{"id":26516,"date":"2015-01-19T14:05:08","date_gmt":"2015-01-19T22:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/?p=26516"},"modified":"2015-01-19T14:05:08","modified_gmt":"2015-01-19T22:05:08","slug":"case-complete-street-commercial-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2015\/01\/19\/case-complete-street-commercial-drive\/","title":{"rendered":"The Case For A Complete Street On Commercial Drive"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Complete Streets<\/a> treat\u00a0all people equally, regardless of age, gender or physical ability. Complete Street design focuses on improving the public realm and not on moving vehicular traffic. It serves as\u00a0an important design tool for making our cities great places to live, work and play.<\/p>\n

Slow Streets\u2019 research, The Case For a Complete Street<\/em><\/a> argues that Vancouver\u2019s Commercial Drive would benefit greatly from becoming a Complete Street. In its current form,\u00a0Commercial Drive\u2019s streetscape fails to\u00a0acknowledge the Drive\u2019s role as a regional destination for culture, shopping, dining and other activities.\u00a0 Instead, The Drive is treated primarily as a thoroughfare for automobiles whose size and speed create an uncomfortable walking, cycling and dwelling experience – particularly south of 1st Avenue.<\/p>\n

Prioritizing slower modes would strengthen existing activities and allow for new uses which are only imaginable during the annual Car Free Day festival.\u00a0 Re-envisioning Commercial Drive as a Complete Street would\u00a0enhance its sense of place and make the street more accessible to a greater number of people. In turn, more value – and a better overall experience – would be generated for all visitors, residents and businesses.<\/p>\n

\"1_Existing\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

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\"1_Potential\"<\/a><\/p>\n

We\u00a0set out to determine who was visiting Commercial Drive, how they got there and what they were doing. This study observed the activities of over 1,000 people at three observations periods (weekday afternoon and peak evening and weekend afternoon between September and October 2014). Our main finding is that people spend most of their time on the sidewalks of Commercial Drive, including people that drive and park.<\/p>\n

\"2_Observations\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite the fact that there are on average 665 people walking per hour on the crowded sidewalks of Commercial Drive, only one-sixth of the street-width is dedicated for pedestrians (between 1st and Broadway). The majority of people shopping walked to the study sites and most activities observed were necessary daily activities (e.g. commuting, grocery shopping).<\/p>\n

A small percentage (14%) stayed or socialized on the Drive potentially demonstrating that due to high vehicular traffic volumes and speeds, people may not feel comfortable staying on Commercial Drive for prolonged periods of time.\u00a0When it comes to spending money at businesses, it is people on foot, not cars, that are shopping.<\/p>\n

From this perspective,\u00a0we have dedicated very little space to the main creators of wealth for businesses. By prioritizing\u00a0vehicle traffic, we erode the lively atmosphere that makes Commercial Drive such an interesting place to be.<\/p>\n

\"Union<\/a>
Union Street bike lane. Photo courtesy of Slow Streets.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

For comparative purposes, Slow Streets\u00a0observed Union Street which features a similar mix of commercial and residential uses.\u00a0Union Street, with its vehicle buffered cycling lane, demonstrates that it\u2019s possible to increase the capacity to move more people in the same amount of space while maintaining access for all modes. Consequently, Union Street has four times more cycling traffic and one-fifth less vehicular traffic, but the proportion of shopping is similar to Commercial Drive.<\/p>\n

We also surveyed\u00a0the Union Street business community to assess the impact of the separated bike lane and found that the majority of businesses had positive perceptions. The\u00a0businesses stated that the increased number of cyclists was generally good for Union Street and their bottom line. Most businesses also had a caveat that they would not have been as supportive if the cycling lane had eliminated all of the vehicular parking.<\/p>\n

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Parking is certainly important for providing delivery and customer access to businesses. However, concerns around losing parking spaces on Commercial Drive are unwarranted. Slow Streets conducted a parking inventory and discovered that there are over 700 public parking stalls surrounding Commercial Drive, between Grandview Highway and 1st Avenue. Our\u00a0parking analysis of Commercial Drive indicates that there is an abundance of parking, where 87% of parking available for the public is provided for free on the side streets off of Commercial Drive. This preliminary analysis shows that due to parking restrictions already existing on Commercial Drive (such as turning allowances at intersections and bus stops), replacing two vehicular traveling lanes with dedicated protected cycling lanes and widened sidewalks would have no net loss of parking.<\/p>\n

\"5_Parking<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Despite the lack of dedicated and safe cycling infrastructure on Commercial Drive the number of people cycling through is considerably high at 65 people per hour on average. That a considerable number of people are willing to cycle with traffic on Commercial Drive without protected\u00a0cycling infrastructure indicates that\u00a0there is latent demand potential. Providing safe, and dedicated traffic separated cycling lanes would support dramatic cycling growth as witnessed by all other separated cycling lanes in Vancouver<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Looking to the future, a Complete Street on Commercial Drive will help Vancouver achieve many of its future sustainability goals and objectives:<\/p>\n