Matt Taylor did that terrific video: What would Commercial Drive look like with Surrey parking standards?

Here’s his latest: Growth and Mobility in Metro Vancouver.

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Do not let that dry title or Matt’s deadpan delivery discourage you from watching. This is another devastating critique of the consequences of Motordom in shaping our region – and the possible consequences of the transit referendum.

Let me add a little sensationalism:

*See* your worst nightmare for Metro in three short decades!

*Discover* how many 46-storey towers we would need – every year!

*Imagine* what 730,000 additional vehicles would look like if parked. [This really is devastating when Matt lays it out, road by road.]

*Guess* how long that line-up would be across Canada.

Or how much space the parking lots will require.

Or what it would cost to build the parking underground.

*Boggle* at the expense – and what it could otherwise build!

*Calculate* the freeway equivalent of the Expo line.

(Answers below the fold. But watch the video first.)

Matt makes a plea to share the video (you can do so below) and keep it in mind when the transit referendum comes forward.

To my mind, it raises the question as to why we have to vote on rapid-transit expansion in the first place, (especially given that the Province simply announces more highways and bridges as a fait accompli). Matt’s video shows how it would be both physically and economically devastating (if not practically impossible) to handle the expected growth without transit.

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Expected population growth (2014-2044): 1.1 million people.

Number of new Metroplaces (Burnaby 46-storey tower for 730 people): 1,500 equivalents, or 50 more every year.

Number of additional vehicles by 2044 at current vehicle ownership rates: 730,000.

Length of new lane kilometres to park additional vehicles (at 200 vehicles per lane km): 3,700 kilometres – from Horseshoe Bay to Sault St. Marie.

Number of new parking spaces required (3 spaces per vehicle: home, work and all other): 2.2 million.

Space needed for parking: 66 square kilometres.

Cost of underground parking: $90 billion (@ $40,000 per space).

Or $3 billion per year (equivalent to proposed Broadway rapid-transit line).

Expo line equivalent (26,000 passengers per hour per direction): 26 lanes of freeway.

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