Conference Transportation-Feb-5-2007

From Common Energy UVic

These are the minutes of the Transportation Working Group from the proceedings of the Common Energy Conference, Feb 5th 2007.

Contents 1 Summary 1.1 General ideas that did not get discussed but are probably important 1.2 Public Transit 1.3 Increasing Bicycle Use 1.4 Further Greening of UVic’s Fleet and Maintenance Vehicles 1.5 Reduction of Faculty Air Travel 1.6 Challenge Individual Use 1.7 Discourage Fossil-Fuel Powered Cars 2 Check-In 1 2.1 What directions are we moving towards? 2.2 What questions need to be researched? 3 Check-In 2 3.1 What directions are we moving towards? 3.2 What questions need to be researched? 4 Check-In 3 4.1 What directions are we moving towards? 4.2 What questions need to be researched? 5 Check-In 4 5.1 What directions are we moving towards? 5.2 What questions need to be researched?

[edit] Summary

One brilliant suggestion was to emulate AA - 12 steps program to kicking the fossil fuel habit – a practical plan for greening transit at UVic and beyond

[edit] General ideas that did not get discussed but are probably important

• We need to do a comprehensive general and transport energy audit of UVic to identify where we should focus our efforts and to allow us to measure and set targets. I.e., measure air travel, car travel, fleet travel, food transport, etc.
• Perhaps the biggest issue is that of growth. Perhaps we should set a zero physical growth target at UVic. We could replace physical growth with an expansion of distance education as a way to continue to flourish.

[edit] Public Transit

• Link and coordinate with Dan’s site: transitwiki.ca
• Supporting light rail in the CRD [1][2]
  • UVic Mackenzie corridor
  • Demo of possible light rail scenario
  • Team with Bombardier
  • Research previous CRD initiatives– see work done by Christian Friedinger on Greater Victoria Public Rail. Christian has partial archives of group.
  • Look at shelved NDP plan
  • Research successful systems around the world
  • Research funding options
• Increasing bus use
  • Free pass for faculty and staff
  • New student orientation of bus use
  • Campaign to make taking the bus cool
  • Increase bike rack storage
    • See California example of direct encouragement to bike rack manufacturers [3][4]
  • Connect with carpool lots for longer trips
  • Investigate UVic operated vanpool
• Increasing bus efficiency and funding
  • Small buses (see Boulder Colorado)
  • Lobby for tax increases to parity with other municipalities
    • Gas tax is a double whammy because it discourages car driving
    • Approach province for more funding
    • Possibly request portion of cruise ship head tax for funding transit improvements through James Bay and beyond.
• Advocacy
  • Ensure presence at all levels of government and transit authorities during public consultations
  • Targeted letter writing campaigns

[edit] Increasing Bicycle Use

• Research, improve, and promote a corridor/routes to UVic
  • No-car routes
  • Dedicated and separated bike lanes
• Improve bicycle safety on campus
  • Security cameras
  • Secure lockup areas
• Lobby for increased funding of SPOKES program (bikes lent by police to students)
• Could offer interest free loans to students to buy a bike
• Offer tuition reduction for bike users

[edit] Further Greening of UVic’s Fleet and Maintenance Vehicles

• Reduce trucks within the ring – they set a poor example and impinge on pedestrians
  • Look at electric gators with trailers if we need to haul more stuff
• Use bio-diesel trucks

[edit] Reduction of Faculty Air Travel

• Air travel has a HUGE energy footprint
• Do audit of energy use by faculty and promote
• Set targets for reasonable limits to travel for conferences and collaboration
• Improve teleconference and video conference facilities
• Train in how to facilitate remote meetings
• Embrace Internet conferencing and communications

[edit] Challenge Individual Use

• Audit individual transport energy use as part of overall energy use (See Energy Stream)
• Could do this by faculty
• Reward greenest faculties, buildings, or individuals

[edit] Discourage Fossil-Fuel Powered Cars

• Higher parking fees
• Zero parking expansion
• Incentives to drive hybrids

[edit] Check-In 1

2:30 pm

[edit] What directions are we moving towards?

- changing the psychology around transportation - Economic factors/incentives (eg. "sticks") to encourage more sustainable transportation - Land value taxes - High-density communities - Better information exchange between CRD and UVic

[edit] What questions need to be researched?

- How is transit working more effectively in other countries? - How have other places gotten car-dependent populations to use more public transit? - How can we transition tax regimes re: transportation (this overlaps with the built environment). Eg. changing the land tax system (land value taxes), gas taxes. - Practicality of adding diamond lanes and LRT - How can communication change about transportation?

[edit] Check-In 2

[edit] What directions are we moving towards?

- Longer hours of public transit - Smart-growth (at the university and in the community) - Less parking spaces at the University - Put pressure to get university to pay their share of transit, and get municipalities to do the same. Create a forum for people to get behind this. - Ways to promote things that are in place already - University could educate community about what UVic is doing, and aiming press releases etc towards people that are actually benefitting from the services. Get students from Uvic to talk about transit in high schools. Make the campus community more aware of their options, and promote them. -LRT

[edit] What questions need to be researched?

- Could the University institute a mock carbon tax? - Could University create a conference just on the topic of transportation? - What's the feasability of LRT in the CRD? Can we interface with the Island Corridor Foundation? - Can we look further into water transportation? (water taxis etc) - How can we "re-learn" things that we used to do "right"? - How can we make buses "cool"? How to change the low-status image of the bus?

[edit] Check-In 3

[edit] What directions are we moving towards?

• Transit public comment - www.transitbc.com ... click on public consultation - powerful way for individuals to get message across.
• UVic lobbying for fuel tax increases.
• Focus in on light rail - discover ways to work around cost.
• Bikes/buses/trains - make these issues be the ones the transit companies/municipalities discuss at their meetings.
• Groups of 2 or 3 people can call the bike rack companies to ask for increased rack space for more bikes - these companies should be really receptive.

[edit] What questions need to be researched?

Can we (UVic) lobby for fuel tax increases?

[edit] Check-In 4

[edit] What directions are we moving towards?

5:00-6:30 discussion on following ideas:

• Lobbying for light rail transit.
• "Adding lightrail arteries into the heart of public transportation"
• Greater push for political support.
• Reducing bus fares even more - better funding for transit through lobbying for
• How can we relate the cruise ship revenue into more efficient public transit?
• Synchronize lightrail with urban planning.

[edit] What questions need to be researched?

How can we relate the cruise ship revenue into more efficient public transit? (Ross Cline - harbour commission) What lightrail as a whole entails, and what information concerning cost needs to be investigated. - What needs to be done to push the public towards this idea?