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The following are extracts from "A Preliminary Report
upon Transit (mass transportation)", put out by the
Vancouver Town Planning Commission, and written by Harland
Bartholomew and Associates, Town Planning Consultants, St. Louis,
Missouri, 29th June, 1945. (Price $0.25!)
From page 7:
INTRODUCTION
Transit facilities have exerted a major influence upon the
growth and development of Vancouver. Without them the city
could not have grown nearly as rapidly or as large as it now
is. They will have an equal or even more important influence
upon its growth in the future.
The advent of the automobile produced a serious competitor
of transit systems. Prior to the war the transit facilities
showed more loss than gain in this competition. For example,
the number of passengers using the Vancouver system had
decreased from a total of 57,429,953 in 1929 to 53,554,514 in
1939. However, they were by no means supplanted by the
automobile except in very small communities. The recent war
has assisted in revealing their great value.*
*Due to wartime conditions the number of passengers
increased to 109,781,216 in 1945.
INCREASING NEED FOR TRANSIT FACILITIES IN LARGE CITIES
Even prior to the war there was a growing appreciation of
the value of transit facilities, especially in the larger
cities. The large number of motor cars so congested the
streets that vehicular movement became slow and costly. The
concentration of these automobiles within and near the
business districts presented many difficult problems. There
just was not enough street space to accommodate all the cars,
the off-street parking facilities were inadequate, and many
persons became discouraged with the time spent in searching
for parking space and with the walking required between the
parking space and their destination. This was one of the
major causes for the trend toward decentralization in the
central business district.
It was also becoming apparent that it would be financially
and physically impossible to widen or improve enough streets
to provide parking facilities within or near the central
business area to accommodate all of the private motor cars in
a large urban area. Thus the most logical alternative
solution was to improve the transit facilities which required
far less street space in transporting large volumes of
passengers. The provision of fast, comfortable vehicles
leading directly from residential sections to places of
employment, shopping and recreation is imperative.
From page 11:
EXISTING TRANSIT FACILITIES Plate Number I
shows the location and extent of the transit routes now
serving the City of Vancouver. The service consists of
interurban lines, street cars, and motor busses. Each of
these are shown by a different indication on the plan.
The three interurban lines extend beyond the present
corporate limits and provide service to portions of the
metropolitan area. The majority of these routings utilize
private rights-of-way, although the Burnaby Lake and the
Central Park lines also travel on city streets. ..
Street car lines provide by far the larger proportion of
the local transit service. There are 62 miles of streets
containing either single or double tracks while the bus
routes are located on only 20 miles of streets. ..
Practically all of the bus routes are feeder lines
providing service from the outlying residential districts to
a street car line ..
From page 15:
TRANSIT DATA
Plate Number 3 graphically shows the comparative volume of
passengers carried and seats furnished for each line during
an average day in April, 1944. Similar data is shown for an
average day in the corresponding month in 1939.
The Plate reveals two outstanding conditions: First,
street cars perform a more important function than busses -
they carried about 88 per cent of all the passengers during
the average day in 1944 ..
The report then goes on to suggest an intermediate plan which
is a "step toward improvement and development of the
ultimate system". The intermediate plan shows interurban
lines from Vancouver to Richmond (along Arbutus), from Marpole to
New Westminster, and along Hastings, then south to follow the
route taken today by the SkyTrain. There are numerous streetcar
routes (4th, Broadway, Dunbar, Kingsway, Main, Fraser, Hastings),
trolley bus routes along Robson - Denman - Davie, Granville and
Cambie, and approximately 8 motor bus routes.
The report's "Ultimate Transit System" is a
"long range plan and must be developed gradually during the
next twenty-five years."
James Strickland
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