[geoff's two cents]

One thing that has always bothered me about the Arbutus corridor is the fact that it bypasses the shopping center and hospital. My hunch is that if the line actually went straight through, and if there were thus more in the way of development potential to be leveraged, there might actually be a more concerted city effort to get a permanent line up and running from Kerrisdale through False Creek to downtown. As it is, the current track configuration leaves quite the distance between Kerrisdale and Broadway/Arbutus. Ironically, a route that actually went straight down Arbutus would also need to cross fewer intersections.

I imagine this will emerge as a topic of considerable debate once the UBC line is finished or nearly so.