Roads Fantasy Thread

[GMD]

Originally Posted by bloomtronzero

This has been my pet transportation fantasy for ages. In my wild, unthethered dreams, I'd be running the Hastings SkyTrain Line through downtown and across the Lion's Gate though, rather than just buses. Not instead of a SkyTrain crossing at Second Narrows, but probably in addition to such a crossing.

This'd all really hinge on giving the North Shore another vehicle crossing somewhere to make up for taking the Lions' away from drivers, though. Whether that's just jacking the Second Narrows up with an insanely high-capacity new crossing, or fuck it, a Deep Cove-Belcarra-Third Narrows/Barnett crossing(to the presumed infinite fury of the communities it would run through), I don't know.

I don't know how to ever expand or even maintain direct a north shore->downtown crossing, when I think about it. Can't expand the Lions'. Can't replace it either, since it's a protected landmark. The Inlet is too deep to tunnel. Twinning it would be messy, too. And Downtown couldn't really handle much more car traffic even if we did sort this crossing out for vehicles.

I think, ultimately, one day in the distant distant future, we will come to a point where we repurpose the Lions' like we're dreaming of, if only because there's nothing else we can do at the First Narrows for vehicle traffic.

In an ideal world (this is a fantasy thread after all), the bridge could have a 2nd level added for skytrain/active transportation, as was done for the similar 25 de Abril Bridge in Portugal, but I don't think that is technically feasible for the Lion's Gate, sadly.