August 29, 2016

Arbutus Greenway — Examples and Ideas

Operating on the premise that we’ve built Greenways before in Metro Vancouver, and don’t have to start from a conceptual vacuum, I rode the Railway Greenway in Richmond yesterday.  It follows the route of the ancient (1902 vintage), pre-motordom, Interurban tram line from (more or less) the north arm of the Fraser to Steveston.  History material HERE.
The Greenway map (above) is out of date, it seems, since the ride yesterday was on asphalt.  The Greenway passed through totally car-dependent suburbs, but still attracted people as you can see in my pix. It’s around 5 km long, roughly half the length of the Arbutus Greenway.

 

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  1. It looks like a pleasant excuse to head down to Steveston. Despite it clearly being an ‘asphalt death corridor’, I’m sure there are very positive lessons the Arbutus planners can take from the Railway Greenway.

  2. It’s a really good route for the most part.
    The only problems I see are where there are crossings of side streets. Those could be made better and more predictable.
    Also where it connects to the dyke path is not clear and there’s a strange narrow switchback ramp to get up to the dyke.
    At some point in the south part it just ends and you’re supposed to ride on the sidewalk. Then farther south it’s not clear where to go if you want to go to Steveston.

    1. With respect to dyke access, there is a brand new paved ramp which makes access to the dyke trail super easy. There is also a new paved shortcut path at Westminster Hwy to facilitate transition from east side McCallum to west side. It’s getting better all the time!

  3. The Arbutus Corridor has many features and design constraints that do not exist on its original southern extension though Richmond.
    The Arbutus corridor must accommodate a streetcar operation and remain a transportation corridor. These are the most significant design differences. Also CP has a number of years to decide to elect to take the entire right-a-way from Fir Street north.
    The corridor goes though a very dense urban environment that connects with a myriad of cycling routes and walking access points that cross and feed the corridor. It also will connect with downtown on the north and the airport, Richmond and the south Vancouver at the south. It will interact with the proposed Broadway subway and the new propose high capacity bus loop at Arbutus and Broadway. It crosses a number of major arterials such as Marine Drive, 41st, King Edward, 16th, Broadway and Burrard.
    The Arbutus corridor will be designed to address the needs and requests of many local community organizations along the corridor. The adjacent gardeners along the right-a-way have a strong say and that was clearly illustrated a couple of weeks ago.
    Design concerns such as hard surface treatments and lighting concerns for neighbours and users must be addressed.
    The Arbutus Corridor will be a very complex design and build project that will evolve from tying to grasp the needs and requests coming from all the passionate parties and citizens. The meetings will be spirited! Then the real fun part will begin when the CoV begins presenting alternative design proposals at numerous scheduled open houses.
    The Arbutus Corridor is not a simple rail to trail greenway with just cycling and walking. It is the most exciting project in Vancouver and its success could be the urban greenway gold standard around the world for many years to come.

  4. Once paved, it will eventually change block by block as there are so many street crossings. A decade long improvement project.
    It will be beautiful.

    1. It would make sense to split up the project into sections. This worked on the South False Creek improvement project. Some parts of the Arbutus corridor are very wide, some narrow, some curved, some sloped, etc. Some of the crossings are major and some are narrow lanes. It would have to be different in different places.

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