Posts from — May 2009

Yesterday council approved an option for the Burrard Bridge lane reallocation trial that allocates a southbound road lane to cyclists, the east sidewalk exclusively to northbound cyclists and the west sidewalk to exclusively to pedestrians travelling in both directions.

Mayor Gregor Robertson and the Vision councillors supported the one-lane trial, COPE councillors supported a two-lane trial and NPA councillor Suzanne Anton was absent.

Mayor Gregor Robertson committed to a one-lane trial during his election campaign. During debate yestereday, he told council “this is not a decision that comes easily, but it is driven by safety first and affordability.

“We heard compelling calls for a two-lane trial but there are obvious ongoing concerns about the shift of traffic volume. This option represents an opportunity to demonstrate how quickly traffic can shift. For cyclists this is an opportunity to begin a transition.”

The arguments for a trial are conclusive. It is the best way to learn whether or not the Bridge can be made safe for cyclists without a $30 million sidewalk widening procedure that would destroy the Bridge’s heritage character. That’s equivalent to an entire year’s expenditure on transportation improvements.

This decision disapppointed many cyclists, who overwhelmingly favoured the two-lane option presented to council. But the one-lane trial is an important first step in the drive to improve cycling and increase the number of cyclists in Vancouver. Success on this lane separation project should demonstrate the value and necessity of creating separate lanes for cyclists city-wide.

In addition, a one-lane trial should go a long way to assuring motorists that lane re-allocation is a sensible way to grow more sustainable transportation options in Vancouver. As many studies have shown, concerns about new gridlock are often unfounded.

The Burrard Bridge lane re-allocation can’t wait. We need the trial. I’m hopeful this trial will lay the groundwork for more improvements on the bridge and citywide, for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists.

Can lane reallocation make traffic disappear?

This study, making the rounds as decision-time nears on the Burrard Bridge lane reallocation trials, says yes, often it can.

It concludes, after a review of 70 case studies of lane reallocatons around the world, that “predictions of traffic problems are often unnecessarily alarmist, and that, given appropriate local circumstances, significant reductions in overall traffic levels can occur.”

It’s an eloquent fact-based reply to Sun columnist Miro Cernetig’s suggestion that cyclists solve the safety problems on the bridge by pedalling slower and staying inside new barriers. He will continue as before, thank you.

The Metro Core Jobs and Economy Land Use Plan, adopted unanimously by council yesterday, drew little media coverage, but may be one of the most important decisions council makes this year.

The result of four years of economic analysis, consultation and research, the plan seeks to ensure there will be development opportunities for office and other economic activities in the Central Business District and the downtown core.

It’s the result of process begun in 2005 when Mayor Larry Campbell’s council slapped a moratorium on conversion of office space to condominiums. They wanted  to make sure people who lived downtown could actually work there. With office space disappearing, the future of this critical component of the provincial economy was in doubt.

Tuesday’s vote means that residential development will not be permitted — except in a very few circumstances — in the six-block by ten-block area that makes up the Central Business District (CBD).  Mixed use, with residential and housing, will be permitted under more liberal rules in the “shoulders” of that area.

There’s more to come. By mid-summer, council will receive recommendations on the land use policies necessary to ensure economic develop0ment continues in a much wider area bounded by Burrard Inlet, Clark Drive, Broadway and Burrard St. 

The CBD is the old economy’s core. This larger zone, full of opportunity for every kind of development, is where the regional and provincial economy could find a new centre of gravity.

Despite appeals to allow mixed use in the downtown core, council took a cautious approach. There isn’t enough room for new job space in the CBD, assuming economic growth continues, under the old zoning rules. Council allowed more density for office development in the city core.

But who knows what our future economy will require? Even elements of the so-called “creative economy” — like film, biotech and waste recycling — require large spaces, big building forms and isolation from residential districts. Those uses must find a place in our future city, along with economic activities no one has thought of yet, but may tomorrow.

Despite the 2010 Games, the homelessness crisis and the debate over the Burrard Bridge, this council must find the time in the coming months to deal with a series of development issues that will shape Vancouver for generations. Tuesday’s vote was just the first.

Still to come:

• the discussion about the wider city core;
• planned massive redevelopment of the area around BC Place, being considered through a very short process called the High Level Review;
• revisions to the view corridors; and
• a revised business plan for the Olympic Village, with all that entails for the surrounding lands.

It should put the Burrard Bridge debate in perspective — but probably won’t.

Action on housing:

• Moving up implementation for laneway housing;
• easing the rules around basement construction to encourage more flexible single-home construction with secondary suites; and
•  now this update on changes to allow secondary suites in apartments.

They’re all part of the Vision council’s continuing efforts to increase the supply of affordable rental and market housing.