Ok, the deadline (July 17) passed, but it doesn't matter: if something relevant comes up, you have to badger people. So I wrote a third email to the folks at Stantec:

From: Yule <yule.heibel@xxxxx>
To: xxxx@stantec.com>
Date: Jul 18, 2006 7:21 AM
Subject: Re: Malahat Corridor Study

Dear xxxx,

I know it's past the deadline for commenting, but did you see this morning's Times-Colonist article about BC residents driving less? I've copied & pasted it, below (set your email to view images), and highlighted some relevant bits. The stats seem to suggest that availability of public transit and high fuel prices are the determining factors, while carpooling doesn't seem to factor into it at all. Build the transit and people will drive less; encourage carpooling and it fails to make enough of a difference.

cheers,
Yule



Tuesday » July 18 » 2006

B.C. residents driving less
Provincial figures reverse national trend

Nicholas Read
Vancouver Sun

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

British Columbians appear to be heeding the call to spend less time in their cars. So much less time that last year they travelled five billion fewer kilometres in their cars than the year before.

According to figures released Monday by Statistics Canada, in 2005, people in B.C. travelled 50.86 billion km in vehicles weighing 4.5 tonnes or less. That is, everything from a Hummer to a Smart Car.

That compares to 2004, when they travelled 55.94 billion km by car or light truck, and 2000, the year surveys of this kind began, when they travelled 54.18 billion km.

Because more than one person can be in a car at a time, Statistics Canada also looked at the number of kilometres B.C. vehicles travelled, regardless of how many people they carried. And that was down too.

In 2005, B.C. cars, SUVs, minivans and pickup trucks travelled 31.55 billion km, compared to 32.83 billion km in 2004, and 33.26 billion km in 2000.

The provincial figures reverse a national trend that showed despite rising gas prices and more serious threats from global warming, Canadians as a whole travelled more kilometres by car in 2005 than they did in previous years.

In 2005, people from coast to coast travelled 494.61 billion km by car or light truck, compared to 2004, when they travelled 469.46 billion km.

Drivers in Ontario and Alberta posted the biggest increases. In 2005, Albertans travelled 67.58 billion km by car or light truck versus 51.31 billion km in 2004.

In Ontario they travelled 201.11 billion km by car or light truck in 2005, compared to 184.3 billion km in 2004.

TransLink spokesman Ken Hardie said he couldn't speak for the rest of Canada or B.C., but in the Lower Mainland, where two-thirds of all the province's vehicles are driven, there has been a definite shift toward public transport, particularly to and from downtown Vancouver, where 40 per cent of workers now take transit and 30 per cent walk or cycle to work.

He said there has been a similar increase in transit traffic to and from the University of B.C. and Simon Fraser University thanks to TransLink's U-pass.

Then there's the price of gas. "If they do the same survey a year from now, there will be less driving because the price of gas has gone up so much," Hardie said. "We have seen a significant shift to transit ridership this year, and we have to attribute that to a rise in the price of gas."

B.C. Automobile Association president Bill Bullis also put the decrease down to prices at the pump.

"I know of no other phenomenon to explain it," Bullis said. "That's a big mileage decrease. That's an awful lot of kilometres. And I can't think of anything else that would have taken place in that time that would have had such an effect."

As far as B.C. bucking the national trend goes, he suspects our reputation for environmental awareness could be a factor.

"By and large, we are, because of environmental awareness, more conservative in terms of our driving habits. I think people here use their cars less than they do in other jurisdictions."

However, when it came to carrying more people per car per trip, B.C.'s green credentials began to falter.

According to the same survey, last year each passenger vehicle on the road carried 1.61 people per kilometre. That compares to 2004, when they carried 1.7 people per kilometre.

In fact, it was the worst result for B.C. drivers since surveys like this began.

It's also less than the national average, which was 1.72 people per car per kilometre.

Ed Hamilton, a spokesman for Statistics Canada's transportation division, said traditionally B.C. has been close to the national average when it comes to the number of people per vehicle. But last year represented "an anomaly."

His advice: "Let's wait and see what happens this year."

Figures also showed that men drove appreciably more than women, and that people both under 25 and over 55 drove less than people between ages 25 and 55.

In Canada last year, men travelled 194.26 billion km compared to 92.96 billion km by women.

nread@png.canwest.com
© The Vancouver Sun 2006