(This story has been expanded since it was first posted.)

Streetcars would be a great way to get more people out of their cars and swiftly and comfortably around downtown, say academics in transportation and planning at the University of B.C.

Silas Archambault, who studied the Olympic streetcar line for his master's thesis in community and regional planning at UBC, said streetcars not only shape how neighbourhoods develop, but they also appeal to riders who might not catch a bus.

"That's something we're kind of missing the bus on, if you will, is just catering to a positive experience of transit," Archambault said. "It's not that hard. Just put on a little music and make sure that the awful smells are not set into the cloth."

Archambault presented the findings on the city and Bombardier's streetcar demonstration project that coincided with the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games at a local symposium on streetcars, Sept. 29.

Archambault was surprised to learn:

- 18 per cent of the 450 passengers he and other students surveyed over 60 days were riding the streetcars to work or school (there were more than 550,000 boardings over 60 days);

- 82 per cent of those surveyed lived in Metro Vancouver, with little difference between the Olympic and non-Olympic periods;

- 46 per cent of riders took a streetcar because it was more convenient or quicker than how they would otherwise get around;

- 30 per cent of riders would not have made the trip if the streetcar didn't exist;

- 96 per cent of all passengers had a positive impression of the streetcar. The more an individual rode the streetcar, the more positive the impression.

- Nearly one stroller rolled onto every streetcar trip during the entire demonstration.

"This shows great potential for the Vancouver region, as the path to parenthood is often tied with the transition to an automobile household," Archambault wrote in his report.

Lawrence Frank, Bombardier chair in sustainable transportation at UBC and Archambault's professor, organized the symposium entitled Streetcars: The Missing Link? to highlight the role streetcars could play in the region.

Both Frank and Archambault want the city's Downtown Streetcar project to become a reality. The city recently spent $8.5 million upgrading the 1.8-kilometre stretch of the Downtown Historic Railway line between Granville Island and the Olympic Village. In 2008, council approved up to $1 million to safeguard future streetcar alignment along West First Avenue to Science World. At this time, city staff estimated it would cost $90 million to buy six streetcars and establish two rail lines to Science World and a maintenance shed. It proposed the second phase as an extension to Waterfront Station. Additional extensions could stretch to Stanley Park, along Pacific Boulevard to Granville, via Drake Street, into the False Creek Flats to connect with the Millennium SkyTrain line, into Vanier Park and potentially south along the Arbutus rail corridor.

Any streetcar project would have to be coordinated with rapid transit from Commercial Drive to UBC, which could include streetcars.

The city said in 2008 that $90 million could buy 75 articulated buses.

But Archambault noted the permanence of rail lines appeals to transit users who enjoy knowing their transit of choice wouldn’t be diverted, say like the buses were from Granville Street when the Canada Line started.

He notes a streetcar carries many more people than a trolley bus, 175 people as compared to 60 when people aren’t crushed, run with the same number of operators and typically last twice as long as a bus.

Representatives of the city, TransLink, Metro Vancouver and Bombardier spoke at the symposium.

Archambault said there was much discussion about the possibility of establishing streetcars through private-public partnerships.

crossi@vancourier.com