A short story with a simple lesson: advocacy does, in fact, work.
January 26 marked the first day of a four month closure of Broadway between Main and Quebec St in Vancouver, to accommodate construction for the new Broadway Subway. We’re excited about this subway project (although it should go all the way to UBC), and dealing with a temporary closure is a small price to pay.
Broadway hosts the busiest bus route in all of the US and Canada, and the parallel 10th Ave is a bustling east-west cycling connection. It was clear from the outset that these modes would need to be thoughtfully considered in the detour – but we weren’t seeing that in the plans. We started sounding the alarm before the closure even began (here’s our volunteer Haakon Koyote speaking with CityNews about the proposal back in early January).
With our questions having gone unanswered, we went out to observe traffic patterns on the first day of the closure. It was bad – buses stuck behind bumper-to-bumper traffic on 8th Ave, and drivers causing gridlock on the 10th Ave bikeway.
Along with our friends at Movement we produced two videos highlighting issues in the area, sent out a press release, and emailed our Mayor and Council, city staff, and provincial subway project team. Leaving the bus improvement angle in Movement’s capable hands, we focused in on the bike route safety and made a clear and simple ask: for communication, signage, and physical infrastructure, like modal filters, to deter drivers off these routes.
The next day a cyclist was hit in the neighbourhood at 12th and Quebec. Two days later, another person was hit at Broadway and Ontario. We followed up with our elected officials.
On February 2nd we noticed a language change on the city’s website. After a week of traffic chaos and two people injured in the area, they’d updated to kindly ask drivers to detour on main routes, and avoid the local bike routes. This is great news for everyone who gets their detour directions from the city’s website!
It was a tiny change, but it told us we had their attention. We made a cheeky follow-up video, mobilized more of our members to write in and share their concerns, and got to work on a longer format piece led by videographer Nic Laporte.
On February 9, one week after the website updates, we heard from the city that turn restrictions would be installed soon. We asked right away if these would be followed up with any physical changes to support.
After some back-and-forth with the city team, we kept our eyes peeled on install day to see just exactly what these new restrictions would look like. And we were pleasantly surprised! Beautiful? No. Effectual? Yes.
Our own traffic count found 350 vehicles per hour before the restrictions (10th and Ontario, weekday afternoon) and now just under 200 per hour. It’s a real improvement, though it’s still a far cry from the City’s own AAA cycling guidelines which target vehicle volumes no greater than 100 per hour. Since this install, the city has also rolled out a few additional turn restrictions in the area.
If you’re anything like us at VZV, you’ve had a 311 request go unanswered or have a personal traffic pet peeve you really wish the city would fix. Sometimes advocating for change feels like banging your head against a wall; but, this little example tells us that it really does work.
In the end, Broadway is just one example. The city could have predicted this (we did!) and implemented these restrictions back on January 26. We need to see proactive planning for all modes of transportation whenever a construction detour is in place. More traffic decks are expected to be replaced in the coming months. We’ll continue to advocate to the city for proactive detour planning, and pressure Council and staff to ensure the safety of vulnerable road users. If you’re interested in helping out, join us and get involved!
Vision Zero Vancouver 