The FIFA World Cup is coming to Vancouver this summer! 360,000 people are expected to attend each of the seven downtown matches we’re hosting, and it’s estimated to bring in one million extra visitors.
The FIFA Fan Zone will take place at the new amphitheater currently under construction at Hastings Park, and it’s expected to have 25,000 daily visitors. Unlike BC Place, which is located in Downtown Vancouver, there is no SkyTrain connection to the amphitheater. So, how are so many people supposed to get there?
There’s an elegant, simple, and inexpensive solution to get people to the amphitheater: bus lanes.
Back in 2010 when theOlympics were hosted in Vancouver, the city implemented temporary “Olympic Lanes” for the duration of the games. These bus lanes ensured that transit could effectively move hundreds of thousands of visitors quickly, without a traffic nightmare.
There were Olympic Lanes along the entirety of Hastings Street, many streets downtown, along Broadway, and Cambie Street.
These bus lanes allowed bus routes along these corridors to move event goers smoothly and quickly, away from all the traffic
(Source: City of Vancouver)
Fifteen years later, the city is proposing a mere 1.5km of bus lanes directly in front of Hastings Park.
This proposal will do absolutely nothing for transit riders stuck in traffic west of Renfrew, between downtown and the PNE.
When visitors staying downtown are presented with the choice between a slow, delayed transit trip or a quick ride share or taxi, they will pick the faster option, and the streets will be more congested than ever.
Even modest events at Hastings Park turn the area into a parking treasure hunt.
When FIFA fans try to go to the Fan Zone, they will have a few options:
– walk or bike (this option is only available to those who live reasonably close by)
– drive and search endlessly for cheap parking, or pay high event parking rates
– take rideshare or taxi and be stuck in the same traffic as the cars
– take a long transit trip, and get stuck in the same traffic as the cars
We can’t change the lower mainland’s geography, and there’s no way to make it easier to drive without attracting more drivers, which makes traffic worse. But we can make transit attractive, easy, and fast by implementing bus lanes. Making transit better will also decrease the amount of people driving, making it easier to drive for those who still need to!
Better transit is the only way we can solve the parking issue in this neighbourhood and easily bring in thousands of visitors without disruption!
So, how can we avoid a traffic cataclysm? Email the city of Vancouver council and staff today to ask them to do better!
They also have a survey where you can submit feedback until Feb 9th, and we encourage you to fill it out. But we think it’s more important the politicians in charge hear directly from you, so send an email encouraging them to be more ambitious with these bus lanes today!