• The annual subsidy to cars in the Lower Mainland of B.C. is estimated to be $2.7 billion. (Source: Greater Vancouver Regional District)
  • According to the City of Vancouver, 75 percent of the persons who drive alone do so because they have free parking, and 63 percent of them would reconsider driving alone if free parking were not available. (Source: City of Vancouver.)
  • More than 46 per cent of the people who travel to downtown Vancouver in the morning rush hour take transit; 80 per cent of these ride on the non-polluting, electrically powered trolley buses and SkyTrain. (Source: BC Transit)
  • SkyTrain carries more than 110 000 passengers per day. (Source: BC Transit)
  • Trolley buses operate along 306 km of overhead wire. (Source: BC Transit)
  • The SkyTrain bridge cost $33 million (including track work); the Cambie bridge over False creek cost $53 million. (Source: BC Transit, City of Vancouver)
  • The toll revenue from the Coquihalla highway ($30 million/year) does not even cover the interest cost on the $1 billion spent to construct the highway.
  • The 27 km Century Freeway, likely the last urban freeway to be built in Los Angeles, cost $3 billion and displaced 3,700 households.
  • Canada's air traffic control system costs $1 billion per year to operate and has an annual deficit of $200 million
  • The St Denis-Bobigny tramway (light rail line) in Paris is carrying 63 000 passengers per day, about 2.5 times the bus patronage along the same corridor in 1991/92. (Source: Light Rail and Modern Tramway, Sep 1995)
  • Amtrak's "Mount Baker International" train between Seattle and Vancouver is running at about 95% occupancy.

Here are some more interesting facts, courtesy of Vancouver city councillor Gordon Price.

  • Number of vehicles registered in the Lower Mainland
    • each day: 84
    • each year: 30,600
  • Amount of arterial road space built in City of Vancouver in the last 15 years: 2.5 km
  • Average price of a new car, before taxes and options: $19,700
  • Cost of 84 average cars: $1.6 million
  • Amount Vancouver Planning Department calculates is needed for a UBC transit service that would reduce car traffic: $1.6 million/year
  • Amount UBC says it will initially contribute to such a system: $250,000
  • Total provincial income from transportation sources: about $1 billion
  • Total provincial expenditures on transportation: about $1.2 billion
  • Municipal road construction and maintenance budgets: $86.5 million
  • Estimated subsidies for transportation in GVRD in 1991 when all costs included:
    for cars: $2.3 billion
    for transit: $360 million.
  • Amount of money that could be raised annually by a commuter levy, as proposed by downtown business associations: $260 million.
  • Cost to driver of running an average car for a year: about $7,700
  • Amount spent annually by drivers in GVRD to operate their cars: about $8.5 billion
  • Amount needed to be spent over 25 years to meet GVRD transportation goals: $11.2 billion
  • Number of buses needed in next five years to meet Transport 2021 goals: 500
  • Number of buses B.C. Transit expects to provide: 195
  • Amount of toll revenue on the Lions Gate Bridge that could be spent on new buses (under current Provincial Government policy): 0
  • Number of highway miles in California:
    in 1963: 14,173
    in 1994: 15,177
  • Cost of one mile of freeway in California:
    in the 1960s: $3 million
    in the 1990s: $100 million
  • Cost of replacement for earthquake-damaged Cypress Freeway: $4,000 an inch
  • Increase in the number of registered vehicles in California, since 1980: 33 percent
  • Increase in congestion in the Bay Area over the last decade: 32 percent
  • Cost of congestion to average Bay Area (San Francisco) driver: $950 a year
  • Cost of congestion to California drivers:
    500,000 hours a day
    $2 billion a year
  • Proportion of traffic-accident deaths in the U.S. estimated to be related to 'road rage': two-thirds
  • Number of automobile companies among the top three manufacturing companies in the world: three
    in the top fifty: 13
  • Number of cars manufactured last year
    in North America: 15 million
    in the Asia-Pacific region: 15.5 million
  • Additional annual production expected in the Asia-Pacific region in the next five years: 6 million
  • Estimated excess capacity of world automobile industry in 2000: 22 million vehicles

These numbers come from mostly secondary sources, and I'm sure some are disputable. Of course, the fun of creating these lists comes from selecting seemingly objective numbers - 'just stating the facts, ma'am to make a very subjective point. I'm open to othier sets of 'facts' that make a different point. Send 'em to my E-mail address (Gordon Price).

And still more interesting facts courtesy of Cheeying Ho of Better Environmentally Sound Transportation (B.E.S.T.)...

B.E.S.T.’s Transportation Index

  • Value of parking spaces given away by government agencies in Vancouver per year: $26 million
  • Average time spent in a car commuting to and from work each day in the GVRD: 48 minutes
  • Percentage of trips made by bicycle in Vancouver: 2.5
  • Percentage of trips made by bicycle in Delft, Netherlands: 43
  • Number of bicycles that can be stored in one car parking spot: 20
  • Number of people that can be moved in cars per hour per one metre width lane: 120-220
  • Number moved by bicycle: 1500
  • Percentage increase in the number of trips driving children to school between 1985-1994: 53%
  • Percentage of trips made by cars by males compared to females: 64:50
  • Number of British Columbians killed each year in motor vehicle accidents: 500
    Number injured: 50,000
  • Percentage increase in use of the Adanac Bikeway within one year of its opening: 300%
  • Percentage of energy related greenhouse gas emissions in B.C. from the transportation sector: 46%
  • Percentage of air pollution reduced by replacing 1% of automobile travel by bicycling: 2-4%
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