The first open house for the viaducts (4-7 Tuesday in the Woodward’s atrium) was packed. Another one today and then Saturday.
Here’s what the proponents are saying that taking down the viaducts will do: create one great street instead of two half-used semi-highways, improve the park space, bring a grand ceremonial street (Georgia) down to the waterfront, provide two more blocks of (city-owned) land around Main to reconstitute housing that was once part of Chinatown, and not block any views.
I know not everyone agrees with that. I heard there were some rumblings of discontent at the open house. The floor is yours.
154 responses so far ↓
1 Lee L // Jun 15, 2012 at 12:05 am
The present ‘proposal’ for the viaducts, Georgia linking to Expo/Pacific, as explained to me by one of their transportation engineers, will not significantly disrupt traffic flow at peak hours but WILL provide 35% less road traffic capacity during peak hours ( eastbound out of downtown). He was kind of smooth, and it all sounded so good until I thought about it.
What happens to the 35% currently being carried by the viaducts? Rethink the statement.
Restated… The traffic eastbound out of downtown will be so messed up, that every THIRD CAR driver will say screw this! and use another road out of town. Hastings, Cordova and Pender ( all 2 semidrivable blocks of it) are being offered by the City engineers.
What a crock.
2 Frank Ducote // Jun 19, 2012 at 5:18 pm
Lee L – thank you for this piece of information. Some of those 1 in 3 cars will also try to rat run on small streets like Keefer, Abbott, Quebec, Carrall and Gore as well as the larger streets you note. Not an exciting prospect, I must say.
3 Lewis N. Villegas // Jun 19, 2012 at 10:55 pm
What-a-crock
Lee L 151
Well put. Every time that the ‘solution’ is had ahead of the facts what we can expect is… ‘what-a-crock’.
Your objection would not materialize, I believe, if we had the transit in place. Drive or BRT? Once you add-on the price of parking, gas, and garage repairs… it’s a no-brainer.
Instead, we are given ‘what-a-crock’.
4 CK // Jul 6, 2012 at 7:40 pm
I must use my car for work to Pt Moody; Coquitlam and New Westminster. I provide outreach services in these areas and have lived in Vancouver downtown 17 years. Like many in the west end, this is my community. I use Venables Ave and 1st Ave every single working day to head to either Coquitlam/New West and Venables/Clark ave/Hastings street to get to Port Moody. I live on Davie near Cardero. There is plenty of traffic coming down Davie compared to 5 years ago-all night long. Perhaps we should have a greenway here? Traffic, especially trucks, coming off the Bridge and heading down Davie to First Ave, Granville Hwys 1 and 99.
The traffic routes are terrible , and getting worse every day as they are. There should be NO re-development of the existing routes in and out of the city- unless it improves traffic flow as unpopular to multi-million property owners buying in the Strathcona/Prior Street areas. (Ironic) Even with improved commuter options, driving and drivers will continue to increase by sheer population growth. Up to a million more people to settle in the lower mainland over the next 20 years-Please no more “gratuitous greenway areas to please the real estate sectors. To sell to foreign investors at tax payers expenses .No more bike lanes etc. We have done enough to such a small downtown core area with very little HWY infrastructure anywhere in the city to accomodate traffic. If ever there was an emergency- “The Big One” ie earth quake, fire, serious power outage, satellites went down, etc, we could be in serious trouble. We are setting ourselves up for true disaster by having so many people living in a cramped urban area with islands, bridges every few blocks, and few arteries in and out of the city. This city is a living vital city not just a green respite for the rich, the developer, the tourist, the transient politician, and the foreign investor.