Imagine if some all-powerful researcher suggested that as a society we shut down a good part of the economy for a few months, close offices and work places, shutter restaurants, clubs and theatres, stop most sports and arts activity, make it possible to realistically work at home, and, just for extra impact, close the borders. And then see what happens to traffic before and after, how it changes as we tweak the restrictions, and what new patterns emerge.
Which is exactly what we’re doing.
I’m surprised we’re not getting traffic updates like we do the weather, and what new patterns are emerging from week to week. We actually do have that data, and the City of Vancouver has been good enough to provide some of it (and hope to add counts regularly on VanMap).
Here’s the data that shows the reductions in average monthly volumes of traffic year over year coming into the City, and then onto the Downtown Peninsula – from the start of the pandemic last year to just last month:
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