The Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority (TransLink) An Innovation in Transportation Governance and Funding

Abstract

Concepts such as competition, subsidy elimination and private service delivery have transformed the national and international transportation industries in recent decades, but their implementation in urban transportation markets has been slow and limited. The new urban transportation governance and funding arrangements in Greater Vancouver represent the most comprehensive effort to date to apply these concepts in an urban setting. The new arrangements, which were negotiated between the provincial government and the Greater Vancouver Regional District as part of the implementation of a regional growth management and transportation strategy, feature creation of a single political authority (TransLink) for regional roads, transit, transportation demand management, promotion of transportation alternatives and vehicle emission control. Controlled by local government, the new authority must operate within the Greater Vancouver Regional District’s policies and plans for growth management, air quality management, economic development and public finance. TransLink derives its revenues predominantly from transportation sources, including fares, fuel taxes and parking sales taxes, and it has the power to implement additional revenue measures such as vehicle charges, parking taxes, tolls and other user charges. By bringing together political responsibility for managing supply and demand for all modes of transportation on a regional level, the Greater Vancouver innovations may provide an example that will be useful to other urban regions attempting to deal with growth while responding to global environmental issues such as climate change.