Quote:
Originally Posted by BCPhil
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
This is a very simple, elegant, and usually right motto by which BC politicians have very little ability to follow.
As it is, a huge amount of traffic flows into and out of downtown. And against all logic (and contrary to many peoples opinions) it does actually flow. Downtown is surrounded by water on 3 and a half sides, yet traffic can get out. And a huge portion of that traffic heads east as that is the direction the metro region expands.
The only reason there isn't constant gridlock in the core is because traffic has options on getting out. Why would you want to mess with that?
Look at what happened when at Granville & Georgia they closed 1 or 2 lanes of traffic to repair the road. Chaos. Look what happens when there is a massive accident and they close a road. Chaos. When a road is closed or even a few lanes in one block are MIA it can affect traffic all over the downtown core and into the metro region as a whole. The Granville Street bridge is much better now than it was last year while the Cambie street bridge was neutered.
Now, people would get used to the missing Viaducts and change their driving habits and dirstribute themselves on the other roads. Pacific and Expo would be a lot more busy than they are now, and so would W2nd/Cambie. While it wouldn't ruin anyone's life, it would degrade everyone's a bit as we all have to put up with extra traffic that wasn't there before. That includes people on buses on roads that can become gridlocked like Seymour or Hastings or Powel. I don't know about you guys, but I've been stuck on buses in downtown traffic before (not everyone can take Expo line into downtown).
And what would be the reward? A few thousand new residents? It's a relatively small area, and with the water views would be too expensive for most who are driving on the viaducts to afford.
And I don't buy that the viaducts are a barrier separating the DTES from downtown. The Viaducts are a N/S barrier, not E/W. There is nothing on the other side of the viaducts except false creek (water), and beyond that is the Plaza of nations.
Using that logic you can say that Victory Square is a barrier between the East Side and West, maybe that park should go next. If anything it's GM Place and BC Place that are the buffers, but they are also a driving force of life in downtown and the metro region. I don't hear many saying they should go and be replaced by some towers.
If we want to focus on an area for improvement, why not the Broadway Corridor? There is a lot more there in terms of under used land along Broadway. The street is littered with run down single floor commercial space. Broadway also requires rapid transit. The central part of the corridor is already a major business hub with thousands of jobs, and there is still more room to expand. The only problem is it is also one of the more difficult places to get to (especially on transit).
Would it not be more logical to spend our time and effort to build something new instead of tear something functioning down? Shouldn't we focus on expanding density and transit along the entire length of Broadway instead of a few blocks downtown?
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Thank you! Great post, full of common sense. It's rather amazing, in fact, that Vancouver traffic flows as well as it does with so little lane-space compared to other North American cities.
And yes, we should be focussing on the upgrading of Broadway for sure.
It's a busy street, getting busier.
Oh, and for anyone who has not seen it, Paris has a fabulous freeway system that takes many cars off the streets.
Most of the freeway system is underground, which is why it has little visual/aesthetic impact.
Right on.
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