IMMEDIATE RELEASE - November 6, 2017

Surrey has admitted in a recent City report that the proposed Surrey-Newton-Guildford LRT line will create massive congestion on city streets throughout Guildford.

A recent corporate report that has recommended the construction of 105 Avenue (Surrey's proposed roadway through Hawthorne Park) has also made note of the potential traffic impacts of a street-level LRT line on 104 Avenue. According to this report, more than 74,000 vehicles per day (vpd) utilize the three east-west corridors (100 Ave, 104 Ave and 108 Ave) connecting Surrey City Centre and Guildford. 104 Avenue, which links City Centre with the Trans Canada Highway, carries 32,000 vpd and is the busiest of the 3 corridors.

If Light Rail Transit construction proceeds on 104th Avenue, the loss of 2 traffic lanes to accomodate LRT will induce diversions of up to 50% of existing 104 Ave traffic onto 100 and 108 Avenues, straining these already busy roadways with the addition of thousands of additional vehicles each day.

104 Avenue would be unable to accommodate the remaining 16,000 vpd in traffic volume "without significant delays and queueing".

Surrey claims that proceeding with the construction of a 105 Avenue corridor will offset some local traffic and result in "acceptable levels of congestion" on 104 Avenue, reinforcing our earlier findings that the proposed LRT is the only reason for building this roadway. However, the report notes that despite both "growth in ridership" on the LRT line and 105 Ave in place, the parallel 100th and 108th Avenue corridors will be "approaching capacity" by 2030 - just 7 years after LRT operation is expected to begin.

This indicates that no matter what the outcome of the Alternative Approval Process that decides whether or not the 105 Avenue corridor is built, all east-west corridors between Surrey City Centre and Guildford will be subject to heavy congestion at peak times if LRT on 104 Avenue is built.

This also means that in order to manage congestion, further investments in road expansion and property expropriation may be necessary in the future as a consequence of LRT, burdening city taxpayers as millions of dollars will be required from city funds in order to pay for these projects.