outcry forces city hall to put a stop to it earlier, as it did during a similar six-month trial in 1996. That experiment lasted just a week.

Certainly, many of Vancouver‘s vocal bicycling advocates will applaud the latest lane exchange, which should make it easier for them to head downtown without having to share a narrow bridge sidewalk with pedestrians.

Whatever the outcome, though, I believe it’s high time bicycle riders in B.C. stopped getting a free ride and started paying their fair share of road taxes and other fees.

An annual bicycle-registration fee of, say, $50 would be a good start, with cyclists being required to display bicycle-identification plates.

This is not something I’ve suddenly dreamed up. I discussed it with Critical Mass riders over Christmas. And it’s been advanced by cyclists themselves as a way of funding badly needed new cycling lanes and routes.

It might also help end the bad blood with motorists, many of whom consider cyclists to be little better than freeloaders. And it could well encourage them to become more responsible road-users, by making it easier for police and others to identify rule-breakers.

Indeed, that’s one of the reasons given by Republican legislator Wayne Krieger of Oregon for proposing a bill that would require cyclists to register their bikes with the state, paying a fee of $54 US every two years. “Here in Salem, a lot of people are tired of how folks blatantly break laws on their bikes,” Krieger said in a BikePortland.org interview. “And I’m not talking about kids, I’m talking about adults. If they have a sticker then you know who it is and you have some way to track them down.”

However, Krieger’s taxation initiative has been called everything from stupid to just plain crazy. And an Associated Press story said the odds of Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski signing the bill appeared to be only slightly better than his chances of winning the Tour de France.

But is it really any madder than jamming up one of Vancouver‘s busiest bridges with motor-vehicle traffic in the height of our key tourist season? I think not.

© Copyright (c) The Province

 

Controversial lane closures will return to Vancouver span this summer

Christina Montgomery
Province

Controversial lane closures that pitted cyclists against motorists — and delayed commutes by about 15 minutes — a decade ago will return to Vancouver‘s Burrard Bridge this summer.

The only question: Will it be one lane or two given over to the $1.5-million test of how to make the aging, six-lane bridge friendlier to growing pedestrian and cyclist traffic without badly jamming the busy commuter route.

A staff report heading for council next week — and what is likely to be a large crowd of speakers — doesn’t make a formal recommendation on any of the three one- or two-lane options it presents.

But it notes that closing just one lane would make life less miserable for motorists.

The trial will run past Labour Day if approved, with an assessment ready by October and a final report on any permanent changes, repairs and upgrades to the bridge ready by early 2010.

Work on Cambie and Granville streets will be largely done in time for the trial.

Much of the vehicle traffic is expected to flow to the Granville Bridge, whose eight lanes now carry 60,000 cars a day. Burrard, with six lanes, carries 70,000.

The trial options include:

– Four lanes for vehicles, a curb lane in each direction for cyclists only and both sidewalks for pedestrians only. Advantage: safer for pedestrians, better and safer biking conditions, best way to test effect on motor traffic and goods movement;

– Five lanes for traffic, west curb lane for southbound cyclists, west sidewalk pedestrian-only, east sidewalk shared by cyclists and pedestrians. Advantage: Less impact on drivers, better and safer cycling, no change in pedestrian access to bridge;

– Five lanes for vehicles, one lane for southbound cyclists, east sidewalk for northbound cyclists only, west sidewalk for pedestrians only. Advantage: Pedestrians get sidewalk they mostly use, cyclists and pedestrians separated for safe passage.

A one-lane closure in 1996 that backed up traffic by about 15 minutes was cancelled after five days when drivers and downtown business groups complained.

But physical conflict between cyclists and pedestrians on the narrow sidewalks continued. One woman, thrown into traffic and injured when she swerved to avoid a pedestrian, later sued the city.

Barriers along the sidewalks were rejected when it was determined the walkways are too narrow for them. New sidewalks hung from the outside of the bridge would cost about $63 million.

Coun. Heather Deal, who is spearheading the ruling Vision Vancouver party’s push for the trial run, told The Province the test is worth running despite controversy about the past effort.

“It’s simply not practical to leave [bridge traffic] the way it is,” she said. “It’s a safety issue.

“We’re going to provide a safer alternative that’s going to save taxpayers some money.”

The report is expected to be held over until Thursday to accommodate speakers.

© Copyright (c) The Province

False Creek, Burrard Inlet and Fraser River’s north arm will all face restricted access due to security concerns

Bruce Constantineau
Sun

Boaters plying the waters of False Creek, Burrard Inlet and the north arm of the Fraser River will face no-entry “exclusion zones” and restricted access during the Olympic Games next year.

The restrictions were outlined by the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit at a public meeting in Vancouver late Tuesday.

A “floating marine barrier” under the Cambie Bridge from Jan. 25 to March 24 will restrict access to vessels wanting to head east of the bridge. Vessels moored in the area will be allowed to enter and leave False Creek if they’re accompanied by a security escort.

Three exclusion zones will exist in the waters immediately around the athletes’ village on the south shore of False Creek, the international broadcast centre at Canada Place and the Richmond Oval near the Fraser River. Controlled access zones will stretch further out from the exclusion zones, allowing travel with permission from security vessels.

Granville Island Ferries operations manager Jeremy Patterson said the measures will force his company to abandon two of its regular routes during the Games because the docks are located east of Cambie Bridge — near Science World and the Plaza of Nations.

“We were kind of expecting it but now we know for sure,” he said. “No passengers can travel [east of the bridge] but there may be enough business for us in the west end of False Creek anyway.”

ISU spokesman Const. Bert Paquet said private vessels returning to their False Creek berths east of the bridge will have to wait for a security escort vessel to accompany them. The same procedure will apply when the vessels leave False Creek.

“Because of the close proximity to the exclusion zone and some of our important venues, there will be an escort in and out,” Paquet said.

He said controlled access zones will allow access for vessels with a reason to be there but prevent tourists and spectators from getting too close to venues and causing “water traffic nightmares.”

Paquet said security vessels will patrol Howe Sound on a regular basis because of the importance of the Sea to Sky Highway as a transportation link.

“We have a job to do but we’re trying to minimize the impact on local boaters and businesses alike,” he said.

Port Metro Vancouver Harbour Master Capt. Yoss Leclerc said he’s pleased the security measures won’t affect commercial traffic. He said the exclusion zones will not affect commercial traffic channels.

“The port is an important part of the supply chain for the Canadian economy and we wanted to protect that as much as possible,” Leclerc said in an interview.

Commercial marine traffic in Vancouver is generally steady throughout the year but has slowed due to the global recession.

LeClerc said SeaBus operations will not be affected by security measures as it’s considered an important public transit operation.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

 

Numbers start with 1 more often than with other digits

Glen Mcgregor
Sun

Canadians tempted to get creative with their income-tax returns might want to familiarize themselves with the work of Frank Benford before the Thursday night tax-filing deadline.

The Canada Revenue Agency is using a little-known statistical phenomenon named after the late American physicist to help identify which tax returns to examine more closely.

Benford’s “law” holds that in a series of naturally occurring numbers, the number 1 will appear as the first digit more often than other numbers. Whether the figures are street addresses, expense reports or tax deductions, the “loneliest number” leads off about 30 per cent of the time.

The number two occurs as the leading digit substantially less often, in about 18 per cent of real-life numbers.

Figures starting with a nine account for only five per cent of a typical data set.

A bank statement, for example, should contain far more entries for numbers like $1.70, $10.55 or $1,082 than those beginning with larger numbers, such as $6.50, $800 or $98.60.

The pattern may seem counter-intuitive but that’s what makes it a powerful tool for spotting expense-account fudgers and tax cheats. Someone who fabricates numbers tends to distribute them randomly, with an equal share of leading digits from one to nine.

When these kinds of numbers are crunched by a computer, sets that don’t conform to the leading-digit pattern can be easily spotted and singled out for closer examination.

Benford, who worked as engineer for General Electric, first tripped over this phenomenon in 1938, reportedly when he noticed certain logarithm tables in a textbook were more worn than others.

But only in recent years has the value of the pattern as an auditing tool been recognized by forensic accountants, in part because faster and cheaper computers allow first-digit analysis to be performed easily on large amounts of data.

The CRA says it is now using the first-digit rule in certain circumstances to combat what it politely calls “non-compliance” in tax returns.

“Benford’s law is a useful initial risk-assessment tool. However, it is never used in reassessments or in support of reassessments, which are done based on facts and tax law,” said spokesman Philippe Brideau.

While the CRA won’t say exactly how it employs Benford’s law, the agency has shown interest in using it to analyze corporate tax returns, says Mark Nigrini, a professor at the College of New Jersey and the leading expert on Benford-based tax auditing.

Two years ago, Nigrini spoke to CRA’s research division about his research and encouraged them to put the simple, but effective, technique to use in the field.

“They need to use all the new tools at their disposal,” he says. “It should be one of your tests, of many.”

Benford’s law is most effective at determining what sort of tax information is more prone to errors or fraud and how best to deploy auditors.

Nigrini says analysis of U.S. tax returns shows deductions for mortgage payments tend to follow Benford’s law closely, but claims for charitable contributions tend to be “very messy” when sorted by their leading digits.

“When people invent fraudulent numbers, they tend to avoid numbers that two of the same digit following each other – for example 155 or 773,” says Nigrini, who helps Ottawa-based CaseWare IDEA develops statistics software based in part on Benford’s law.

Benford’s law could be particularly useful as more Canadians file their tax returns electronically, without having to submit paper receipts to back up claims for childcare expenses, political donations and charitable contributions, among others.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Vancouver tops cities survey

Sun

Vancouver has been ranked the top city in the Americas and the fourth best city in the world in Mercer’s 2009 Quality of Living survey released Tuesday.

The survey conducted by a New York-based human resources company is intended to be used by governments and multinational corporations that send employees on international assignments. It covers 215 cities. It uses a point scoring index with New York as its base city.

The survey gave the top five spots in the Americas to Canadian cities, with Toronto taking second place (15th worldwide), then Ottawa (16th), Montreal (22nd) and Calgary (26th). Seattle was ranked 50th in the Americas.

Vancouver also was tops when it came to comparing infrastructure in the Americas, followed by Atlanta, Ga. Infrastructure rankings are based on electricity supply, water availability, telephone and mail service, public transport, traffic congestion and the range of international flights from local airports.

When it comes to worldwide rankings, Vancouver shared fourth place with Auckland, N.Z., behind Zurich — the top city — then Vienna and Geneva. The least enticing city in the world was Baghdad.

Last year, Vancouver also finished fourth in world rankings, a drop from 2006 and 2007 when it was ranked third.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

 

Wendy McLellan
Province

The first sign of invasion is usually the clumps of grass pulled out by the roots and flung all over the yard.

A look under a bit of the remaining lawn will probably confirm it: fat, curled-up, white grubs just under the turf are providing a handy buffet for every raccoon, skunk and crow in the neighbourhood.

Coquitlam is the latest Lower Mainland community to suffer an invasion of European chafer beetles, and pest-control experts would like to stop the bugs before they spread any further. It seems like an impossible dream.

“They are so devastating in the first few years, they wreak havoc,” said Tracy Hueppelsheuser, an entomologist with the province’s Plant Health Unit in Abbotsford.

“If you don’t deal with it, you just won’t have any lawn.”

While the chafer beetles don’t cause any harm, they lay their eggs in lawns and the larvae feed on the roots.

In spring, when the grubs migrate close to the soil surface, they become a banquet for bug-loving wildlife that easily tear out the damaged grass.

The first Lower Mainland community to battle the beetles was New Westminster in 2001.

From there, the bugs spread to Burnaby and are steadily marching west and south through Vancouver. Coquitlam now has its first brush with the bugs.

“They’re just on the border of Coquitlam, and they have made it as far west as Oak Street in Vancouver,” said Ian Wraight, owner of the Vancouver lawn-care franchise for Nutri-Lawn.

“Some people’s lawns are so devastated they pretty much have nothing left. If you’re lucky, you will have a little damage that can be repaired. But sometimes all you can do is replace the lawn and that can be a major cost for the homeowner.”

So far, the beetles haven’t made it across the Fraser River into the Valley or on to the North Shore.

While the beetles can fly short distances before laying their eggs, the best way to control them is to keep a healthy lawn and not move fill from infested communities into new areas.

How to kill the invader

 

 The best defence against European chafer beetles is a healthy lawn. Beetles prefer stressed turf with dry spots when lay their eggs in early July, so keep your lawn watered and a little long.

If you are in an infested neighbourhood, apply a predatory nematode to attack the eggs or use chemical insecticides. For more info, go to www.agf.gov.bc.ca/cropprot/chafer.htm or your municipality’s website.

© Copyright (c) The Province

Utility hopes to transform the way consumers think about purchases

Scott Simpson
Sun

Save energy, save money. Even before Terasen Gas announced a new set of rebates this week for energy-efficient appliances, consumers were awash in incentives to help curtail greenhouse gas emissions.

Buy a high-efficiency hot-water heater, for example, and your purchase can qualify for a federal ecoEnergy rebate, a LiveSmart BC rebate, and even a PST exemption.

Depending on the model you purchase, you could recover $2,000 or so on the purchase of a gas furnace — and that’s not including Terasen’s pending offers, or any manufacturers incentives that may be available.

Potentially, that’s five different cash rewards on a single purchase.

Gas furnaces are typically the big-ticket items in the home appliance realm, and Terasen has in the past made periodic rebate offers.

This time around, however, the province’s biggest gas utility has a long-term plan and is looking to fundamentally reshape the way consumers think about purchases of many home appliances that rely on natural gas.

In a ruling handed down this week, the British Columbia Utilities Commission accepted Terasen’s proposal to spend $41.5 million on a new three-year energy efficiency and conservation program that includes rebates, public education campaigns, and even a program directed specifically for low-income customers.

Earlier programs have cost in the range of $3 million a year and were exclusively focused on rewarding purchases by commercial and residential customers of high-efficiency furnaces and boilers.

“We’ve always had energy-efficiency programs, but on a small scale in our business, so probably I think between the utilities around the province, $4 million a year was all we’ve had,” Doug Stout, Terasen vice-president for marketing and business development, said in an interview.

“The programs we offered could be targeted for a short duration. For example, you’d have a two-month window.

“In reality, people can’t plan around those kinds of things and we needed to have programs that were longer-term so you would be able to plan how you are going to invest your money.”

The expanded program also includes rebates for water heaters, gas fireplaces, dishwashers and washing machines — all of which rely on gas — and will be available for both new home installations and retrofits in existing homes.

There is already a mixed bag of rebates available on those appliances, but if you’re looking to capture as many rebates as possible, keep in mind that not everything with an Energy Star label will qualify.

In fact, most won’t meet the standard Terasen is asking consumers to look for.

Sarah Smith, head of energy-efficiency programs for Terasen Gas, said the utility is looking at incentives for “the most efficient Energy Star dishwashers and washing machines — the top 25 per cent of performers — and we are looking for the top 25 per cent of performers in water heaters.”

Gas fireplaces will need an EnerChoice designation.

Funding for the program will be derived from a small annual increase to gas rates — about 42 cents a month for an average residential customer — but Terasen notes that people who take up the rebate offers “can realize potential savings of hundreds of dollars per year.”

Terasen estimates that the program will allow customers with more efficient appliances to cumulatively forego $100 million in natural gas purchases and cut 500,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions along the way.

That’s equivalent to taking 3.7 per cent of cars and trucks off the road in B.C., Terasen president and CEO Randy Jesperson noted in a statement.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Attics appeal to females set to give birth

Elaine O’Connor
Province

It’s spring and a young raccoon’s thoughts turn to nesting — in your attic.

It’s birthing season for raccoons, which have litters of three to five kits in April and May — and pest-control companies say that as noises in the attic rise, so do calls.

“There are a lot of them around and they’re looking to have babies,” Jamie Kiffiak of North Shore Pest Detective said of the wily rodents.

Kiffiak said an outbreak of canine distemper killed a large swath of the population in 1997, but since then they’ve been slowly building up their numbers. In the interim, skunks faced less competition and are now thriving as well.

Raccoons den up high in hollow trees, attics and such, while skunks prefer spots under decks and sheds.

“We’re getting lots of calls from people who hear noise in their attic or have a hole in their roof, especially if they have

terracotta or cedar shakes,” said Kiffiak, who owns a Tri-Cities Pest Detective.

Brett Johnston, operations manager of the Coquitlam-based Canadian Pest Control Ltd., said he hasn’t seen a population boom, just the steady seasonal boom.

“Every pest has a season and this is just their time of year,” Johnston said.

These pests can be destructive.

“A raccoon is quite a strong animal, and when they are

driven to give birth safely, they can easily make a hole to get in your home,” he said.

Raccoons can be scared away by introducing a predator’s scent such as coyote urine, evicting the mother and babies, or trapping and relocating them to a wilderness area.

Leaving them to mature and leave the attic encourages the mother and pups to return in future years.

The animals are also known to be carriers of disease such as rabies, canine distemper, encephalitis and mange, and infested with roundworms, fleas, ticks and lice, so it’s not advisable for homeowners to try and flush them out on their own.

Better to work on prevention.

Johnston suggests removing tree branches and other structures that could provide animals access to roofs, fastening garbage cans, getting rid of freshwater sources and not leaving any food such as ripe tree fruit or garden vegetables outside.

Otherwise, Johnston warns, “they’ll make your home part of their territory.”

He’s even had calls about raccoons coming in pet doors to eat the cat’s kibble, sometimes taking up residence if owners aren’t home.

While pest companies do good business in raccoon and skunk control each spring, its not everyone’s favourite job.

“It’s a really tough one when you have six or eight skunklings running around and they can all spray . . . it doesn’t pay to be too aggressive with skunks,” Kiffiak said.

© Copyright (c) The Province

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