The City of Vancouver wants your feedback on the draft directions for Transportation 2040, the plan that will provide Vancouver’s transportation vision for 30 years and guide transportation decisions for 15 years.
Feedback is due by Friday, July 13; there is an online questionnaire with options to respond to all draft directions or only the ones that interest you.
The transportation targets for 2040 are visualized in this graph, which has been circulating online in recent weeks:
The draft directions focus on the following topics:
Walking – Make walking safe, convenient, and delightful. Ensure streets, sidewalks, and laneways support a vibrant public life that encourages a walking culture, healthy lifestyles, and social connectedness.
Cycling – Make cycling feel safe, convenient, comfortable, and fun for people of all ages and abilities.
Transit – Support transit improvements to increase capacity and ensure service that is fast, frequent, reliable, fully accessible, and comfortable.
Motor Vehicles – Manage the road network efficiently to improve safety and support a gradual reduction in car dependence. Make it easier to drive less. Accelerate the shift to low carbon vehicles.
Goods, Services, Emergency Response, and Commercial Transit – Support a thriving economy and Vancouver’s role as a major port while reducing environmental and neighbourhood impacts related to goods and services movement. Maintain effective emergency response times for police, fire, and ambulance.
Land Use – Support shorter trips and sustainable transportation choices through mixed land use, pedestrian-oriented design, densities that support walking, cycling, and transit, and new housing choices that put residents close to jobs, schools, recreation, and transit.
Here are some highlights from the plan to entice you to read it for yourself and submit feedback to the City:
Walking
- Installation of pedestrian countdown timers at new intersections and citywide through ongoing replacement programs (1.1.2.)
- Pilot a pedestrian scramble on Robson Street in consultation with the local community (1.1.4.)
- Provide accessible public washrooms in high-demand locations wherever possible (1.2.4.)
- Make streets and public spaces rain-friendly (1.4.)
- Improve pedestrian connectivity and accessibility by addressing gaps and deficiencies in the network [mentions high priority locations like False Creek] (1.5.1.)
- Create pedestrian-priority streets and spaces in the downtown, considering needs for transit services [mentions Robson Square, streets in Yaletown and other locations as potential locations] (2.2.1.)
- Implement a permit-based ‘pavement to plazas’ program to transform on-street parking spaces or excess road space or rights-of-way into mini-plazas or sidewalk extensions (2.2.2.)
Cycling
- Adopt and implement route design guidelines to support a network of routes that feel comfortable for people of all ages and abilities (1.1.2.)
- Prioritize cyclist movements on key routes by synchronizing traffic signals at the prevailing speed of cyclists (1.1.2.f.)
- Expand the cycling network to efficiently connect people to destinations (1.2.)
- Prioritize and implement abundant and secure bicycle parking at major transit stations and other high-demand locations, including at least one downtown bike centre (2.1.3.)
- Provide a public bicycle system (3.2.)
- Support motorist training to improve cycling safety (4.2.)
- Develop a recurring citywide cyclovia-style bicycle event (4.3.4.)
Transit
- Advocate for an underground Millennium Line extension serving the Broadway Corridor (1.1.1.)
- Work with TransLink to provide new or improved rapid transit service on high demand corridors, including Hastings, 41st/49th Avenue, Commercial/Victoria, and Main/Fraser (1.1.3.)
- Advance a Downtown-False Creek-Arbutus street car service (1.2.5.)
- Support the integration of ferries in False Creek with public transit and active transportation (1.4.2.)
- Support equitable fares that encourage transit use (5.1.)
- Support a universally accessible transit system (5.2.)
- Favour transit funding options that do not increase property taxes and encourage shifts to more sustainable modes (i.e. increased fuel taxes, a regional carbon tax, vehicle registration fees and regional road pricing) (6.1.1.)
Motor Vehicles
- Use off-street parking requirements to support reduced auto ownership and use (2.1.)
- Separate parking and housing costs to increase housing affordability (2.3.)
- “Future-proof” parking spaces so they can be converted to other uses–such as storage, bicycle parking, or even living space–when they are no longer needed for parking cars (2.5.)
- Support increased car-sharing (3.1.)
- Support regional road or congestion pricing, with revenue directed towards transit improvements (4.2.)
Special Projects & Study Areas
- Create a central civic plaza at Robson Square, closing it to cars seasonally or year-round, with options to either allow transit through or reroute it.
- Provide high quality pedestrian and cycling facilities on Point Grey Road/Cornwall to address a missing link in the seawall network and to provide cycling connections with Burrard Bridge.
- Make it safer, more accessible and more convenient for cyclists to cross False Creek.
- Improve conditions for walking and cycling on Commercial Drive while enhancing the social and economic vibrancy of the community and maintaining or improving reliability of local bus service.
- Create an Arbutus Corridor plan that incorporates both an active transportation greenway as well as a future streetcar or light rail connection.
Make your voice heard today! Talk transportation with the City of Vancouver.
