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Originally Posted by Prometheus
Is this trend good for the future of Vancouver?
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I'd say yes.
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The downtown core (or central business district) is, above all, a place of business and commerce; a place to create economic opportunities, run a business and make a living.
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You can apply all sorts of analyses to the bike lanes. If you are going to look at downtown as a strategic long term economic engine for the region, if not the province, the negative impact are mainly to businesses that are, like it or not, marginal to that vision.
according to the report, business more likely to be impacted are:
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-Small businesses with tight profit margins, that are heavily impacted by even small changes in sales
-Hotels, which often see a need for loading zones in front as well as delivery access, either by alleyways or from the street
-Hair salons, especially those with elderly clients that prefer on-street parking near the entrance of the business
-Businesses with takeout service
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aside from hotels, these businesses to these limited areas are not ones that will impact the long-term future for downtown as an economic engine. and even hotels may change with time - we wanted to build new ones by the new BC place, and the coast on denman is retrofitting to apartments.
obviously, i am purposely ignoring the toll on the owners of the business and the effect it may have the existing neighbourhood. but businesses may adapt, or they may be replaced by ones for that niche. neighbourhoods always evolve.
I see parallels with canada line/cambie village on this one. construction was a mess, some businesses folded, but 2 years later the village continues on, in a new form. You can even see this on a smaller scale, with
much different consequences on the carrall st bike lane.
go bike lanes go!