Metro Vancouver Road Infrastructure Discussion

[deasine]

Links to Individual Road Threads
Burrard Street Bridge Upgrades
Pautello Bridge Upgrades: Twinning/Replacement
Knight Street Bridge
Gateway Program: South Fraser Perimeter Road/North Fraser Perimeter Road/Pitt River Bridge/Mary Hill Bypass Interchange
Gateway Program: Port Mann Bridge/Highway 1 Expansion/Gateway RapidBus
Sea to Sky Highway
Golden Ears Bridge
Granville Street Redesign
Carrall Street Greenway
No. 3 Rd Redesign [same as Canada Line thread]

This thread will be here so that we can post new projects/smaller developments that are related to Metro Vancouver's road network. I know I have been starting too many new threads regarding transportation infrastructure, so let's start placing them in here before we make new threads (lemme appologize for that). Once there is a large discussion, we can then move your posts into a new thread. Let's start off with City of Vancouver's latest initiative [this is called progress =)]

40 km/h on Local Side Streets A guide to the proposed new speed limits

Why is Vancouver proposing a new speed limit?



The speed limit on most Vancouver streets is currently 50 km/h. Whether the street is a major thoroughfare or a narrow residential side street, the speed limit is the same.
Every year, the City receives hundreds of complaints about vehicles speeding on local side streets. Often these cars aren't travelling faster than the speed limit, but they are travelling faster than is reasonable for narrow neighbourhood roads. When the City consulted with residents for its Transportation Plan, one of the issues that many residents felt strongly about was that 50 km/h was too fast for their local streets. The City adopted the Plan in 1997 with the recommendation that the speed limit on side streets be reduced to 40 km/h.
Many studies have shown that reduced speeds greatly increase safety. In particular, pedestrians and cyclists are much less likely to be seriously injured if vehicle speeds are reduced. Lower speeds on side streets help make them safer, more livable, and more comfortable for cyclists, pedestrians and residents.
Why 40 km/h?



A 40 km/h speed limit would:

• set a more appropriate speed limit on most residential roads
• send a message to drivers that community streets deserve respect
• improve safety
• improve livability.

Reducing the speed limit will also allow police to enforce more reasonable speeds on side streets and help the City identify where speeding is occurring and where traffic calming measures, such as speed bumps and corner bulges, might be most useful.
The new speed limit on side streets would not affect trucks or service vehicles that travel on truck routes on major streets, since those routes would remain at 50km/h.
What streets would have the new 40 km/h speed limit?

The new limit would apply to most local side streets while most major streets would keep their current speeds. As a general rule, if the street has a yellow line down the middle, it would stay at 50 km/h. If it doesn't have a yellow line, it would likely become 40 km/h. Those areas that are currently 30 km/h, such as playground and school zones, would remain at 30km/h.
When will the speed limit change?





To allow the City to set a new blanket speed limit, the B.C. Motor Vehicle Act needs to be changed. The City is currently asking the Ministry of Transportation to change the law to give municipalities the authority to set and enforce speed limits for their municipality.
Once the Ministry of Transportation approves the change, the City has the ability to implement the new speed limit; however, there will be a significant design period, as well as a public awareness campaign and installation time. The earliest that the change is likely to take effect is Spring 2009.
How will people learn about the new speed limits?

When the new speed limit is put into effect there will be an awareness campaign to inform drivers about the new rules. The City will partner with other groups to do a variety of advertising and promotion. As well, the Vancouver Police Department will have a period of enhanced enforcement to demonstrate to drivers that the new speed limit is in effect and will be enforced.
Will this affect bus service?

No. The City will work with Translink to ensure that bus routes are not impacted by the new speed limits. Since the speed limit on major streets won't change, there will be little or no effect on transit.
How will this affect trucks, goods transport and other business vehicles?

The new speed limit is not intended to slow down the work of trucks and other vehicles that need to be on the road for their work. Major streets will continue to have speed limits of 50 km/h. However, trucks would be expected to follow the 40 km/h limit if they had to use a local side street to reach their destination.


We'd like to hear from you! If you have comments or questions, please contact:

Greenways and Neighbourhood Transportation
40 km/h speed limit on local side streets
Phone: 604-873-7256
Fax: 604 871 6192
E-mail: 40kph@vancouver.ca

[mr.x]

Aren't speed limits already ridiculously low in this city?....not to mention that nobody really follows them?

[zivan56]

^^ Yep. They should leave 50 on smaller streets, and raise it to 65 on major roads. Nothing worse than two cars going side by side 50 km/h during rush hour and slowing everyone behind them down. There should also be a mandatory minimum speed limit of 50 km/h unless conditions do not allow for it.
Enforcement of fast lanes (left lane) should also be created and be very strict...if you want a scenic drive, stick to the right. This is already a de facto law in most of Europe.
Things like this are especially crucial for Vancouver, both in terms of the economy and traffic management; as we do not have any freeways.
Another crucial thing is to overhaul the whole traffic management system in Vancouver, and have policies for things like:
* Left/right turns during rush hour that block traffic from going strait
* Traffic light "waves" - so you don't stop at every single light
* Dynamic signage and signals, depending on conditions and time of day
* Get rid of pedestrian controlled crosswalks, and sync them with the other lights (except on smaller roads)
* Much more...

[The_Henry_Man]

^I just got back home from downtown, and I almost always drive at 80-90km/h on Granville St. especially after around 2100h. Screw the 50km/h limit!!

[twoNeurons]

If you set the speed limit to 65kph, people will go 80kph... and I don't care who you are... but highway speeds in town are not safe.

40km/h on side streets isn't necessarily a bad thing. Many of these streets are practically one lane with cars parked down both sides. A kid running out from a car, a car door opening, a car pulling out...

Most sane people don't travel much faster than 40km/h on local streets anyway.

However, saying all this, a much more effective way to slow traffic down on local streets is either speed bumps, 4-way stops at every intersection (annoying i know) or tight roundabouts.

Highway #1 speeds, however, should be increased by at least 10km.p

[LeftCoaster]

Highway speeds up to 110
Arterial road speeds up to 65 or 70
Road speeds stay at 50
street or lane speeds down to 40

[officedweller]

I agree that 40 km/h on side streets is fine.
People don't know how to exercise discretion any more so government has to regulate - i.e. all of the former courtesy corners in residential areas have been replaced with stop signs.

[deasine]

Originally Posted by officedweller

I agree that 40 km/h on side streets is fine.
People don't know how to exercise discretion any more so government has to regulate - i.e. all of the former courtesy corners in residential areas have been replaced with stop signs.

40 km/hr is also the speed limit for lanes/smaller roads in Richmond.

I would say this is a good start to improving vancouver streets, but I think more traffic calming initiatives needs to be done, such as traffic circles, "force turns", "dead ends [not really dead]." It's nice that Vancouver's beginning to slowly change for the better of cyclists and pedestrians.

Originally Posted by zivan56

^^ Yep. They should leave 50 on smaller streets, and raise it to 65 on major roads. Nothing worse than two cars going side by side 50 km/h during rush hour and slowing everyone behind them down. There should also be a mandatory minimum speed limit of 50 km/h unless conditions do not allow for it.
Enforcement of fast lanes (left lane) should also be created and be very strict...if you want a scenic drive, stick to the right. This is already a de facto law in most of Europe.
Things like this are especially crucial for Vancouver, both in terms of the economy and traffic management; as we do not have any freeways.
Another crucial thing is to overhaul the whole traffic management system in Vancouver, and have policies for things like:
* Left/right turns during rush hour that block traffic from going strait
* Traffic light "waves" - so you don't stop at every single light
* Dynamic signage and signals, depending on conditions and time of day
* Get rid of pedestrian controlled crosswalks, and sync them with the other lights (except on smaller roads)
* Much more...

Honestly, during rush hours, I would say it's hard to even reach 50 km/hr in Vancouver streets sometimes. According to the City of Vancouver, the average speed in downtown is 40 km/hr if all lights were green. I agree with the right lane thing, and the Ministry of Transportation has been slowly including signs that enforce this. Better traffic management systems are also important. Sync all the lights together would be nice too.

[Lee_Haber8]

In Montreal there are neighbourhoods where it is 40 km/h on major streets. Personally I think they should slow it down to 30 km/h on residential streets, but this can only really be done by adding traffic calming measures and narrowing the street.

I don't know what the speed limit should be on major streets, but I think that it would be ideal if the actually speed of traffic never exceeds 40 km/h because of frequent lights and narrower lanes. That way cyclists can safely travel with cars and act like any other vehicle instead of being squeezed off to the side. I can do this already on some streets Montreal without ever getting passed and I think it would go a long way to make cycling more popular.

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by Lee_Haber8

That way cyclists can safely travel with cars and act like any other vehicle instead of being squeezed off to the side.

I prefer speed humps rather than the traffic islands for that reason. You drive around a traffic island and pedestrians wonder if you're going to hit them, too.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by officedweller

I prefer speed humps rather than the traffic islands for that reason. You drive around a traffic island and pedestrians wonder if you're going to hit them, too.

I like the idea of traffic islands, but in practice it doesn't stop people from using side streets when main streets are busy. I cycle to work and deal with it a lot.

I'm no fan of speed humps, but they get a better result.

[worldwide]

ive always thought that we should have speed bumps right before traffic circles. either 2 or 4 way. probably 2 way along the bike routes. cars love to rip into traffic circles at speed.

[deasine]

no worries =)

[hollywoodnorth]

good news

[Whalleyboy]

i hope they learn now after this how disparately we need a new bridge

[mr.x]

Originally Posted by Whalleyboy

i hope they learn now after this how disparately we need a new bridge

You know you need a new bridge when the bridge you have is able to catch on fire.

[NetMapel]

Horrible. I take the Alex Fraser bridge everyday for my commute to work. This will probably make the commute even longer... =_= The bridge is always over-used during the commute when you get 5-6 lanes of cars trying to squeeze into 3 lanes on the bridge. Yo government, build more bridges !!!

[CoryHolmes]

Originally Posted by NetMapel

Yo government, build more bridges !!!

But then you'd get 'grassroots' NIMBYs out in force, decrying the advancement of any sort of vehicle expansion. And then they complain when their local stores and big-boxes run out of their ever-so-precious items, so they'll vote against the current government. Government gets replaced by new one promising to 'fix the problem'. New government tries to develop new fixes and riles up 'grassroots' NIMBYs who come out in force...

Welcome to BC. Land of opportunity... to complain so loudly that you make the government ram projects down the throat, and then wait 20 years and complain that the previous adminstration didn't build enough at the start.

[Metro-One]

Exactly, that is why i want the SFPR, #1 and NFPR along with skytrain to Coquitlam and UBC to be fast tracked as much as possible so if a new government comes to power it is to late to stop such improvements. A lot of people hate Falcon, i myself am not a fan of the liberals, but i do give them credits in transportation for having the balls to ram these projects through.

[vanman]

Originally Posted by NetMapel

Horrible. I take the Alex Fraser bridge everyday for my commute to work. This will probably make the commute even longer... =_= The bridge is always over-used during the commute when you get 5-6 lanes of cars trying to squeeze into 3 lanes on the bridge. Yo government, build more bridges !!!

I take the Pattulo every day to work (transit is not a viable option) and I can only imagine how congested the Alex Fraser is going to get over the next couple of days. Every route leading to and from it will be even more shitpacked including the Queensborough bridge as well as River Road in Delta. This going to be AWESOME!