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How can we reach our 2020
Greenest City Targets?

GC 2020

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171 results found

  1. Smaller Transit options (mini-bus or micro-bus) for Off-Peak times

    The use of smaller size buses during off peak hours will help reducing carbon emissions. Having a smaller full bus is more efficient than having large half empty buses during off peak times.

    10 votes
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  2. More car diverters on busy bike routes

    Add more car diverters to busy bike routes: they work!

    15 votes
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    The City implemented several new trial diverters on various bike routes in the summer of 2010. This is part of a program to reduce non-local traffic volumes on those bikeways and to make the bikeways more comfortable for cyclists for all ages and abilities. The pending active transportation plan will explore opportunities for further traffic calming on our bikeways.

  3. Attractive Sidewalks *

    Beautify pedestrian ways to attract more walking, with:
    - rainbow / sparkly sidewalks in high traffic areas
    - sidewalk canopies: tree overhangs, resident-owned PV
    - incentives for merchants to beautify their sidewalk area
    - neighbourhood identity expressed by residents' design for sidewalks
    - textured pavement to define pedestrian areas, or neighbourhoods
    - "pedestrianscape" that allows the pedestrian to explore a delightful journey as the travel past varied points of interest along their walk
    - sidewalk cafes, laneways pubs / cafes / restaurants
    - separate lanes for pedestrian, wheeled traffic: rollerblading & skateboarding, bikes, cars
    - buffers between separate lanes of…

    23 votes
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    The quality and attractiveness of the pedestrian experience is a primary consideration in public realm planning and design. However, there is an opportunity to be more creative in the design of specific elements, such as sidewalk materials, and incentives/requirements for pedestrian-oriented building design and facade improvements.

  4. Create a free bus lottery for transit riders

    Create a free lottery to randomly reward people who ride the bus. Fund the bus rider's jackpot by placing a small levy on Vancouver parking meters. If each meter contributed 50 cents per day on average, we'd have a daily prize pool of around $4000. This is enough to create some small but significant instant cash prizes. The media attention from this initiative would help to encourage ridership as much as the prizes themselves would.

    12 votes
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  5. bike elevator

    Bike elevators are used in Norway to assist with steep hills - used much like a T-Bar on a ski hill. Place them in a few strategic areas to increase bike traffic (and reduce cars!).
    See http://www.trampe.no/english/ for an example.

    19 votes
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    Bike escalators are an interesting idea that may make sense elsewhere in the region (e.g. urban bike routes with a very steep, extended incline). The City of North Vancouver has expressed interest in the past in this idea for Lonsdale Avenue.

  6. Permit zoning for walkable, livable, amenity rich single family and human-scale neighbourhoods

    Six 2000 square feet single family houses can fit on two existing 33 x 120 foot lots. The alleys are narrow streets and the streets become narrow streets to maintain green space. The density supports local amenities that you can walk or cycle to. The increased amenities provide more local jobs. It means you can get what you need locally without a car. Connect these neighbourhoods with effective public transit which is started by permitting these neighbourhoods around sky train stations and bus loops. Laneway housing is part of this solution. Design the neighbourhood as if you had not cars.…

    13 votes
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  7. Improve traffic lights

    Improving how traffic lights work to create green waves on as many streets as possible not just the 1 ways. This will reduce traffic, accidents and CO2 emmisions and increase transit performance with fewer vehicles grid lock idling.

    Anyone who's sat at a red light for minutes on end in the middle of the night when there's no cross traffic can cheer on science for proving what we already knew: lights that adapt to the flow of traffic, instead of dictating the flow of traffic, can improve the flow of traffic. A team of researchers discovered that if you let…

    14 votes
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  8. Metered bike lockers

    Metered bike lockers that can be rented by the hour.

    9 votes
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  9. Improve Neighbourhood Roundabouts to provide for safe pedestrian crossing

    Neighbourhood roundabouts are being developed across the city. These roundabouts serve to maintain a comfortable traffic flow for cars and cyclists on residential streets. Unfortunately, due to their design, these roundabouts fail to provide security for pedestrians since there are no visual cues to suggest that pedestrians even have a right to cross the street. In a local classroom survey, grade 4’s exclaimed that they feel unsafe crossing at these roundabouts and I regularly see uncertainty in the eyes and actions of pedestrians crossing at roundabouts.

    There are a number of ways to improve this situation. Here are two examples:

    6 votes
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  10. Green transportation hubs throughout the

    EVs are coming and we're not ready. Putting infrastructure in place with high-speed charging that also hosts bike sharing, car sharing and green commuters will have a central place to plug in and recharge.

    7 votes
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  11. install many many more public washrooms

    Install Many Many More Public Washrooms ... no this idea is not off topic! There are so few public washrooms in Vancouver that it’s a barrier to walking, biking and taking transit even for people with mature, healthy bladders, let alone when one considers the needs of Seniors and parents with young children. With the the paltry offering of public washrooms, who can reasonably view this City as transit and alt. car friendly? The ready access to washrooms is one reason people plan car trips to Shopping Malls and Big Box retailers rather than walk, bike or take transit to…

    49 votes
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    Good idea! In the past few years, the City has installed 8 of 16 self-cleaning toilets as part of its street furniture contract with CBS-Decaux, and is looking for additional locations. (As an aside, locating them can be challenging due to limited public sidewalk space, a lack of utility connections, and concerns from adjacent businesses.) New public restrooms have also been installed as part of recent park upgrades. There is also a huge opportunity and need at transit interchanges, but this is outside the City’s jurisdiction — Vancouver has repeatedly requested (and will continue to ask) that TransLink install restrooms in its rapid transit stations.

  12. Allow an abundance of transportation alternatives

    Where are all the taxis? Cab licences are artificially capped by the City and transit is a monopoly. In many cities around the globe, commuters are offered a range of options including share-taxis, jitneys, pedicabs, shuttles, and executive buses. Like telephone and airline services have shown, de-regulation improves service, increases use and reduces cost.

    15 votes
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  13. Make public transportation truly PUBLIC again

    Translink is a private company doing a public service. Public transportation would be better for the people, and greener for the city, if it was run by the people/city instead of by this company who has not much more than profits on the brain.

    42 votes
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  14. Solar/Electric Powered Buses

    Get more solar or electric powered buses to lower vehicle exhaust and decrease Greenhouse gases

    12 votes
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  15. Change traffic laws on bikeways

    Now that we are investing in improving our (already mostly amazing) separated bikeways, it's time to change the laws on them to reflect the reality that riding a bike is different from driving a car, and the rules of the road were made for cars. I am tired of explaining to people who have never ridden a bike in the city why it's not feasible to stop at every stop sign, esp when they are quiet 4 way stops, at the bottom of a hill, etc. There seems to be a backlash among drivers that cyclists are out of control…

    52 votes
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    The City recently began implementing 30-km/h speed limits on local street bikeways.

    Other measures may require changes to provincial legislation. In these cases, the City’s role will be to advocate for appropriate changes to the legislative framework around cycling.

  16. Promote car pooling and/or ride sharing programs

    There are a number of car pooling and/or ride sharing programs in Vancouver but they are not being used by very many people. If the City of Vancouver promoted them, they could reduce a very significant number of car trips.

    Some examples include: carpool.ca; ride-share.com; ride-club.ca; car-pool.ca; erideshare.com; carpoolingnetwork.com; and shareyourride.net.

    8 votes
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  17. Car Free granville island

    Hardly a new Idea, this would enhance the experience of the island. It is treacherous walking around there on a weekend....that is if the cars are moving at all, as often they are just sitting in a giant line idleing.

    There may need to be a nearby structure with limited parking, but increased shuttle and transit service (olympic line) would go a long way to make it feasible.

    Think about all that extra real estate available without parking lots and wide roads down there! Even the Growth mongers must smile at that prospect

    133 votes
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  18. New types of crosswalk signal

    Here's two new crosswalk signal ideas. The first is to make the city more accessible to seniors, strollers and people in wheelchairs. Have a walk signal like a dual-flush toilet--press the big button for more walk time and the small button for fast walkers.

    The second idea is for cycle crossings. Since bicycles are human-powered it really sucks to stop at red lights while you press the button and wait for the light to change. So, the crossing button could be halfway up the block so cyclists can slap it on their way by--the light will be changing as they…

    6 votes
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  19. Collect fares before bus arrives

    Between 3-5 minutes are wasted at each bus stop as the driver collects fares from passengers. Other cities, including Curitiba, Brazil, have implemented a system so that fares are collected before the bus arrives at the stop. The goal is get travel times by transit to be equal or faster than by car. Reducing load time at each stop will reduce travel time by bus.

    9 votes
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  20. rickshaw stands at all outlying skytrain stations organized through a central dispatch service

    One of the largest obstacles to greater transit use for families, the elderly and people with baggage is the few blocks between home and a station. A rickshaw service located at each outlying station would facilitate access for these users. The short trips and high volume would result in reasonable rates. Existing communication technology would create an efficient and accessible dispatch system.

    13 votes
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