{"id":763,"date":"2008-09-16T21:41:21","date_gmt":"2008-09-17T04:41:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingvancouver.ca\/?p=763"},"modified":"2013-01-21T07:05:20","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T15:05:20","slug":"vancouvers-east-west-streets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2008\/09\/16\/vancouvers-east-west-streets\/","title":{"rendered":"Vancouver\u2019s east-west streets"},"content":{"rendered":"

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As the primary paths of access and circulation, streets play an extremely important role in any city – ancient and new.\u00a0 With this in mind, the pattern created by streets – their distribution and aligned – is significant to both the experience and functioning of a city.<\/p>\n

Looking at a popular map of Vancouver, one is often struck by the overwhelming regularity of the street network.\u00a0 Looking at the grid of streets, at the scale and accuracy of these maps one assumes that these are all neatly aligned so that one can simply follow a linear path along almost every street.<\/p>\n

This is an outright illusion.<\/p>\n

In reality, Vancouver\u2019s street network is extremely fragmented.\u00a0 Only a small handful of street actually cross the entire length of the city and these are the main traffic spines that the support our travels throughout the city.\u00a0 Not only does this funnel traffic (automobile and otherwise) to a very limited number of streets, but also, our perception of the city is often characterized by movement across them.<\/p>\n

Venture of these high intensity corridors and one enters a labyrinth (affectionately known as \u201crat maze\u201d) of dead ends, breaks and cuts.\u00a0 This contributes to and facilitates the creation contrasting urban experiences (the quiet, low traffic neighbourhood versus the dynamic, intense urban corridors) as people attempt are forced to use a few streets if they would like to get anywhere in a direct and timely manner.<\/p>\n

In essence, it demonstrates a viable, more interconnected alternative pattern to suburban street network of cul-de-sac and \u201clollipops.\u201d\u00a0 Both patterns achieve the same goal: that of creating \u201cprotected\u201d residential enclaves amidst a larger network of direct high volume routes.\u00a0 The primary difference – and one that has major implications for how this city works versus the typical suburb – is that Vancouver\u2019s city fabric maintains its neighbourhood \u201cprotection\u201d while attaining very high level of interconnectivity and permeablility for pedestrians that are circulating by different modes (biking, walking, skateboarding, etc.).<\/p>\n

Brilliantly planned, right?\u00a0 Quite the opposite, in fact. This fortuitous condition arose because Vancouver\u2019s neighbourhoods were created by different developers who didn\u2019t coordinate with one another when their respective neighbourhood blocks and streets were being surveyed and laid out.\u00a0 Misalignments and breaks resulted as the city built out forcing the patchwork of developments scattered across the city to come into contact with one another.<\/p>\n

As is the case in all cities worldwide, successes are a mix of learning from the experience of serendipitous accidents and using good local strategies in other places.\u00a0 I look forward to the day when Vancouver\u2019s accidental \u201cbroken grid\u201d is used\u00a0 intentionally to create more functional and intelligent cities.<\/p>\n

On this note, this map<\/a> simply depicts Vancouver\u2019s east-west streets.\u00a0 This method of representation allows one to readily see the fragmentation of the lateral street network as well as its few continuities.\u00a0 Those continuous lines are those that have the highest traffic volumes – Hastings, Broadway, 12th, 16th and King Edward (west of Kingway), 41st, 49th, 57th, Marine, etc.<\/p>\n

I will follow this map up with a similar one depicting the north-south street in a week or two.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the primary paths of access and circulation, streets play an extremely important role in any city – ancient and new.\u00a0 With this in mind, the pattern created by streets – their distribution and aligned – is significant to both the experience and functioning of a city. Looking at a popular map of Vancouver, oneContinue reading “Vancouver\u2019s east-west streets”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6004,"featured_media":764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11232,90],"tags":[272,4,1585,1218,2561,2560,2298,214],"class_list":["post-763","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-maps","tag-cartographically-speaking","tag-cartography","tag-edward","tag-king","tag-larger-network","tag-lateral-street-network","tag-street-network","tag-vancouver-2"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nVancouver\u2019s east-west streets - Spacing Vancouver<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2008\/09\/16\/vancouvers-east-west-streets\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Vancouver\u2019s east-west streets - Spacing Vancouver\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As the primary paths of access and circulation, streets play an extremely important role in any city – ancient and new.\u00a0 With this in mind, the pattern created by streets – their distribution and aligned – is significant to both the experience and functioning of a city. 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