C-TRAN: Business community driving design of BRT

“Concern grew in the business community about what this project would mean to them,” said Belokonny. “The business community was very vocal – angry, actually – that we had gone so far in developing the project and they hadn’t been engaged.”

In response, C-TRAN formed a Corridor Advisory Committee, which held 13 meetings over the last two years.

Javier Navarro, owner of the State Farm Insurance office in the International Square on Fourth Plain, is one of the members of that committee.

“We were worried about the buses taking the middle two lanes,” said Navarro. He explained that reducing Fourth Plain to two lanes for car traffic would have resulted in very bad traffic flow, and people would avoid Fourth Plain entirely.

“It’s not fair to accommodate 2,000 people and negatively affect 40,000 people,” said Navarro.

Belokonny added that the center-running design would have required doors on both sides of the buses – an expensive option.

Originally, she explained, C-TRAN intended to share downtown Vancouver light rail stations with the buses, which would have required the extra doors. But with the demise of the Columbia River Crossing project, she said, “we realized we could achieve the necessary streetscape enhancements with a side-running design and save a lot of money.”

Another concern among the business owners in the downtown part of the project, said Belokonny, was maintaining on-street parking. She said that through conversations with businesses, C-TRAN ended up moving several bus stop stations so that on-street parking was not impeded.

Navarro said that “CTRAN has been very receptive” to input from the businesses along the project’s route. In fact, C-TRAN has held 71 public events associated with the project, visited more than 200 businesses door-to-door five different times, and conducted six online surveys with a total of 1,366 responses.

“Our current design is 100-percent driven by what we we’re hearing from the business community,” stated Belokonny.

Because the Fourth Plain corridor community is quite diverse, Belokonny said that C-TRAN also strives to broaden their project outreach. For example, the C-TRAN website is translated into nine languages, a Spanish-speaking interpreter attended all project open houses and door-to-door communication, and the surveys were translated into Spanish as well.

“Compared to all the projects I’ve worked on,” said Navarro, “CTRAN did an amazing job.”

Safety is another concern for the Fourth Plain business community. Navarro said he’d like to see more lighting, which would deter criminal activity and create a more secure environment. Belokonny said that the project includes enhanced lighting, along with security TVs in bus stops, real-time passenger information, public art, and new sidewalks around all 34 new stations.

Next steps, said Belokonny, include completing the design (about 60 percent done now), working closely with the FTA on the grant agreement, procuring buses and eventually securing construction management services and a general contractor. C-TRAN plans for the new route to be operational in the summer of 2016.

Navarro is hopeful that the project will drive new business along Fourth Plain.

“Nicer bus stops will attract more people. Business owners will get a whole new crowd that will see the different businesses out here,” opined Navarro. “I hope it turns into a place that invites people to come.”

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