GC 2020
248 results found
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Create a separated bike lane along Kingsway
It is an incredibly direct route leading from Broadway corridor to Burnaby, but currently has far too many lanes of car traffic to feel good cycling along it.
37 votesThe city’s new 10-year cycling program master plan will soon be in development, and hopefully completed within the next year. A big part of the work ahead is to identify where separated bike lanes might be appropriate.
Lessons learned from the downtown trial will be an important input into the plan. The results so far support evidence elsewhere that separated bike lanes are a great way to make cycling more attractive on busy streets.
For more information, visit http://vancouver.ca/cycling .
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Create a public bike sharing program (e.g. Montreal's Bixi, Paris' Velib)
Montreal has installed the Bixi bike system, similar to many European systems, of having publicly available bikes for a small cost downtown on major street corners. The bikes are incredibly robust, widely available, and highly convenient with bike stands every 2-3 blocks.
It encourages locals to bike (rather than take the bus or metro) and is great for short trips around town. It is very convenient as there is always a drop off location nearby, and there is no worry of getting your bike stolen. It is also a huge tourist attraction, making transport easier, cheaper and greener!
155 votesAn exciting idea that will be given serious consideration.
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Work with shipping & cruise line industry to reduce idling and diesel emmissions whilst in Port
Vancouver is the second busiest port in North America and sees a lot of shipping traffic. The City needs to work with the shipping & cruise industries to cut emissions whilst tankers/freightlines/cruise ships are docked in Port. Can we mandate a power hook-up to shore?
3 votesPort Metro Vancouver is under Federal jurisdiction. The City of Vancouver works with Metro Vancouver, Environment Canada, Port Metro Vancouver to advocate for shore-power. This idea is included in the Draft Action Plan.
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14 votes
The City supports the idea of road / congestion pricing, and bridge tolls are one possible implementation. A regional (as opposed to a city) approach might work best, given travel behaviour, patterns of movement, and jurisdictional issues. This lies outside City jurisdiction, so our role is limited to advocacy; changes to Provincial legislation are required.
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Covered bicycle parking
Cycling in the rain's not so bad, but getting on a wet bicycle is not so great. We need to get more bicycle parking in sheltered areas where the bike is dry when you need it.
8 votes -
Increase residential density to achieve efficient land use and high walking/cycling/transit mobility
Our high dependence on gasoline for transportation is largely due to our lifestyle of single-family dwellings. When density is increased, we would be reducing long-distance commutes and automatically encouraging people to walk and bike. Public transportation would also see more riders and be used more effectively. Higher residential density also means more efficient land use. The greenest city would need to protect its forests and restrict the area of urban development. This density is best accomplished by zoning schemes that discourage single-family dwellings and encourage mixed-use high-density developments. Ideally, there would be one day when some of our low density…
32 votesAs the City reviews land use policy and development bylaws through Community, Central Area, and City-Wide planning programs, opportunities for increased residential density (particularly in walkable neighbourhoods with good transit connections) are actively pursued (in balance with concerns for neighbourhood character and community involvement in city building decisions at the neighbourhood level).
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Create more affordable family housing within easy walking/biking/transit radius of downtown.
We need more family housing (i.e. 3-bedroom units that real people with under-$100K incomes can afford) within easy walking/biking/transit radius of downtown. Studies have shown that 20 minutes is the maximum work commute that people can withstand before they start to accrue major daily stress. And coincidentally, letting people live ... See Moreclose to their jobs leads to massive reduction in auto emissions.
How to create affordable housing?
- Force developers to offer a mandatory number of units beyond the tiny 1-bedroom and 1+den units that currently dominate the market.
- Take over apartment buildings and convert them to co-ops.
- Create a…
404 votesA critical challenge for Vancouver. Laneway housing, STIR, the 20% Inclusionary Zoning Policy, and other programs and policies are intended to help increase housing affordability— see http://vancouver.ca/housing. The draft Greenest City plan recognizes the importance of affordability and will review additional strategies, e.g. unbundled parking.
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Don't re-invent the wheel
Get advice and ideas from cities that are already the greenest (European cities) and from local experts (Suzuki Foundation).
21 votes -
Pedestrianised Streets
Make the following streets pedestrianised:
Granville St--in the zone dedicated for transit use. Transit can remain on its current routing along Seymour and Howe. (Issue a refund to Translink for their contribution to the redesign)
South of Smithe, re-allocate two lanes for cycling (four motor vehicle lanes is overtly excessive).
South of Nelson, remove the car parking on the sidewalk! That has to be the ***** design imaginable. That space should be for pedestrians, not for perching motor vehicles. This is effectively creating a 6-lane arterial on Granville.Gastown, and;
Robson--from Granville St., west to Jervis St.
47 votesThe Rediscover Granville program was a big success in 2009, and the City will be looking to continue and build upon this work in future years. More broadly, the draft Greenest City plan will include directions to explore pedestrian-only and pedestrian-priority streets in the downtown core. Potential locations will be identified at a later date (e.g. as part of the transportation plan update).
http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/currentplanning/granvilleredesign/rediscover/
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Congestion Pricing Downtown
Price motor vehicles entering the metropolitan core. Congestion pricing will reduce the number of motor vehicle converging on the Downtown every morning, and will make lane re-allocations and pedestrianised streets an easier process due to reduced demand for road space.
54 votesThe City supports the idea of road / congestion pricing, and bridge tolls are one possible implementation. A regional (as opposed to a downtown or city) approach might work best, given travel behaviour, patterns of movement, and jurisdictional issues. This lies outside City jurisdiction, so our role is limited to advocacy; changes to Provincial legislation are required.
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Municipal Control of Blanket Speed Limits
Limit motor vehicle speeds in the metro core to 40 km/h.
Place a 30 km/h speed limit on all local residential and collector streets.
Speed reduction is essential to ensure the safety of pedestrians and cyclists.19 votesThis is a policy direction that was adopted in the 1997 Transportation Plan. Staff have since been in discussion with provincial officials about legislative changes to support municipal control over blanket speed limits. Unfortunately those changes have not yet been adopted by the province.
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15 votes
Included in the Draft Greenest City Action Plan.
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Make Robson Square a true pedestrian square: NO through street!
Robson Street has been closed for the block of the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Law Courts due to the landscaping renovations currently taking place - it should ALWAYS be that way :-) Vehicle traffic is easily diverted around this single block - this is one of the few landscaped, sunny, and already publicly used gathering places that exist in the downtown core: make it a TRUE pedestrian square so that the public gatherings and special events that are so often held around the Vancouver Art Gallery can actually be pedestrian friendly events with space for everyone.... Robson Street buses…
29 votesThe draft Greenest City Action Plan will include directions to explore pedestrian-only and pedestrian-priority streets, but specific locations likely won’t be identified until later (e.g. as part of the transportation plan update).
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Composting public toilets for Wreck Beach (refer to West Coast Trail)
Wreck Beach is one of the most popular destinations in our city - it is served by FAR too few porta-potties, and they are often too few as well as rather nasty. Take the idea even bigger and make it a city wide/beach wide initiative to replace aging or non-existant toilet facilities in parks/beaches from Stanley Park to Lighthouse Park....
3 votesWreck beach is not part of the City’s jursidction but, the feasibility of composting toilets in an urban setting is being investigated.
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8 votes
The draft Greenest City Action Plan addresses occupant engagement in conservation efforts. This idea will be considered as a way to make it easy for occupants to conserve energy related to plug loads
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Include energy costs in city & province-funded construction projects.
Construction projects get graded based on how cheap they are. But that costing model doesn't include the total environmental impact of a project, such as the carbon released by removing old buildings, the ongoing energy cost of the structures, etc.
The best way to get an environmentally conscious city is to put in economic incentives. Construction is a very high-impact area where the city can exert influence simply by changing the guidelines. A cheap, high-impact proposal.
Other cities are already doing it, and from what I hear UBC is already doing it for their own projects.
7 votesThe draft Greenest City Action Plan addresses ways and means of rewarding projects that are more energy efficient.
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Waterless Urinals
Save millions of gallons of water!
Plumbers don't like them but i think there is a huge potential for this!6 votesNot specifically part of Draft Greenest City Action Plan, but efficient fixtures and incentives are.
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62 votes
The City has an existing pilot incentive program for solar hot water. Incentives and financial tools to support the proliferation of renewable energy is included in the draft Greenest City Action Plan. Details here: http://vancouver.ca/sustainability/SolarHomes.htm
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Turn existing "bike streets" into proper separated bike routes
The network of bike streets is a great start, but drivers aggressively squeeze cyclists close to parked cars, increasing the risk of accident. Create physically separated bike lanes on these routes - perhaps by getting rid of one or both sides of street parking. (Or forbidding driving altogether on those routes!)
138 votesThanks for sharing this idea!
The city’s new active transportation plan will soon be in development, and hopefully completed within the next year.
A big part of the work ahead is to identify the complete cycling network, and the type of facility that is most appropriate and/or feasible for different routes. In some cases (e.g. busy arterial routes), separated lanes might be the best approach; in other cases (e.g. lower car volume neighbourhood streets), enhanced traffic calming and/or further reducing car access might be more appropriate. Travis cited some great examples in the Netherlands where cars are ‘guests’ that are allowed in, but do not dominate.
In all cases, the goal should be to make routes that feel safe to all potential cyclists, including beginners, children, and seniors.
For more information, visit http://vancouver.ca/cycling .
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Develop a local food hub and expand the availability of local food at a neighbourhood level
A local food hub would support the distribution, processing and storage of local food, a current gap in the local food system. This hub would then be connected to avenues to access locally produced food distributed throughout the neighbourhoods, making more available food produced locally by farmers outside Vancouver as well as urban farmers.
506 votesThe draft Greenest City Action Plan includes a variety of actions to support the availability of local food at the local level.
