As the Burrard Bridge trial approaches (and in a way, it will be a metaphorical trial too), lots of ideas will emerge. Here’s a suggestion from Ron van der Eerden who drafted up a rethinking of the intersection at Burrard and Pacific:
John Whistler, who passed along the drawing, explains:
Basically, the suggestion is to eliminate the through eastbound traffic on Pacific. This traffic would then be re-routed on Beach Ave. This suggestion would allow for an increase in time for all other movements. It would also open up space on Pacific for other movements – without having to widen Pacific.
I believe this plan could actually increase the capacity of the intersection, even if two lanes on the bridge are re-allocated.
I agree that there could be some opposition on Beach for this. For many Beach properties, they are already getting the traffic on their Pacific side, this would just shift it around. I also believe that many motorists already use Beach Ave.
Ron’s drawing suggests the 900 block Pacific would not have to be widened. I believe Ron is a Draftsman and he downloaded the intersection from VanMap and then did his stuff.
I believe Beach Ave west of Burrard is currently a 30 km/h playground zone. How about routing eastbound traffic onto Burrard and then Davie or Nelson?
This is a great idea! From a safety perspective, the eastbound right-turn slip lane from Pacific to Burrard merges into a bus merge lane. This would present a conflict with vehicles, buses and cyclists.
How about the possibility of decidated eastbound turn left-turn lanes on Pacific to Burrard? Thereby closing eastbound traffic, east of Pacific. This might eliminate some traffic away from Beach.
I’m not quite sure why traffic eastbound would have to be stopped.
The main jam-up that I can see is norhtbound traffic on the bridge exiting to Pacific then Hornby creating a standstill in the curb lane on the bridge. If that off-ramp is widened to 2 lanes a bit further west (after still exiting from the bridge with one lane), the extra space could provide more “holding area” for cars to remove them from the curb lane on the bridge itself and free up space for traffic continuing north on Burrard (at least with moderate traffic volumes). Most drivers headed to the CBD exit to Hornby because the traffic lights on Hornby are sychronized better than the ones on Burrard. Generally, Burrard itself is acknowledged as a slow route to take.
Eliminating eastbound Pacific thru traffic eliminates the cross-over congestion that occurs on Pacific after the bridge exit. Most eastbound traffic on Pacific is going straight while much traffic exiting the bridge is crossing over to turn left on Hornby. That conflict would be gone.
Beach is a slow zone. But eastbound Pacific is just slow anyway. I believe this is a trade-off worth trying.