Time for Vancouver to Tear Down Its Viaducts?

[hollywoodnorth]

the presentation boards have now been posted >>

http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/current...ouseBoards.pdf

I will point out the 2 key ones that were not online till now and both show how much of a fuck up this whole thing will be >>

[BCPhil]

Ok, so Pacific would still be 1 way from before Cambie bridge, past BC Place, to Georgia where it becomes 2 lanes? West bound through traffic would still take Expo? And there is only 1 right turn lane off EB Pacific onto Quebec and Main? Where is all the traffic supposed to go, Prior? Sucks to live there!

This could be explained a little bit better so all the residents know what the impact in THEIR neighborhood will be.

Everything looks great when you say how great it will be in NEFC, but what kind of shit is everyone else going to go through to achieve that vision?

[Metro-One]

Yep, I am sure merging 4 streets into one, and adding 5 more seats of traffic lights, along with much more left / right turn movements will be fantastic for traffic congestion in the area (and the surrounding areas). What a terrible idea, and again, all for an incredibly sterile looking park / proposal. And yet, the skytrain guide-way will still be there.

Ugh, I really, really hate this master plan. I am against the removal of the ducts in the first place, but it makes me even more angry that they have decided upon the most uninteresting, uninspired, carbon copy plan of them all.

Honestly, dog and pony show, they never cared to even consider any of the suggestions that were not full removal with big green field.

[Stingray2004]

So... along with the existing Pacific/Expo Blvd traffic another 45,000 vehicles from the viaducts will also utilize the new Pacific Blvd?

And the addition of another 5 traffic lights to reach Main St. from Georgia St. (compared to the current viaducts?)

Gonna be a very busy stretch of road. So much for 'liveability' in the future NE False Creek. Stadium/arena event traffic are gonna also hit that future 'hood'. And so much for the increase in GHG emissions.

I dunno. This type of kooky social engineering takes the cake.

[IanS]

Does the 45,000 vehicles / day come from the Halcrow Report? If so, weren't those figures generated during the Olympics? If that's right, the actual number of vehicles / day will be much higher.

[WBC]

Originally Posted by p78hub

Metrotown is pretty much the city centre already.

That is exactly why this viaduct tear down plan is going to work...In 10 years Metrotown will be the business centre of the city and what happens in the suburb formerly known as downtown will be largely irrelevant unless you live there...And if you live there, there is not much reason to leave the downtown peninsula except to work, go to school, take kids to daycare or perhaps get non Urban Fare priced groceries...wait a minute!! !

[Stingray2004]

Likely posted elsewhere... but still a material matter involving the viaducts.

The 3 towers (rental housing) proposed by Aquilini incorporating the viaducts:









Source: http://www.theprovince.com/news/Vanc...525/story.html

[Pinion]

I wouldn't mind as much if they were turning this into a major entertainment/business district, but the last thing Vancouver needs is another park.

[huenthar]

Originally Posted by Stingray2004

So... along with the existing Pacific/Expo Blvd traffic another 45,000 vehicles from the viaducts will also utilize the new Pacific Blvd?

And the addition of another 5 traffic lights to reach Main St. from Georgia St. (compared to the current viaducts?)

Gonna be a very busy stretch of road. So much for 'liveability' in the future NE False Creek. Stadium/arena event traffic are gonna also hit that future 'hood'. And so much for the increase in GHG emissions.

I dunno. This type of kooky social engineering takes the cake.

Yep. So much for "re-connect"... The new Pacific would be a massive barrier, both physical and psychological, cutting off the park and the waterfront from the DTES to a far greater degree than the viaducts.


Who wants to bet that if the plan goes through, the land under the viaducts wouldn't be turned into a park at all, but will be sold off to Concord for a song and turned into condo midrises?

[paradigm4]

I know you guys already have your minds made up, and I'm not interested in the argument, but let it be known that I love this proposal. The muted response to the viaducts' potential removal leads me to believe the general public is also quite open to this proposal.

[Zassk]

The motivation is obvious. Meggs & Co. want to make the east-west commute even worse, to force the region to accelerate plans for rapid transit along the Hastings corridor. Meggs won't just claim credit for removing the viaducts, he wants to claim credit for the transit line that he thinks will ultimately replace them. But I think he is mistaken - the region will see through his ploy, and will have no tolerance for paying for that line.

[Metro-One]

Originally Posted by paradigm4

I know you guys already have your minds made up, and I'm not interested in the argument, but let it be known that I love this proposal. The muted response to the viaducts' potential removal leads me to believe the general public is also quite open to this proposal.

Actually the majority of the people i met at the meeting were against it. Also a lot of people i talk to to who are indifferent do not know that the city plans to only replace it with one surface street. And actually there is a growing movement in Strathcona to stop this proposal, they were handing out flyers out front of the event as to why they are against it

[Alex Mackinnon]

I already got a neighbourhood association email about it.

[duener]

Originally Posted by Pinion

I wouldn't mind as much if they were turning this into a major entertainment/business district, but the last thing Vancouver needs is another park.

Agreed. I think this is a great chance to turn a largely sterile area of town into something more interesting. A big green lawn is quite boring. This is an opportunity to add something that Vancouver doesn't currently have.

I'd like to see a massive German style beer garden - imagine loads of picnic tables mingled between trees along with a little hut that sells coffee, beer, wine, etc. No overpriced Cactus Club, no servers, no fancy fancy - just a casual, cheap spot to linger at and watch roller bladers go by. Plus they could show outdoor movies, concerts in summer. All very civilised.

[trofirhen]

The over-arching questions are really mathematical.
Firstly: do the arterial roads have the capacity to absorb existing viaduct traffic?

Secondly: will putting existing viaduct traffic on the arterial roads (and all their stoplights) enable incoming/outgoing traffic to enter and leave downtown in a comparable time frame ... or ... will everything be slowed to gridlock crawl?

Any answers to that one?

[quobobo]

Originally Posted by Metro-One

Actually the majority of the people i met at the meeting were against it.

That sounds like the majority of people at a lot of development meetings that are ultimately approved, wouldn't read too much into it.

Count me down as being quite happy with this proposal compared to the existing setup. As usual, not sure it needs the park component and the buildings could be much higher.

[Homer000]

Originally Posted by trofirhen

Firstly: do the arterial roads have the capacity to absorb existing viaduct traffic?

Great question, my dear sir!

[easy as pie]

yessss.... especially love that chinatown will be reconnected to what'll become a really cool lower main over the next decade or so.

hopefully they daylight some streams too.

[deasine]

Just to be clear, the three Aquilini towers don't really "incorporate" the viaducts, but are built "around them." The proposed developments have virtually no connections to the viaduct.

[Canadian Mind]

That is a pretty big deviation. Up to 50% more vehicles than the road capacity for 6 hours of the day... The adjacent roads wont be able to handle that. Residents of Strathcona should be up in arms, because this is going to turn Prior from a busy street to a parking lot.