Why are there no freeways in Vancouver? (Undercouver)
This is an open thread.
6 Replies to “Sunday Movie: Why Are There No Freeways in Vancouver?”
Sometimes I wonder if i90 seattle-factoria would’ve been built had Forward Thrust been approved. In the end I think it would’ve been built but maybe with just 1 floating bridge and a smaller interchange footprint.
Similarly I doubt Vancouver would have as fantastic of a rapid transit system had they built those freeways.
In general I’ve noticed that BC cities are much more freeway averse than other parts of Canada/US. If you look at a map of Victoria, Kelowna, Kamloops, Nanaimo they don’t have downtown freeways. They sometimes have a road that’s technically designed as a highway but the infrastructure is really just a 4-6 lane road/boulevard.
Highway 97 through Kelowna and West Kelowna is a 20+ km strip mall. Not exactly pleasant. And it not being a limited access highway has more to do with geography and population than deliberate urban design, I think.
They replaced a three lane bridge with a reversible middle lane (the only way across the lake and a major choke point) with a five lane bridge, two lanes inbound and three lanes outbound fixed with no bus lane or bus priority a couple decades ago, so inbound rush hour went from two lanes with no transit priority to two lanes with no transit priority. There is a “BRT” bus along highway 97 with no priority except a completely unenforced HOV/transit/right turn lane for part of the route which is no faster than the regular travel lanes. I commute along that route sometimes by bus sometimes driving, but it’s 53 minutes by bus versus 30-40 driving. So don’t hold Kelowna up as any ideal of public transit or road design.
Throughout most of the 20th century, freeways in the U.S. were seen as modernizing transportation for the future, while all other forms of transportation, including buses, streetcars, even walking, were viewed as legacy transportation systems, not worth investing in. Only after the freeways we’re built did the downsides of them start to become clear, but by then, it was too late.
I did not watch the video, but I’m guessing that Vancouver was late enough to the freeway game that they could see from many U.S. examples that running a freeway right to downtown is not good for the city, so they wanted to do things differently. They probably also had a less powerful freeway construction lobby.
Freeways were also used to facilitate “blight abatement” aka removal of communities of people of color while plowing connections straight to central business districts. Most countries outside the USA built “ring roads” around their downtown cores.
I think what’s interesting about Vancouver is how it doesn’t even have a ring road, and there are no major grade-separated freeways anywhere near its core.
Sometimes I wonder if i90 seattle-factoria would’ve been built had Forward Thrust been approved. In the end I think it would’ve been built but maybe with just 1 floating bridge and a smaller interchange footprint.
Similarly I doubt Vancouver would have as fantastic of a rapid transit system had they built those freeways.
In general I’ve noticed that BC cities are much more freeway averse than other parts of Canada/US. If you look at a map of Victoria, Kelowna, Kamloops, Nanaimo they don’t have downtown freeways. They sometimes have a road that’s technically designed as a highway but the infrastructure is really just a 4-6 lane road/boulevard.
Designated* as a highway not designed
Highway 97 through Kelowna and West Kelowna is a 20+ km strip mall. Not exactly pleasant. And it not being a limited access highway has more to do with geography and population than deliberate urban design, I think.
They replaced a three lane bridge with a reversible middle lane (the only way across the lake and a major choke point) with a five lane bridge, two lanes inbound and three lanes outbound fixed with no bus lane or bus priority a couple decades ago, so inbound rush hour went from two lanes with no transit priority to two lanes with no transit priority. There is a “BRT” bus along highway 97 with no priority except a completely unenforced HOV/transit/right turn lane for part of the route which is no faster than the regular travel lanes. I commute along that route sometimes by bus sometimes driving, but it’s 53 minutes by bus versus 30-40 driving. So don’t hold Kelowna up as any ideal of public transit or road design.
Throughout most of the 20th century, freeways in the U.S. were seen as modernizing transportation for the future, while all other forms of transportation, including buses, streetcars, even walking, were viewed as legacy transportation systems, not worth investing in. Only after the freeways we’re built did the downsides of them start to become clear, but by then, it was too late.
I did not watch the video, but I’m guessing that Vancouver was late enough to the freeway game that they could see from many U.S. examples that running a freeway right to downtown is not good for the city, so they wanted to do things differently. They probably also had a less powerful freeway construction lobby.
Freeways were also used to facilitate “blight abatement” aka removal of communities of people of color while plowing connections straight to central business districts. Most countries outside the USA built “ring roads” around their downtown cores.
I think what’s interesting about Vancouver is how it doesn’t even have a ring road, and there are no major grade-separated freeways anywhere near its core.
Today Community Transit officially turns 50. From leasing school buses to connecting buses to light rail is crazy to think about.