John Calimente was out over the Easter weekend, with camera, taking photos of Point Grey Road and the improvements at the south end of the Burrard Street Bridge when construction was going on. Here are his side-by-side comparisons to show the traffic calming and bike improvements that have been constructed in the past few months.
.
Burrard looking north:
.
Cornwall looking west:
.
Tatlow Park looking east:
.
Alma looking east:
.
Highbury looking east:
.
John: “What’s apparent to me is that there is a lot of excess asphalt that is being put to better use – on Point Grey Rd, on Cornwall Ave, and on Burrard Street. I was surprised to see that Cornwall eastbound has had four traffic lanes as you approach Burrard Street. And that Burrard Street has been eight lanes wide at that point. I wonder what other streets in the city could be put on a road diet?”
.
Ken Ohrn adds some images taken just this week: “This intersection improves by the day. In particular, the notorious intersection of Cornwall and Chestnut is much safer now.”
Burrard and Cornwall:
.
Chestnut looking south:
These now multi-use roads allow for multiple users of multiple transportation methods on safe, convenient routes. We need more of them.
That looks wonderful. I’m moving to Vancouver in August and I cannot wait to see what else is around and what’s in store for the future.
The biggest benefit at Cornwall and Chestnut is the installation of the east sidewalk – especially since there is a blind corner there with the concrete wall (that can’t be moved) next to the apartment building swimming pool. That’s a great benefit to joggers and pedestrians accessing Burrard Bridge.
The implemented solution is also far better than the original proposal (which had closed the street to all cars) – since it still allows cars with boat trailers to easily access the only boat ramp within the City of Vancouver without getting trapped by traffic circles in Kits Point. Cars exitting Kits Point use Cypress because of the traffic light there – so the closure of Chestnut to southbound traffic is not a loss.