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Showcase Proposals - Proposal Summaries
Saint John Region
Park & Ride / Bike & Walk
The City of Saint John, in partnership with the municipalities of Greater Saint John, proposes a range of strategies to enhance travel options and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation across the community.
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Background
In Greater Saint John, with a population of over 120,000 people, commuters drive further to work than in many communities of similar size. Challenges to area road infrastructure and operations include elevation changes, major rivers, and increased demands resulting from long trip lengths.
The showcase would introduce new travel options to the community, generating transit demand where it is currently low. Suburban drivers would be attracted to transit through express routes, park-and-ride lots, rideshare programs and trails. Urban drivers would be attracted by transit service upgrades on selected routes.
The showcase strategies would be supported by a broad web of outreach initiatives. A distinct brand and image would be developed for showcase services, and the involvement of community partners would be solicited to broaden the showcase scope.
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Express bus service from park-and-ride lots
This strategy would offer park-and-ride lots, express buses and local transit connections to improve travel options throughout the commutershed.
Three parking lots in the suburbs of Grand Bay-Westfield, Quispamsis and Rothesay (all with populations under 15,000) would help transit and carpool commuters reach their destination in Saint John. At least three express trips in the peak direction would serve each lot during the morning and afternoon peak periods.
Two urban parking lots would encourage transit use within the city, as well as to outlying areas. These lots would be linked to new transit priority corridors (see below).
Buses travelling to and from park-and-ride lots, as well as others in the Saint John Transit system, would offer bicycle racks that let cyclists have independent mobility at both ends of their transit trip.
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Cycling and walking trails
In urban areas, new trails would provide commuters with a more attractive cycling or walking trip. New links would, in part, build on the developing TransCanada and SentierNB trail networks, improving connections across the urban area and enhancing access to the waterfront.
In suburban areas, existing trails would be made more useful by adding new links. Good trail access from residential areas to park-and-ride lots would encourage families to take the significant step of phasing out one of their cars.
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Transit priority
Transit travel times in several key corridors would be reduced through transit priority measures. The “Rothesay Rapid” service, a non-stop express route with priority at six traffic signals, would be introduced on Rothesay Avenue to link the Uptown area to a new park-and-ride lot.
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Rideshare coordination and guaranteed ride home
The community of Hampton would be the location of a rideshare coordination pilot project. A Web-based service would allow carpool drivers and passengers to identify potential matches, and would be expanded to other communities once it has been shown to succeed.
Local employers would be asked to participate in a program that offers non-driving commuters a guaranteed ride home if they must stay at work after their last express bus route has departed in the evening, or if they must return home to deal with a mid-day emergency.
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Special event services
Special transit services would be initiated between park-and-ride lots and major public events such as hockey games, large concerts or live theatre performances. This service will help event patrons to avoid parking costs and localized traffic congestion.
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Alternative fuels demonstration
The showcase would demonstrate the potential of ultra-low sulphur diesel (ULSD) or hybrid diesel-electric technology for transit bus operations. ULSD fuels could reduce sulphur emissions by 90 percent from current levels.
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Expected benefits
This showcase would result in an estimated reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 610 tonnes annually from peak period commuting travel. Increased transit ridership, carpooling, cycling and walking for other purposes, or at off-peak times, would lead to additional reductions.
Other benefits would include improved travel options for urban and suburban residents, healthier lifestyles, cleaner air, enhanced personal mobility and economic opportunity, and support for sustainable land use planning.
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Impact assessment
Showcase impacts would be measured primarily through surveys of express bus route riders and trail users, to discover their previous mode of travel, origin, destination, access and egress modes, and frequency of use. Survey data would be used to estimate parameters including emissions reductions, automobile operating cost savings, and public health benefits.
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Partners
The contributing partners in this showcase would include:
- City of Saint John
- Saint John Transit Commission
- Saint John Parking Commission
- Town of Grand Bay-Westfield
- Town of Hampton
- Town of Quispamsis
- Town of Rothesay
- Province of New Brunswick
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Cost
The proposed showcase cost of $7.7 million is divided as follows:
- Bus acquisition — $2.4 million
- Park-and-ride lots — $1.4 million
- Trails — $3.1 million
- Transit priority — $0.5 million
- Marketing, outreach and implementation — $0.3 million
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Note: This information reflects the proposal as submitted by the applicant, and does not reflect the views of Transport Canada.
| These showcases are available in PDF format and may be viewed using
version 3.0 or higher of the Adobe® Acrobat Reader. This reader may
be downloaded free of charge by visiting the Adobe®
web site. The detailed proposal
(file size 19.11MB) and a map of the proposed showcase
(file size 112.78KB) will download
in approximately 2371 and 35 seconds on a 28.8K. |
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