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Vancouver mayor gets on board a campaign to push for Broadway subway line, with public meeting (rally?) scheduled for Sunday

March 9th, 2013 · 52 Comments

Suddenly, the Broadway line is front and centre. After several years of not saying too much, Vancouver has really built up a head of steam the last couple of months (sorry for that bad pun and more to come) championing a Broadway subway line.

Here’s my story from last week with the mayor and the president of UBC saying a line is critically needed to support the medical/tech hub along central Broadway.

Now there’s a public meeting scheduled with the mayor and Councillor Geoff Meggs to talk to the public about the line. (Tomorrow, 2-4 p., St. James Community Hall in Kits)

I’ll be waiting to see who comes out to this. I know that rapid transit is very popular with riders (especially those who, like me, are tired of the lurching cattle car that is the 99B line) and, these days, developers, who have suddenly discovered that first-time condo buyers, in particular, are more willing to buy in places where they won’t also have to spend a fortune on a car.

But a subway line, which the mayor and the engineering department are backing to the hilt, is not going to be popular with everyone.

As I think we’re all coming to realize, a subway line is now a powerful argument for cities and developers to push for much greater density along the line. While that makes sense from a city planning point of view, residents of established neighbourhoods are not going to be as enthusiastic about the prospect of having to go to war to curb planners’ and developers’ unbridled enthusiasm for packing bodies in above the line.

The insistence in Vancouver on a subway line is also going to bring out the quite substantial group of people who are not succumbing to what is a certain degree of hype about subways. I’m hearing already from some, who have a lot of questions about the numbers (200,000 more people — the equivalent of a whole nother downtown — to be added along Broadway, really?) and the prices and a few other things.

So … see you Sunday.

(By the way, sorry for long absence. I didn’t go anywhere. Just got busy and, whoosh, before you know it a week has gone by.)

 

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  • teririch

    @Chris Keam #6 and Threadkiller #17:

    I ride the bus everyday and more than once a day – weekends included.

    The buses are far from ‘family’ unfriendly. I see parents with strollers/small kids etc almost every ride.

    The 99 B-line is no more crowded during rush than many of the other busses during rush. The 84 is just as bad, and frequently during bad weather, the 22 or 2 that run down MacDonald/Cornwall frequenlty pass stop because they are loaded. (those I can speak to)

    Skytrain is equally as crowded during rush.

    My biggest pet peeve while on the topic of crowded tranist…. if you are sitting in a seat designated for the eldery, disabled, people with kids, pregnant women; then move your lazy typically ’20 something’ texting ass when they get on. I cannot tell you how many times I have see the lazy humps look up, and the go back to texting or their i-pod.

    One ride, a very visibly pregnant woman gave up her seat to a grandmother and her grandchild, while the two 20 somethings seated right next to her texted away. Others in the vacinity and I inlude myself, made obvious comments and they still sat their self entitled asses in the seats.

    A sad state when texting and your ‘social media self’ takes over common sense and basic humanity.

  • Chris Keam

    Teririch:

    Your ability to confuse anecdote with evidence is extraordinary. If buses were family friendly then children would arguably be in evidence at rush hour in proportion to their numbers in the general population. But they are not.

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