From the City of Vancouver’s consultation report on the Point Grey/Cornwall Corridor:
… almost 60 percent of visitors to Cornwall businesses (map here) are local area residents. 80 percent of people visiting local businesses along Cornwall Avenue travel by walking, cycling or transit, and walking and transit are currently the most popular modes of travel to this shopping area.
So let’s see what businesses say if there is a proposal to strip parking for a cycle route and/or widened sidewalks.
Despite being a cyclist myself, I’d rather some form of bus lane to increase transit reliability/speed along this corridor. Let’s start getting those buses out of traffic and moving, across the city. How much is spent paying to have a bus sit idle in traffic? How many more service hours does it take to maintain the same service level when buses get slowed down more and more in traffic. It’s time to push municipal governments to step up to what is their responsibility (not Translink’s fault) to ensure buses flow faster and are unhindered by traffic, city’s (politicians) lack of transit priority measures is directly costing us all money in increased Translink operating costs.
Yes, slightly off topic but Cornwall is a very busy transit corridor where the average speed of a bus can drop right down during a busy rush hour (or a sunny summer day…).
hear! hear!
Couldn’t have say it better. (but still say something like it here.
The bus hostile current Vancouver council, bear a huge responsibility in the Transit financial woes, and I am afraid nothing good can be expected from it.
From the study, you will also read that bike is almost the primary mode of transportation on Cornwall (40% mode share) according to the “one line survey”…That is obviously B.S. – people could have noticed otherwise – showing how the consultation process can be biased !
What is sure, is that many people travel by bus in the corridor, obviously many more than cyclist, and may be more than by car (remember you have in practice only one moving lane per direction) – in fact translink statistic suggest ~10,000 rider/day while city traffic count on Cornwall gives 10,000 – and still transit seems to be totally ignored by the city….(at least queue jumper for bus at Cornwall#Burrard should be included).
the “amazing number” mentioned in this post seems of the same suspicious breed:
want to say most of the people at Kits beach are local (that is what the city want to hear):
-make a survey a weekday of January
Want to say the reverse:
-make a survey a summer weekend
The “Amazing Fact of the Day” is how you can tweak number to make your case.
In response to lairdm – yes I think it is about time that this city had some exclusive bus lanes. It does not seem to me that Cornwall would be the first street to pick for one. Nor do I agree that fast buses are necessarily an improvement in that environment. But then I am a survivor of the battle for the B Line along Granville Street.
And since I cannot edit my own comment see also
http://www.timescolonist.com/bus-only-lanes-in-victoria-could-boost-ridership-and-shorten-travel-time-report-says-1.113138
Removing a few spaces in front of the small, choked commercial area may be necessary, but a complete non-starter further east in the residential areas. Street parking is critical for the residents, as many buildings – particularly the older apartments – have little or no on-site parking. Many do not even have on-site loading or temp-parking zones. Although many residents do not have vehicles, those that do sometimes need to park 1-3 blocks away. And, visitors, friends and family sometimes come by car. On Cornwall, the most critical area for a bike lane is eastbound on the north (beach/park side), as bikes go much slower uphill. Thankfully, there is plenty of City land for this.
I think H. Tomlinson has east and west backwards (Cornwall runs from Trafalgar in the west to Burrard in the east), but otherwise makes good points. My bus is often stuck behind slow moving cyclists in the evening.
Even in an area where most don’t use cars, they still need to be accounted for. In addition to residents and visitors to the western end of the road, there are a lot of people at Kits beach from outside the immediate area. When I’m there with my kids they frequently see classmates and ex-classmates from various parts of the city.
The bus lane on Burrard, while a great idea, is nowhere near as effective as it could be. Right turns combined with pedestrians frequently force the buses to stop or change lanes. Add the Lion’s Gate bound left turns at Georgia who block the entire intersection, taxis and delivery trucks, the people stopping illegally to pick up friends, tour buses that use the lane as their private hotel parking lot, construction and the occasional parked vehicle and it’s a real mess. Granville, despite being transit only, isn’t any faster because the signals seem to be programmed to stop the buses every block.
What’s interesting to consider is the difference between transit on Cornwall and transit on the parallel section of 4th Ave. Despite the heavy bike and car traffic on Cornwall and the stops virtually every block, it’s not uncommon for the 2, 22 and 32 to outrun the 44 UBC Express from the Burrard Bridge to the corner of 4th and Macdonald. The current sewer construction has discouraged so many drivers that I think the evening 44 is slightly faster now than it was last year, but it still has trouble keeping up with the routes that use Cornwall.
Have you ever tried to park near Cornwall? There’s no parking, so why frustrate yourself – patrons who drive would likely go elsewhere to eat or shop – it’s just a matter of convenience.
On- street parking serves far more purposes than the obvious one.
First, safety and comfort: in sidewalk comfort terms for the pedestrian it provides a pretty solid buffer or barrier to moving traffic – cars, buses, trucks and even bikes. It is pretty easy to demonstrate that people linger more in zones and at times of day when and where there are parked cars. One can say this might even be a community-building aspect.
Second, local economy: strip the parking and business also falls off at those times. Merchants are pretty clear on ths point and will usually resist to the Nth degree any efforts to remove it.
Third – parked cars are an effective traffic calming device, as drivers slow down when there is roadside “friction” and visual containment.
Last – parked cars can also reduce capacity for traffic, which is as good an argument to counter motordom as one can find, IMHO.