As I mentioned a while back, this weekend I’m off on a holiday to Vancouver for a couple of weeks. I have a bit of an affinity for Vancouver – particularly its transport system and the way it has developed over the past few decades. A fairly rare case of a city doing things right in the post-war period.
A few things I’m probably going to try and get a better understanding of during this time include the following:
- What are the little things that make Vancouver’s public transport system so successful?
- Where is development happening in Vancouver and in what form is that development occurring?
- What is Vancouver doing to improve its housing affordability, given that it’s often ranked as the city in the world with the least affordable housing?
- Has Vancouver managed to get public support for intensification – and if so how?
I think that calls for a time-lapse video:
With both Matt and myself overseas, as said previously Guest Posts will be most welcome.
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First if you want to look at Vancouver’s intensification, get out of downtown,
Go across to 4th , or broadway, and look at how they integrate low rise apartments, with retail and small offices, all within a stones throw of almost endless acres of tract housing from the 1910s- and 20s ( which has become seriously gentrified, especially in places like Kitsalano)
Also one of the interesting things on buses are fareboxes, Drivers don’t take your money, if you want to purchase a ticket on the bus you toss your coins into a farebox machine, (exact fare or greater only, no change given and no notes) which spits you out a ticket, it speeds up boarding- although the cheapest way to travel it to pre purchase a book of 10 faresaver tickets at a local convenience store.
Oh, also it you want to avoid paying the $5 addfare” on the skytrain from the airport, – which is added to single tickets- go to the 7-11 on the ground floor of the domestic terminal and buy a book of 10 faresavers, you can then use one from the book for your first trip into town without needing to pay the surcharge,
Well I’d say that both high-rise and mid-rise intensification are part of the Vancouver urban landscape, so both are worth looking at. If you walk along the False Creek side of the downtown seawall you can see a lot of the point-and-podium high rise developments. For an attractive mid-rise precinct, Arbutus Walk in Kitsilano is pretty nice – the site used to house a brewery before it was redeveloped with mid-rise apartment blocks in park like surrounds.
You can hire bikes at the Stanley Park end of Robson Street – I’d recommend it for a trip around the sea wall. On wheels you could do a pretty big loop, taking in Stanley Park, False Creek, and Granville Island (but save Granville Island for the market days – its much quieter the rest of the time).
I always thought the lane ways going through the residential blocks were quite cool. Parking would be located at the back of the house rather than the front, and accessed from the lane rather than the street.
You can be a tourist *and* a transit geek with a visit to Grouse Mountain – take the Seabus to Londale Quay, catch the bus, then take the Cable Car to the top of the mounntain for outstanding views of Vancouver.
Take a Skytrain trip to the end of the line. You’ll see a lot of the intense residential developments built up in the areas immediately surrounding the Sky Train stations.
You can be a tourist *and* a transit geek with a visit to Grouse Mountain – take the Seabus to Londale Quay, catch the bus, then take the Cable Car to the top of the mounntain for outstanding views of Vancouver.
last time I was there the gondola was about $40 CAD return, if you have the time and energy you can walk up , it is called the
“grouse grind” ……. then take the cable car down for $10,
If you wanted any inspiration on the cycling front (occasionally it seems to pop up on this blog), Vancouver is a pretty good place to look too; similar problem to Akld of starting from a low base.
For example, here are a few of my observations from a recent visit:
http://cyclingchristchurch.co.nz/general-a2b-by-bicycle/what-can-we-learn-from-vancouver/
http://cyclingchristchurch.co.nz/general-a2b-by-bicycle/vancouver-separated-bikeways/
http://cyclingchristchurch.co.nz/general-a2b-by-bicycle/vancouver-neighbourhood-greenways/