BePartofthePlan.ca relaunches for our 10-Year plan consultation
BePartofthePlan.ca relaunches for our 10-Year plan consultation
Hey everyone: we’ve relaunched BePartofthePlan.ca, our online consultation website!
As I explained before, BePartofthePlan.ca was scheduled for a June relaunch, to coincide with the release of our draft 10-Year Plan.
So now, as of June 1, BePartofthePlan.ca is all about public consultation for that 10-Year Plan, which lays out the first steps to reaching Transport 2040, the region’s transportation strategy for the next 30 years.
Be warned now: all throughout June, I’m going to harp on about how important your feedback is in this consultation. The decisions we’re making in this 10-Year Plan are about the future of our region and its continuing liveability. It’s so important that you weigh in!
But keep in mind that the public consultation runs from June 1 to June 30 only, so please visit the discussion boards, try the online consultation exercise, or come to an in-person event to give us your thoughts!
Here’s a little more about the site and its new content and features.
More detail on our 2010 10-Year Plan
The site now redirects to a section of the main TransLink website, and it has the details of our proposed 10-Year Plan for you to read.
In fact, there’s three possible options for this 10-Year Plan. Why three? Well, it all depends on how much our region wants to invest in transportation.
We’ve created three proposed transportation plans to align with the three possible funding scenarios. And we’ll basically pick a plan based on your feedback about funding and transportation priorities.
If you want the maximum investment of $450M+ per year, you’ll put us on track to the vision of Transport 2040, bringing our region reduced greenhouse gas emissions, rapid transit expansion, and more. Read more about this plan.
If you want an investment of about $260M more annually, we’ll be keeping pace with growth. We can maintain what we have and make some improvements to our transportation network, but we won’t have any new rapid transit lines. Read more about this plan.
And if we choose to make no new investment, we will be forced to make drastic cuts — which is necessary because by law, TransLink is not allowed to run a deficit. Read more about this plan.
As you can see, it’s important for you to tell us which one you want — if you don’t like one or the other, we really need to know!
It’s Your Move — the consultation exercise board game
Another way for you to offer your feedback is through It’s Your Move, a consultation exercise that mimics how our planning process works.
In the activity, you’ll get to set transportation priorities for the region, choose funding from our current revenue streams, and explore our possible future revenue sources. (It’s based on a real-world board game that we invented for our in-person public consultations this June)
Your answers are collected as feedback, advising our planners on your transport priorities and chosen funding sources.
It’s a quick and easy way to tell us what you’re thinking — so go on, try it!
New discussion boards
Based on our experience with the past BePartofthePlan.ca site, we’ve introduced a discussion board to handle the conversations around our 10-Year Plan consultation.
The discussion board gives you way more tools to manage your conversations, letting you easily know what’s new in your discussions and what other topics people are talking about. You can also create your own topics in most of the forums and we have tools to help keep all the conversations organized!
And more!
In case you want to know more, the new site also has many backgrounders on TransLink’s accomplishments and efficiencies, our history of funding, and in-depth info on our funding sources, including possible future revenue sources.
The new site also has our full list of community workshops happening throughout the region in June — check the schedule and see if you can join us to offer your feedback in person!
So please, go on and get involved! We can’t wait to hear from you!
There’s quite a few bugs, which i’ve indicated on the site (smart move on including it as a topic). For starters, it works with Internet Explorer 8 and I love being able to edit my own comments.
But I don’t know how we are going to have RSS feeds, that have kept this Buzzer blog working so efficiently.
The part of the on-line consultation that talks about 52 new skytrain cars by 2012 would all these be espansion cars?
after the order that that should be delivered in 2011 will Translink be looking at three car units?
Have the 1st of the new cars entered service yet?
Hey ;-), you can actually get RSS feeds for each individual forum if you go to the “Options” link at the top right of each forum page. Also, “Active Topics” at the top of the page will show you all the topics with new comments since your last login. Not sure if that helps or not.
Gordon: I’ll ask, but off the top of my head, I believe those would all be expansion cars. I don’t know if they would be 3-car units — there is a study looking into the feasibility of using those cars on our system, so that decision would probably be made after that study finishes (likely in fall/winter 2009). Also, the first of the new cars have not yet entered service. But it should be soon, I think!
Is there anyone at Translink that is aware of our global and local economy???
There seems to be no end to your asking for more and more and more money. And now you have the gall to spend our money to advertise to us and tell us how wonderful you are. Well we are more than tired of you and your extravagance. So get real before we get rid of you all.
Hi Leonard:
I’m not sure what to say other than our ads are based on fact, and if you do oppose TransLink’s existence, you can certainly feel free to tell your MLA and let them know this. You also have the option to go to bepartoftheplan.ca, do the consultation exercise or the discussion forums, and tell us you don’t want any new funding. It will be recorded and presented to our Board and Mayors’ Council for advice.
We really do recognize that the economy is in a slump, and much as it hurts, we have to do this campaign anyhow. We know regional growth and increased congestion are coming down the pipeline and if we don’t act now, our whole region could be stuck in a very bad position for transportation in the future. Unfortunate as the timing is, it’s our responsibility to let you know what’s going to happen transportation-wise in the future, and what we see as the options to mitigate this going forward.