Vancouver - Where the Car is King
And why that's hurting everyone
See those blue lines? Those are the streets where big trucks are supposed to travel.
There are lots of good reasons for that - noise, pollution, safety, and the general quality of life. There are also considerations about the excess wear and tear on the pavement caused by big, heavy trucks.
The upper blue road, with the red intersection icons, is Broadway, the major east-west commercial street in Vancouver. It’s also where the new subway line to Arbutus is being built. Slowly, with great pain and suffering.
The lower blue line is 41st Avenue. Between those two routes are 30+ cross-streets where trucks aren’t supposed to travel.
We live on 16th Avenue, between Granville St. (a north-south truck route) and Fir. West of Granville the next north-south truck route is Arbutus.
The reality though is that 16th Avenue is anything but quiet. From 6 am, when rush hour starts, to around midnight, it’s a steady roar of cars, motorcycles, busses, delivery vans, big semi-trailers, and construction vehicles like dump-trucks. It’s loud, and it’s constant.
Added to that is the reality that the four and five lanes of 16th are a major thoroughfare, either travelling to UBC, or diverting traffic up or down Fir and Burrard streets to and from downtown. Because there are relatively few traffic lights it’s also a fast road which encourages speeding, and hard acceleration at green lights.
Our corner, at Fir and 16th, has one extra treat. From 3 pm to 7 pm you aren’t allowed to turn left from 16th onto Fir. Inevitably people ignore that rule, and the jerks behind them lean on their horns (yes, it’s always a guy) so loud, endless horn honking adds to the noise.
Aside from a few small pockets, 16th isn’t a commercial road. it’s mostly residential of various types, with churches and parks thrown in, and a few school zones. The former are rated at 50 kmh, the latter at 40 kmh. In practice everyone drives as fast as possible.
It’s also a road without bike lanes, so the only real obstacle to the car drivers are those damned pedestrians. Yes, those rude folks always pushing the yellow button on the post beside the road, and walking casually in the cross-walk. And even stopping to look you in the eye just to make sure that you’re not about turn left or right and run them down.
Fortunately things get easier towards UBC, when you’re driving beside the Pacific Spirit Park. This is a lovely setting, with trails, and streams, and coyotes, full of hikers, and children and dogs. And LOTS of free parking along the sides of 16th.
Except….
Across 16th, at Sasamat is one of the main entrance points to the park. There’s a gate, and washrooms, and maps, and signs - all that you need.
Except that most intersections along 16th are missing one thing: a crosswalk. This is at Sasamat and 16th:
The dozens of people, children, and dogs who cross 16th every day on the way to park have to take their lives in their hands. Because there are no nearby traffic lights, and no marked pedestrian crossing, drivers just blast along here with no thought to people walking.
The onus, as is so often the case in Vancouver, is entirely on the pedestrians to look both ways, twice, and over their shoulders, then run to the median in the middle of the road. And repeat the whole process again to get across the other two traffic lanes.
This is the case for much of 16th. The only people who matter are the car drivers, and everyone else gets little or no thought. It’s a noisy road, a loud road, and a dangerous road.
If you drive in Vancouver you likely get annoyed at the bike riders and pedestrians that slow you down.
If you walk you very quickly learn to be afraid of every car that you see, to hate the endless noise and pollution, and that because you’re on foot you really, truly are a third-class citizen.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Every planner, and every traveller knows that cities can be designed so that walking is the easiest option, and driving is discouraged. It just takes political will, and a willingness to ignore the myths beloved of car drivers and the business owners who believe that every single one of their customers always drives to their shop.