Broadway

[fever]

Broadway, the street itself, through the trees and provinces is depressing. It has its moments, but for the most part it's dead. Why is it this way and what can be done about it?

The surrounding neighbourhoods are nice, well-maintained, middle class, and densely populated. There are a mix of office, hotel, and residential uses within the first (short) block from the street, usually including retail at grade, and then residential ranging from high rises to garden apartments and townhouses as you get further away. The hospital and related facilities are located between Cambie and Oak south of the street. Light industrial is most prominent North of Broadway between Cambie and Main. Overall, there is a good mixture of uses.

I think there are several reasons for the current state of Broadway.

Almost all blocks are more than 500 feet long. Some blocks of Robson and Davie are this long, but this doesn't seem to have any effect there. Maybe these streets are different because a much larger proportion of people there don't have cars and must use them for shopping and to walk downtown. Robson is also unique in that it sits on the boundary of the office district and residential district. Near the hospital, Broadway is similarly adjacent to a large number of office/hospital workers and it's actually not a terrible street there. I doubt that semi-private mid-block walkways will have any positive effect because nobody will use it. If mid-block passages are incorporated into new development, they should be clearly public spaces like some of the plazas that are lined with retail.

Nearly every office tower, of which there is maybe one per block in some sections, has a plaza. (Aside from the street treatment, the intensely horrible architecture doesn't really hurt the street.) The excess of plazas pokes holes in the streetscape that should be filled in. The older buildings are also accompanied by a curb cut, sometimes two. However, where the street lacks office buildings between Main and Cambie there is little activity. I think this stretch needs more office uses in particular, but also more residential.

Parking. West Broadway (the battles - this should be in the trivia thread) has parking. It's not so busy so there was no apparent need to remove streetside parking along this stretch of Broadway. The central section of Broadway lacks parking, and it lacks a buffer between the traffic and the sidewalk.

[smasher000]

i like broadway! bustling!

[agrant]

I agree - the Broadway stretch from Main to Cambie looks pretty dead on the outside. Most of the businesses along there seem to keep going though, so it seems to be working for them. It's not exactly a pleasant window shopping area, eh? :) There's a few outdoor recreation related stores, an Office Depot, quite a few small places which aren't very well known. The industrial area north of Broadway probably contributes to the lack of activity - there's simply not a lot of people living there. Having said that, I see things changing with the new Canada Line and maybe even the SE False Creek developments. The lack of activity is not unique here - there are several dead stretches from Boundary all the way to the west side. In fact, Broadway in general is pretty dead besides the car and bus traffic. If you are familiar with the area between Fir and Burrard, the foot traffic seems to have quadrupled since the new Future Shop was built. So it may also depend on the type of buisinesses that are there.

[raggedy13]

I find the area of Broadway roughly from Alma to McDonald is quite busy with pedestrians. Of course that area of Broadway has an entirely different feel to it than the stretch from say Granville to Main. The street itself feels narrower and less imposing, it is tree lined, has lots of street front retail/eateries with smaller scale buildings, is well served by transit, has a decent sized student population, and just overall feels more conducive to walking for whatever other reasons. It is more similar in feel to something like West 4th around Arbutus etc rather than the rest of Broadway.

To me, east of Granville, Broadway is just... well... too broad. It feels like you're walking along the side of a freeway or something. It doesn't generate the feel of a lazy tree-lined street in which to just stroll along and brows in windows and yet it doesn't generate the compact hustle and bustle feel of downtown. It just wasn't created with proper street level planning in mind. I think it is improving in some areas though. Projects like The Vine should help in their respective areas by adding more street-front retail as well as higher densities. I'm sure if the M-line extension were to be completed, there would be more focus on improving the street level experience along much of Broadway, mostly through the area generating more demand for redevelopment that would follow Vancouver's more modern development and planning principles.

[agrant]

:previous: That's a good way of describing Broadway.

"The Vine". That sounds like the new mixed use development at Broadway and Vine with the IGA and London Drugs going in on the ground level. I think there's another retail shop, but don't know what that might be. I should know, because the company I work for is doing the plumbing work there. :) With a new IGA, I wonder what will happen to the one a couple blocks east (corner of Broadway and Arbutus). That's a pretty huge hunk of land there.

[fever]

I took a few pictures of the street today. I'll post them later if they're any good.

There are a lot of projects along Broadway actually (the Vine, Crossroads, a few proposed between Main and Cambie. I think it's still in the early stages of a revival. All of the basics are there: the density, mixed uses, etc. It's the details that are wrong, and many of those will be fixed with redevelopment. I guess that's the optimistic viewpoint.

There is a big difference on some parts of Broadway between weekends and weekdays. I think it's at least partially a result of the parking/buffer situation. No parking is permitted from 7:30 to 9:30 in the morning and from 3 to 7 in the afternoon. It's an example of the city putting more emphasis on transportation than commercial activity. I think it's necessary to an extent to keep the B-Line moving, but I'm not sure that the restrictions really need to extend until 7 pm. This is actually a problem common to most of Vancouver's retail-lined arterials.

[Architype]

That part of Broadway has always been unattractive. I would expect to see improvements in the next few years though, as there is more new construction going on there. The things that make it most unpleasant is the width of the street, lack of landscaping, and the large volume and high speed of traffic.

[cornholio]

If they ever extend the Millenium line then they should be able to alow all day parking and posibly make some improvements such as widening the side walk, puting in medians, planting more trees etc. where posibel obviously. The Millenium line extension is the single best way to improve Broadway.

[SpongeG]

i've never found broadway dead - its always been pretty busy with pedestrians

it could use a few more visible cafes perhaps - a lot of the ones along the stretch are behind glass and have no patios or street interaction which makes it seem busier perhaps

i think once the canada line opens it will see more gentrification ie things like the GAP H&M will move in

[Jeffy78]

Broadway is bustling during weekdays, especially between Cambie all the way to Kits. The area with all the medical buildings and VGH is always pretty busy.

[fever]

Now that the sun's come out Broadway's busy. The best sections of Broadway are by the hospital and between Granville and Burrard (and then really just the south side). Oak to Granville especially, Burrard to Arbutus, and Main to Cambie are much less busy.

I agree that the MLine extension will allow Broadway to become more of a functional retail street. It's so far away though...

Anyway... as promised here are some pictures

Both of these gems have ground floor retail.
http://members.shaw.ca/mikef0001/bw1.jpg
http://members.shaw.ca/mikef0001/bw13.jpg

One curb cut to another
http://members.shaw.ca/mikef0001/bw4.jpg

Useless spaces
http://members.shaw.ca/mikef0001/bw2.jpg
http://members.shaw.ca/mikef0001/bw3.jpg

[SpongeG]

theres a place next to or just near the tim hortons/wendys that seems to have been sitting empty for a few months now

the 24 hour tims and shoppers have had some good impact on that area

[fever]

that place next to timmy's was being renovated. it's been done for maybe a month and still has a for lease sign. west of there is where it really drops off.

[Master Plan Dan]

The difference with the feel of Broadway to me has always been the type of traffic that is associated with each area.

West of Burard... it is pretty much pedestrian. After Burard and to Cambie... it is vehicular. Then after that it kind of drops off on to Pedestrian.

It also has to do with the surrounding area... both areas that are pedestrian oriented... are residential areas, with the middle stretch being office, predominantly commercial.

What Broadway needs is a rapid transit line... a Skytrain run that fuels UBC.

That would alleviate some of the traffic.

[agrant]

Tough to lighten the traffic long term, even with a new rapid transit line. Car traffic might down size for a short period, but more cars will eventually find the path of less resistance. A rapid transit line basically allows a city to grow a little more, doesn't make traffic better forever... at least that's my theory. The greatest benefit of rapid transit, to me, is it provides an alternative to the car.

[fever]

Rapid transit along Broadway would allow the city to redesign the street. It wouldn't need the three lanes in each direction anymore, so one lane could make way for corner bulges to reduce the crossing distance, parking both as a buffer and for local business, additional street trees, etc.

[Coldrsx]

broadway is "the next" place to develop...FYI

[squeezied]

Rapid transit along Broadway would allow the city to redesign the street. It wouldn't need the three lanes in each direction anymore, so one lane could make way for corner bulges to reduce the crossing distance, parking both as a buffer and for local business, additional street trees, etc.

thats a good point. same thing goes for cambie. after the canada line is done, cambie is will have two lanes in each direction, whereas before it was three.