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UBC Line: webinar reminder for Apr 4, 2011, plus notes from the first two workshops

UBC Line: webinar reminder for Apr 4, 2011, plus notes from the first two workshops

Passengers boarding a 99 B-Line bus.

One reminder and two workshop recaps from the UBC Line Rapid Transit study!

Webinar takes place Monday, April 4, 2011

Jeff Busby, TransLink's Manager of Infrastructure Planning

A quick reminder that we are holding a webinar for the UBC Line Rapid Transit Study next Monday, April 4, 2011 from 7 p.m. – 8 p.m. PST. Tell your friends!

Jeff Busby, TransLink’s Manager of Infrastructure Planning, and Erin McConnell, our Manager of Corporate Communications, will talk about the preliminary design alternatives, criteria and initial results in their evaluation, plus the feedback we are looking for. There will be lots of time for questions!

You can do a few things in advance of the webinar:

  • pre-register on our webinar page
  • do a bit of homework: see our main UBC Line page to review the alternatives and evaluation information, so you’re familiar with the topic
  • and submit your questions in advance in the blog comments. (You can ask during the webinar too, but advance notice helps ensure we get to the most popular inquiries! Use the Like comment function to vote on questions you’d really like answers on.)

And don’t worry if you can’t attend the webinar, either — we’ll record it and the video will be available after the event, just as we did for Surrey. We’ll also make sure to answer all questions that don’t get covered in the online session.

Notes from the first two workshops

Our consultation team sent me this update about how the first two workshops went, in case you were wondering! (The first workshop was on Wednesday, March 30, 2011 at the Masonic Hall, and the second was on Thursday, March 31, 2011 at UBC’s Ponderosa Centre.)

A snapshot of the UBC Ponderosa Centre workshop.

About 60 or so people attended each night to have a say in the design of the options for the future UBC Line and their evaluation.

Each workshop began as an open house, with Jeff Busby, the project director for the UBC Line Rapid Transit Study, then leading the group through a short presentation to explain what kind of feedback his team needs to update the designs and finalize the evaluation for this phase of the study.

Participants then broke into small groups for three, 30-minute rotations to have greater discussion about each of the designs and the evaluation.

Over the two nights, we have heard a variety of perspectives and ideas on how to refine the designs, and important feedback to consider in the evaluation. Here is a summary of just some of themes we are hearing:

  • The impact of street-level options (that’s BRT and LRT) on the street, including parking impacts
  • The impact of all the alternatives on the urban experience and the importance of good design
  • Feedback on how to reduce costs of the RRT alternatives.
  • Most participants so far generally agree with the evaluation criteria. Some specific input includes more emphasis on greenhouse gas emission benefits, greater consideration of cycling impacts and the importance of evaluating the options with the regional context in mind.

Lots of discussion is also taking place online, and people are submitting their feedback in our online questionnaire. We will be summarizing what we’ve heard this week into session notes, and will let you know when those are available.

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