Metro Vancouver Transit Discussion II

[hollywoodnorth]

TransLink Pays $85.6M For Two Industrial Properties In Surrey

TransLink has acquired 13221 76th Avenue and 7678 132nd Street, two properties adjacent to the Surrey Transit Centre.

"TransLink has acquired properties at 7678 132nd Street and 13221 76th Avenue in Surrey, to enable long-term operational expansion of the Surrey Transit Centre," a TransLink spokesperson confirmed to STOREYS.

https://storeys.com/translink-surrey-transit-centre-belkorp-properties/

[madog222]

After what seems like years of discussion and public consultation Translink is presenting to Burnaby City Council their proposal to redesignate the Hastings St. curb lanes to bus lanes at Monday's council meeting.
This would be for Hastings between Willingdon and Duthie from 7am to 7pm, seven days a week.

More information including modeled time savings: https://pub-burnaby.escribemeetings.com/...nda&lang=English&Item=64&Tab=attachments

The biggest travel time saved is for Eastbound busses durring morning rush hour.

[jollyburger]

They should ban left hand turns during rush hour through Burnaby Heights while they're at it.

[idunno]

I wonder if it'll go through? Something tells me Burnaby Council isn't going to be super gung-ho about bus lanes after their bone-headed decision last year to push for an off-Hastings BRT route in that neighbourhood.

(reminder - https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/burnaby-metrotown-park-royal-brt-route-translink)

[madog222]

From Daily Hive:

Ultimately, as a compromise, when it became clear that TransLink’s original concept would not be approved, City Council endorsed an amendment by city councillor Daniel Tetrault recommending that TransLink and City staff proceed with a scaled-down plan to install bus-only lanes only along a truncated 2.8-km-long stretch of Hastings Street between Delta Avenue and Duthie Avenue.

Tetrault’a amendment effectively removes the 0.8-km-long controversial stretch of bus-only lanes — a move to preserve the curbside vehicle spaces for the Burnaby Heights retail district, which is situated west of Delta Avenue.

…

Furthermore, the amendment also suggests TransLink and City staff should explore the feasibility of bus bulbs for the remaining 0.8-km-long segment without bus-only lanes between Willingdon Avenue and Delta Avenue.

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/burnaby-hastings-street-translink-bus-lanes-amendment

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

They should ban left hand turns during rush hour through Burnaby Heights while they're at it.

all arterials should have banned left turns where there is no dedicated lane. and all dedicated left turn lanes should have signals.

its bad design/traffic management to not do this. 1 person can mess up the entire road for which they could turn elsewhere that has a lane or do a 3 right turn loop.

arterial roads should be used for transportation and not parking/left turns at every. single. street.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture

all arterials should have banned left turns where there is no dedicated lane. and all dedicated left turn lanes should have signals.

its bad design/traffic management to not do this. 1 person can mess up the entire road for which they could turn elsewhere that has a lane or do a 3 right turn loop.

arterial roads should be used for transportation and not parking/left turns at every. single. street.

Agree 100%. It's dangerous as a pedestrian too because drivers are too worried about making the left when there's a break in traffic not looking at the road they are turning on to.

[s211]

Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture

its bad design/traffic management to not do this. 1 person can mess up the entire road for which they could turn elsewhere that has a lane or do a 3 right turn loop.

Vancouver does this like they're trying to win some sort of Olympic medal.

Oak northbound at 33rd has to be a great example. The middle lane can back up all the way past the entrance to Van Deusen while a couple of cars in the left lane wait in vain to turn left on 33rd.

Granville Street north of 70th is another dangerous mess.

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

Agree 100%. It's dangerous as a pedestrian too because drivers are too worried about making the left when there's a break in traffic not looking at the road they are turning on to.

yup. doesnt help our street lighting isnt very good at all those side streets and we are a wet, dark city for most of the year. its just rediculous.

Originally Posted by s211

Vancouver does this like they're trying to win some sort of Olympic medal.

i talked to a CoV transportation engineer years ago about this. i asked him why we do it. and he had 2 answers "we need to give residents easy access to their houses" and the other "it helps slow down traffic"

we went back and forth a bit and he just doubled down on his 🞵🞵🞵🞵. i ended up just calling those ideas idiotic and stupid and we parted ways. he was deadset in his "logic."

its so stupid and dangerous. CoV is great at 🞵🞵🞵🞵 like that.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture

all arterials should have banned left turns where there is no dedicated lane. and all dedicated left turn lanes should have signals.

its bad design/traffic management to not do this. 1 person can mess up the entire road for which they could turn elsewhere that has a lane or do a 3 right turn loop.

arterial roads should be used for transportation and not parking/left turns at every. single. street.

To play devils advocate, some streets like Granville have nowhere near enough left turn lanes. Nothing at 57th, 49th, 33rd, West King Ed or 12th.

Of course the obvious solution would be for the City and ICBC fund those dedicated turn lanes. I have seen so many more accidents along that street since Covid and high amount of taxis and Ubers make it even dicier.

[officedweller]

...and all because arterials must handle large volumes of through traffic because we don't have a freeway network.

[cganuelas1995]

Other day saw a cab driver lay on his horn at a guy trying to turn left when he could've just gone around him

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by cganuelas1995

Other day saw a cab driver lay on his horn at a guy trying to turn left when he could've just gone around him

Was he turning on a solid line? Did he just stop in the middle of the road and then turn on his signal? People drive like 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 all the time even if technically legal at some points.

Going around is fine, but it can also be a dangerous behaviour. Maybe the cabbie had to slam on his brakes first.

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

Originally Posted by officedweller

...and all because arterials must handle large volumes of through traffic because we don't have a freeway network.

i always thought some of the freeway plans were way over the top, but some had merit and should have been done.

it would have allowed a lot of arterials to be neighbourhood streets instead. allowing for traffic calming, and overall less cars on the surface streets.

1 proposal i liked, was a 6 lane freeway through the grandview cut. double tracked railway between 3+3 lanes. directly connecting to the #1, going underground in a tunnel, then in the grandview cut, connecting to the viaducts.

eventually, we could have added a roof over it, and created a huge linear park over what is now just a railway garbage dump.

but nope, instead we have major traffic on the surface. much better. who doesn't love noise, conflict points, congestion, wide roads pedestrians need to navigate across, and the sweet sweet smell of exhaust!

[ecbin]

Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture

i always thought some of the freeway plans were way over the top, but some had merit and should have been done.

it would have allowed a lot of arterials to be neighbourhood streets instead. allowing for traffic calming, and overall less cars on the surface streets.

1 proposal i liked, was a 6 lane freeway through the grandview cut. double tracked railway between 3+3 lanes. directly connecting to the #1, going underground in a tunnel, then in the grandview cut, connecting to the viaducts.

eventually, we could have added a roof over it, and created a huge linear park over what is now just a railway garbage dump.

but nope, instead we have major traffic on the surface. much better. who doesn't love noise, conflict points, congestion, wide roads pedestrians need to navigate across, and the sweet sweet smell of exhaust!

In theory I agree with your points but then I think of the real life examples of how freeways divide cities - Burnaby and the North Shore come to mind. Burnaby on both sides of highway 1 feels like two totally separate cities (it doesn't help that the north-south street grid is just terrible).

As a south sider (just barely) I don't even think of the north side of Burnaby as my neighbours and it's Metrotown that feels to me like the centre of Burnaby when it's really a south Burnaby neighbourhood.

When I lived in Vancouver at about the same latitude I never felt that way about the north or south of the city - I was very much in central Van and it felt like one city.

[chowhou]

Originally Posted by ecbin

In theory I agree with your points but then I think of the real life examples of how freeways divide cities - Burnaby and the North Shore come to mind. Burnaby on both sides of highway 1 feels like two totally separate cities (it doesn't help that the north-south street grid is just terrible).

As a south sider (just barely) I don't even think of the north side of Burnaby as my neighbours and it's Metrotown that feels to me like the centre of Burnaby when it's really a south Burnaby neighbourhood.

When I lived in Vancouver at about the same latitude I never felt that way about the north or south of the city - I was very much in central Van and it felt like one city.

To be fair to Burnaby, the highway pretty much exclusively winds through the marshy flats of Still Creek and Burnaby lake where no one was ever going to live and to this day is mostly just industrial or parkland. I think the separation was always going to exist. You can't quite see it on a map but Burnaby is definitely a tale of two cities, north and south, on their own little hilltops looking at each other over the valley below.

The Upper Levels in North Vancouver/West Vancouver on the other hand definitely make you feel like you're on the the right/wrong side of the tracks.

[aberdeen5698]

Originally Posted by chowhou

To be fair to Burnaby, the highway pretty much exclusively winds through the marshy flats of Still Creek and Burnaby lake where no one was ever going to live and to this day is mostly just industrial or parkland. I think the separation was always going to exist.

You took the words right out of my mouth. Sperling Avenue next to Deer Lake is a prime example - you can't drive south from the 5600 block of Sperling to the 5700 block because there's a bluff and nothing but a set of stairs between them.

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

Originally Posted by ecbin

In theory I agree with your points but then I think of the real life examples of how freeways divide cities

it could have been done in a way to avoid cutting the city up.

my example about using the grandview cut. that was a real proposal, and it would not have had any negative impacts since the whole thing was put below grade in the existing cut. theres a right way to do freeways, and a wrong way to do freeways. not having one properly done is a negative for the city as a whole. you cant just make traffic go away because you want it to; that isnt how the real world works. people just end up in worse and worse gridlock. it just makes things worse for the city as a whole.

a north/south freeway to the 99 would be tougher to design. theres no geography like "the cut" to use to avoid those impacts. but there can be improvements. like having Oak St go under 70th Av using the natural geography, and have an on ramp on SW Marine to avoid that whole Oak/70th mess. left turn bans/left turn lanes/signals at Park Dr, 57th, 33rd, 16th, etc. it would improve flow, have minimal impacts to residents, and prevent dangerous conflict points.

one thing that could be done to improve congestion is rebuilding the Fraser St/No 5 Rd bridge. the RoW still exists, and it would remove the local traffic going to/from richmond from the freeway traffic using the Knight St Bridge.

there could also be something like the Boundary Rd/No 8 Rd bridge. this would at least stop forcing people to constantly go back and forth along roads/freeways and improve connectivity.


bottom line is we have the ability to make small improvements to create decent benefits. we just lack the will to do so.

[cganuelas1995]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

Going around is fine, but it can also be a dangerous behaviour. Maybe the cabbie had to slam on his brakes first.

No it was from a red light

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by cganuelas1995

No it was from a red light

Did the driver turn on his blinker when the light turned green?

Not trying to defend a cabby of all drivers, but I see constant 🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵🞵 behaviour out there. Main player syndrome.