One of the newest public spaces in the city:
It’s only a few meters wide: the brown paving in the pic above.
Space for a bench, a foodcart and, most importantly, a line-up of people. Before, they blocked the sidewalk, even spilled onto the bicycle path. Absurdly congested.
By taking a lane from the road to make this space, everyone comfortably moves through or stands around – relaxing, without wondering what they might run into.
With room to breathe, wonderful things happen:
A small piece of public space, critically located – what a difference a small intervention can make. Here’s the ‘before’ shot by Rick Jelfs:
Up for discussion: extending the flag triangle where Beach, Denman and Pacific meet, across the avenue to the Seaside greenway and the beachfront.
A start. How about closing off Denman completely to cars ? Or Robson ?
It’s great to see this small intervention, but they missed a much bigger problem just a hundred metres to the south. They should have narrowed Beach Ave. in front of the Cactus Club to one lane travelling south-east. Currently the four lanes plus the passenger/emergency zone bay force cyclists to travel dangerously close to the CC entrance. Or they could move the bay to somewhere less narrow and congested.
I’d love to see the triangle connected to the beach by closing that one block and calming/discouraging MV traffic. The pedestrian connection between the beach and the east sidewalk of Denman is terrible – you need to wait at three separate light controlled crossing in the distance of less than half a block. Eliminating that bit of road would help a lot.
RV – I totally agree! I really hope that in the next 5 years or so, we see a plan to rework the whole Beach/Denman/Davie/Morton intersection. Tons of potential with this significant location!
“Space to breath?” Poor title. The space is mere feet away from thousands of exhaust pipes. Toxic hydrocarbons, nitrogen Oxides, Carbon monoxides, on and on. It is neither space nor place for breathing.