Some shots taken over the weekend by Ken Ohrn on the transformation of Point Grey Road.
.
Today, the City of Vancouver began making the changes to Point Grey Road. (Map here.) I rode down there expecting to see upset people everywhere.
There were none.
Lots of cyclists, peds, runners, dog-walkers, looky-loo guys like me, and construction people. The City of Vancouver engineering people I spoke to told me there had been next to no unpleasantries, nastiness, frothing-at-the-mouth and so on.
Most of all, I was struck by the sound. Birds, voices – oh yeah, and for a while, an electric drill busily enlarging a bolt-hole in a traffic sign. And by the endless stream of people on bikes. One of the flaggers told me that people on bikes had been checking out our new Point Grey road since she was first on duty in early morning.
This new area will be a treasure to the city. We will have replaced a high-volume, high-speed arterial road for car commuters with a calm and pleasant neighbourhood street.
.
I had a really nice conversation with the City of Vancouver engineering person at the right. He looked like he was heading off on a lunch break with a pizza slice (smelled great). He reiterated that there had been no unpleasantness. He also loved the changes and, like me, he wondered how this narrow residential street had become a high-speed high-volume arterial expressway for commuters.
.
This is the intersection of Point. Grey Road and Trutch Street, with another of the treasured mini-parks in the background.
.
Point Grey Road west of Alma (at Highbury), with Hastings Mill Park in the background – soon to be yet another block of separated bike lane in the city.
This being one of my favourite routes to take when driving to Point Grey, I can assure you that it has never been high speed, nor particularly high volume, rather a steady not-so-fast string of cars at times. It was a lovely and relatively bucolic alternative to the already high volume and challenging Broadway and 4th Avenue. I think this is a wonderful asset to the residents, unnecessary to cyclists although no doubt appreciated, and a true loss to those drivers looking for a slower but pleasanter alternative to the main thoroughfares available,
not so, my friend.
We walk their often, usually Saturdays. The noise from cars is disgusting, the speeding excessive and no place for bikers nor walkers on a very narrow sidewalk.
A step in the right direction with the planned minor minor traffic calming. FAR more could be done, such as remove ALL cars from this road, make the section to McDonald local traffic only or introduce on street parking fees.
The “vision” of Vision Vancouver is myopic. A tiny step in the right direction. The goal ought to be 50% of all roads in residential neighborhoods free of cars, or certainly pedestrians first, bikers second and cars third.
We are a long LONG way from that.
Eventually people will realize that if your house is on a traffic calmed or green street the property value will be 20% higher.
What cool-aid have you been drinking DDB?
DDB, by your own admission, you do not reside in the area but were a commuter through the area, using Point Grey Road due to its absence of lights and other traffic control measures. By commuting down the road, you were on it for a matter of 60 seconds or less at the most and so are not in any position to judge the excessive speeds and dangerous congestion of the road on numerous occasions. It is a fact that the speed of most vehicles was considerably over the 30K limit on the road. It is a fact that parked cars, cyclists, dogs, runners, pedestrians and motorists were damaged or killed on a regular basis on the road due to the congestion and excessive speeds. Those of us who live on the road or in the area were all too aware of these statistics and observations. Kindly, keep your uninformed opinions to yourself as they are offensive to those of us who fought long and hard, and had to suffer injuries and property damage on Point Grey Road, before the City finally agreed to close it.
@ddb: agree re the volume and relative low speeds (it was never horrible), but ‘unnecessary’ for cyclists? Which ones? Sure, the spandex crew heading out for Tuesday night crit races at UBC were fine jockeying with the steady not so fast stream of cars, but what about your six year old kid? Or just your everyday normal person who doesn’t want a 1′ swerve to mean serious injury or worse. It’s the next best thing to a Bow River pathway…
Desmondbliek, It is clear that like DDB, you also do not live in the area of Point Grey Road but likely commute by car or cycle on it from time to time. You could not be more wrong about the volume of cars and their speed; if you had spent longer than just your commuting time in the area, you would have seen the problem of excessive car volume and speeds. You are correct, however, about the one foot swerve inevitably resulting in injury, property damage and, or death.
Much ado about so very little.
well put !
Point Grey Road was the automotive equivalent of a bike path through a park: scenic and slow. What I’m going to miss most is driving a street with no cross traffic or signals. To me that’s what made it both the city’s most pleasant drive and (counterintuitively) one of the fastest. A constant 30km/h is quicker than racing from red light to red light.
You see the same thing at work a few blocks to the south. Broadway is burdened with a steady stream of signalized intersections while 10th is free of them. You can afford to drive slower than the speed limit on 10th and stop for pedestrians because end-to-end travel time is still better than jack rabbit starts and weaving from lane to lane on Broadway.
Realistically the closure of Point Grey Road isn’t going to affect me at all. I only used it a half dozen times in the last two years and 4th is a perfectly good alternative.
I had a good laugh this morning when I heard a radio reporter claim that “residents of Point Grey Road” were protesting the closure. The people who’ve been fighting against through traffic for years are celebrating peace and quiet, cleaner air and, most importantly, a very healthy increase in their property value.
David, No, most importantly, the residents and visitors to the area are enjoying the safety of the road which has not existed for many decades. This is why the residents, and others, lobbied for the closure of the road.
That’s right, the reason that people used it was the absence of traffic lights – just like:
– Great Northern Way vs. Broadway
– 6th Ave between Granville & Cambie vs. Broadway
– SW Marine Drive vs 41st Ave.
– Commissioner St vs Hastings St.
far better now !
Questions remain:
a) why not earlier ?
b) why not elsewhere ?
c) why allow cars at all there ?
d) did house prices go up $100,000, $250,000 or $500,000 based on this traffic calming and neighborhood improvement ?
Thomas, (a) It did not happen earlier because it was not a priority in the eyes of the City earlier; multiple formal studies had been done on the road, and the recommendation to close the road existed form 1992 on. The City tried reducing the speed limit to 30K, but since 1992, the City has seen that commuting motorists to not follow the speed limit and speed along the road that does not have lights or other speed measures to slow people down. Also, the City has the current desire to build bike routes, so safety and the use of the road as a bike route coincided, resulting in the closed road. (b) In order to close road elsewhere, citizens have to demand it and stick with the lengthy process of working with the City to make sure it happens; it took since 1992 to get Point Grey Road finally closed. (c) cars are allowed because Point Grey Road is a purely residential road; people live there and drive cars, like many others in the city. Residents have to be able to come home in their cars and visitors have to be able to access beaches and parks via cars. (d) There is no evidence yet of housing prices going up as a result of closing the road, and if they do, property taxes will also go up. This possible by-product of closing the road cannot be avoided if it happens, but it has cons as well as pros. The closing of the road was about safety for the residents of the area, not about increasing housing prices.
The question is if residents are more important than folks (bikers, walker, drivers) using the road – always a fine balancing act. I’d guess that house prices will go up 5-10% as this area is now far more livable and quieter with hardly an inconvenience to local residents. A win/win all around, hence the question: why not do it elsewhere, in fact I’d argue that 50% to 70% of all residential roads could be “greened” for better livability all over Vancouver ! Vancouver is far too car friendly. But what took 100 years to build will take 100 years to re-build ..
Thomas, I am with yoiu there: I have no doubt that we will increasingly see other roads in the city closed to commuter motorists in the future. Yes, this is a necessity, not only because of congestion, speed, and accidents, but also because of car cost, non-sustainable fuel resources, and damage to the environment through polluting emissions. Yes, what took 100 years to build will take 100 years to rebuild or unbuild. It is not a matter of residents being more or less important; it is a matter of all users being accommodated safely and in an environmentally conscious way, if we want to leave anything usable for the next generations.