Metro Vancouver Road Infrastructure Discussion - Page 15

SpongeG · #**281** Posted **Jun 1, 2009, 11:39 PM**

Vancouver city council mulls car-free Sundays

Regular car-free Sundays could be coming to four Vancouver neighbourhoods this summer.

Vancouver city council will meet Tuesday to decide on the so-called "summer spaces" pilot program.

City staff is recommending up to 28 street closures during car-free trials in four districts across the city.

Vision Vancouver Coun. Andrea Reimer proposed last December the idea of having a summer of car-free Sundays in select parts of the city.

"It's pretty exciting. There's some really interesting proposals…that really captured the essence of what we hoped that they would [and] they bring economic activity into an area," she said.

The proposals have come from community groups and business improvement associations across the city.

In a report to council, staff is recommending four districts make the cut for city support.

They include Commercial Drive; Main Street in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood; Gastown, which is hoping for a new weekly farmers' market; and Collingwood, near the Joyce Street Skytrain station, which is proposing an open-air market.

Reimer doesn't think closing these zones to cars, and opening them to people, will cause a major disruption.

"All of them are on the weekend, in areas of the city that have very low traffic on weekends," she said.

The pilot program will cost up to $200,000, which would come from the Parking Sites Reserve, a fund normally used to develop parking spots.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-col...e-sundays.html

over 157 comments on this one...

Jared · #**282** Posted **Jun 2, 2009, 3:51 AM**

I'm 100% for it. I've been to the Commercial Drive one over the past few years, and its always a huge success. Concerns about merchants loosing money (see some of the more ignorant CBC comments) are completely unfounded. Check out this picture:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sockeyed/2601205659/

'nuff said.

DKaz · #**283** Posted **Jun 2, 2009, 4:11 AM**

I wouldn't pay attention to that comment, my wife and I and our expecting baby will have more space to walk around. We'll take a nice walk to Mission City Station and take the West Coast Express in to town, take skytrain to Broadway, and walk up a car free Commercial Drive.

SpongeG · #**284** Posted **Jun 2, 2009, 4:49 AM**

on a sunday?

DKaz · #**285** Posted **Jun 2, 2009, 3:33 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by SpongeG

on a sunday?

They have trainbuses Saturday and Sunday (as well as late morning, early afternoon, and late evening weekdays), it takes longer (Misson to Waterfront 110 minutes vs. 73 minutes, Mission to Coquitlam Central 63 minutes vs. 43 minutes) but it does the job and it's quite popular so far.

SpongeG · #**286** Posted **Jun 2, 2009, 9:20 PM**

didn't know that service existed

metroXpress · #**287** Posted **Jun 19, 2009, 8:43 PM**

Quote:

Businesses: fix this 'tunnel'
Merchants say off-ramp desperately needed - "hundreds of thousands of dollars in wallets are driving by every day."
Tom Zytaruk, Surrey Now
Published: Thursday, June 18, 2009

SURREY - Merchants in South Surrey and White Rock have protested a lack of access to U.S. tourists' dollars ever since the Pacific Highway was paved in 1923.

"There is no sign of any account along the Pacific Highway to indicate at what point the visitor is to turn to get into White Rock," a Surrey Gazette editorial lamented on May 8, 1924. Eighty-five years later, it's not so much the Pacific Highway that's the hassle, but Highway 99.

Continuing northward from the I-5, the highway has only two off-ramps into the White Rock-South Surrey area, at 8th Avenue, and King George Highway. The considerable stretch in between serves more like a concrete moat that separates the Peninsula from the rest of Surrey. From the highway, tourists heading north can see stores and restaurants they'd no doubt like to visit, but they just can't get to them. And by the time they reach the King George off ramp, they'd just as soon head into North Surrey or continue on into Vancouver.

"It's like a tunnel all the way to Vancouver," laments Jay Fettinger, president of the WRSS Chamber. Ultimately, South Surrey and White Rock merchants have had it with being cut off from U.S. business. So, the White Rock & South Surrey Chamber of Commerce, Surrey Board of Trade, White Rock Business Improvement Association, Cloverdale Chamber of Commerce and Cloverdale Business Improvement Association have joined their considerable forces to lobby the provincial Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure to build a northbound off-ramp at 24th Avenue.

Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts has added her voice to the cause and says city hall is calling on new transportation minister Shirley Bond to build the ramp.

"We're building that shopping district up...we've been pushing for that (ramp) for a number of years," Watts said. "We'll continue to work with the ministry." Interestingly, Health Minister Kevin Falcon, who used to be B.C.'s minister of transportation, indicated that under his watch the ministry was never approached by the city with an offer to move forward with a ramp, and, "as such, it never really got anywhere."

Fettinger noted that in Washington State the I-5 has off-ramps galore, leading motorists to gas stations and fast food joints. But up here, if travellers heading north miss the 8th Avenue exit, "there's no way to get off the highway. You're basically clearing the whole entire area."

That includes more than gas stations - we're talking entire shopping districts. Fettinger observed that while an off-ramp at 24th Avenue would cost about $6 million to build, to do nothing would be considerably more costly to the B.C. economy simply because the U.S. tourists can't get to the many stores in the south.

"Hundreds of thousands of dollars in wallets are driving by every day." He noted that the government has pumped all kinds of money into refurbishing the Peace Arch border crossing in anticipation of the winter Olympics next year. It would be a crying shame, say those calling for the ramp, if the Peninsula remained cut off during the Olympics.

"We want to get this thing going - we want it going now," Fettinger said. Local chambers of commerce and boards of trade have been sending letters to the ministry of transportation's regional manager, John Schnablegger, to that end.

Schnablegger told the Now on Thursday that the ministry of transportation is willing to partner with the City of Surrey and TransLink to see an off-ramp built at 24th Avenue.

"We have no problem with off-ramps," he said. But one won't be built in time for the Olympics, he added. The ministry's funding is "totally committed" up until 2013.

© Surrey Now 2009

http://www2.canada.com/surreynow/new...b-d589d449886f

SpongeG · #**288** Posted **Jun 25, 2009, 5:09 PM**

the st john overpass in port moody is shut down - must be a traffic nightmare there

a garbage truck tired to drive under it with its thingy up - sort of like what happenned when that garbage truck driver was killed a few years ago on the lougheed in coquitlam

the pics on TV show a lot of damage they are trying to fiure out if its safe enough to use or what

SpongeG · #**289** Posted **Jun 25, 2009, 5:10 PM**

CTV has some pics and a story

A street overpass in Port Moody, B.C., is closed after being struck by a garbage truck. June 24, 2009.

http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/l...shColumbiaHome

lightrail · #**290** Posted **Jun 25, 2009, 7:23 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Allen

http://www2.canada.com/surreynow/new...b-d589d449886f

Wouldn't a sign be much cheaper to direct tourist into White Rock on the first exit after the border?

DKaz · #**291** Posted **Jun 25, 2009, 10:20 PM**

At least Darwin Award runner ups get to stay alive.

sacrifice333 · #**292** Posted **Jun 25, 2009, 10:33 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by lightrail

Wouldn't a sign be much cheaper to direct tourist into White Rock on the first exit after the border?

They really should add offramps at 16th Ave, 24th Ave, and 152nd Street.

8th Ave & King George makes no sense at all given the population growth the area has experienced.

officedweller · #**293** Posted **Jun 25, 2009, 10:57 PM**

Came across this MoT link which may be useful:

http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/publications...dies/index.htm

Whalleyboy · #**294** Posted **Jun 26, 2009, 2:56 AM**

i like king george one its a nice little by pass to get to white rock
plus it leads to North surrey

GeeCee · #**295** Posted **Jun 26, 2009, 10:30 PM**

Overpass in Port Moody is supposed to be open to single lane traffic (eastbound into port moody) now through the weekend per the city of Port Moody's website.

trofirhen · #**296** Posted **Jul 8, 2009, 9:12 AM**

Can anyonyone fill me in on a "phantom" topic that seems to come and go? It's the long-proposed, half-forgotten UNDERGROUND DOWNTOWN VANCOUVER AUTOMOBILE TUNNEL. Hey, I'm all for less road traffic and a greater emphasis on public transit.

However, the reality is that there will always be cars (with people in them) travelling across and/ or through downtown Vancouver to head south, or coming up toward Vancouver to head east to Burnaby and Coquitlam, or to join Highway #1, or to travel west to cross the beautiful-but-nearly-strangled-to-death Lions Gate Bridge to the North Shore, in particular to West Vancouver and towards Horsehoe Bay and Whistler.

Surely a cross-downtown freeway - UNDERGROUND, - similar to the Autoroute Ville Marie in Montreal is in order. I'm not advocating encouraging more cars in the city centre. I'm advocating a faster, less obtrusive way of funnelling existing automobile traffic that already transits downtown Vancouver ( . . . and remember, there are a lot of people LIVING downtown . . . . ) THROUGH the city in a tunnel system.

The very concept has ecofreaks recoiling in horror, but if you analyze the system objectively, and realize that:

1 Automobiles will be around for another generation or two.

2 Vancouver is a dense metropolis, and the rail sytem under construction,
great as it is, cannot address long-haul motor vehicle users.

3 The city is growing. The number of cars is increasing.

4 The arterial road system is at capacity, and gridlocked at rush hour in
the downtown core (and on the Lions Gate Bridge)

. . . . it is evident that some major road system in the central city is needed to absorb all this crosstown traffic. Although expensive, putting it in a tunnel system is the most aesthetic option, and the most practical one for decongesting the arterial roads downtown and elsewhere, and improving not only traffic speed and efficiency, but the quality of life on the surface level.

Why has this option been presented, then shelved, then briefly hauled out again, then put away and forgotten about?

Any feedback, opinion, and information on this would be greatly appreciated, and would be very timely as well, as Vancouver enters into a new stage as a major metropolis, not just an oversized town with "make-do and "temporary patch-up" solutions.

GeeCee · #**297** Posted **Jul 8, 2009, 9:30 AM**

It would be interesting to look at it once Seattle completes their tunnel project.

Where would the portal on the north end go, though? Due to the lack of highway infrastructure, we don't really have a single unified point where all the traffic runs through like a lot of other cities with extensive highway systems do.. there's no 'quick fix' where we can just add more bandwidth which is something that such a tunnel project would be great for.

jlousa · #**298** Posted **Jul 8, 2009, 1:16 PM**

Considering the number of cars coming downtown is decreasing and has been for years, I don't see a need for a tunnel since we've managed when the need was greater.
For the price of a tunnel that large we could finish funding the evergreen line, build a passerelle and get the streetcar line completed thru to Phase 2+ and get the fraser valley interurban line back up and running, and still have money left to fund a chunk of the ubc line.

officedweller · #**299** Posted **Jul 8, 2009, 7:43 PM**

WRT a downtown Vancouver tunnel - there's not much "on the other side of downtown" as a destination. There's Whistler, but much of the traffic from Burnaby and the Fraser Valley can bypass downtown and use the TCH. Going the other way, the population on the North Shore does not warrant a tunnel either.

wrenegade · #**300** Posted **Jul 8, 2009, 7:45 PM**

I keep seeing these stats that say the number of automobiles entering the downtown is decreasing but it doesn't really make sense to me. I drive the Lions Gate every day (at all different times of the day) and traffic is as bad or worse than it was last year, 2 years ago, 5 years ago.

However, a big dig type tunnel idea under the city is overkill. The amount of transit projects that could be built for the same money would be much more worth it. Not to mention how the tunnel would tie into the road network on the south end. Granville? Burrard? Oak? Some entrances/exits downtown, such as Howe and Seymour? I think it would be a mess, as much as I have wished for an express route to south granville when I am rushing to the airport. The cost would be staggering and totally not worth it.