The Hastings Street Corridor will be the City of Vancouver’s next major rapid transit project to consider as a potential direct-to-Vancouver rapid transit project following the future SkyTrain Millennium Line extension between Arbutus Station and the University of British Columbia (UBC). It has been identified as a priority corridor.
With today’s vote, Vancouver City Council will conduct a rapid traffic study of Hastings Street between downtown Vancouver and Hastings Park/PNE, replacing the existing strategy of focusing on the 41st Street/49th Street corridor. We have approved a formal request to the TransLink City Council of Mayors to do so. Between UBC and Metrotown.
City council approved the direction in a 6-3 vote, with Green councilors Adrian Carr and Pete Fry and One City councilor Christine Boyle opposed. Mayor Ken Sim was absent from the meeting.
This means that the previous request to conduct a major transportation planning study in the 41st Street/49th Street corridor has been changed to a study in the Hastings Street corridor between downtown Vancouver and the PNE. “That’s clearly where the greatest need is and where we need to address it. Look at the incredible congestion in our city,” said ABC Councilor Sarah, who introduced the motion. -Kirby Yong said at today’s public meeting.
This could potentially connect to the North Shore via Second Narrows, which would expand rapid transit to the North Shore and provide another major link to Simon Fraser University (SFU) to reach Burnaby Mountain. This is consistent with the intention of TransLink’s Transport 2050 plan to provide a comprehensive public transport service. campus.
“If you’re sitting in Hastings in that traffic, whether it’s a car or a bus, it’s pretty congested and awful. So I think you have to take a long-term view,” says Kirby Jung. He continued to emphasize. This is a move where he changes his priorities rather than abandoning 41st Street and his 49th Street.
But it’s up to the Board of Mayors to support Vancouver City Council’s request to deviate from the Transportation 2050 plan to refocus the long-term rapid transit plan onto Hastings Street rather than the 41st Street/49th Street corridor. The decision will be made by the Council of Mayors later this month as part of a broader decision to finalize the first list of projects under the 10-year $21 billion Transition Priority Projects from 2025 to 2035. The decision is expected to be made by. .
“I know that this corridor from downtown to North Burnaby is currently putting a tremendous strain on SFU, especially in terms of congestion and movement of people coming down from the freeway and the North Shore. . Therefore, we need to move forward with transportation improvements along this corridor,” said ABC City Councilmember Lisa Dominato.
Currently, there are RapidBus lines on both Hastings Street and the 41st/49th Avenue corridor, with Hastings served by the R5 Hastings Street RapidBus (formerly 95 B-Line) and 41st Street served by the R4 41st Avenue RapidBus. It is in operation.
The region’s 10-year priority is to replace the existing R5 Hastings Street Rapid Bus with a bus rapid transit system with segregated bus lanes and other bus priority measures along the corridor between downtown Vancouver and SFU Burnaby. BRT).
But Mr Fry did not support calls to refocus rapid transit planning efforts on Hastings Street, saying there was “no good reason to focus on Hastings Street” and that it was “the most important Some of the cities are therefore sensitive areas for evacuation. Affordable housing in urban areas. ”
Mr. Fry also said there is a growing demand for rapid transit improvements along 41st Street/49th Street, particularly for future high-density development near Oak Ridge-41st Street and Langara on the SkyTrain Canada Line. He also said there is a growing demand for the tens of thousands of residents who will be living there. His 49th Street Station in the new Oak Ridge Municipal Town Center based on the Cambie Corridor Plan.
“We know that Oak Ridge has this new city center that needs maintenance, and we know that we have a very busy bus route. I’m just off Hastings Street. I live in the area, so I understand there is a lot of traffic,” Frye said.
Boyle added: “We know that current buses along 41st and 49th Streets are very crowded and residents regularly experience passing each other. and is an important part of high-quality transport improvements, so I am not prepared to support a shift in focus to Hastings.”
However, there was unanimous support for other parts of Kirby-Jung’s motion, demonstrating support for Vancouver’s Council of Mayors to invest in new bus public transportation within the city.
This includes “urgent implementation” of bus speed and reliability improvements along Hastings Street, Kingsway, 49th Street and Granville Street, which have been identified as busy/high ridership bus routes. Examples of such bus priority measures include reassigning lanes and curbside parking spaces, modifying site access, rebalancing bus stops, restricting right turns, changing signal timing and coordination, and signal priority. Masu.
In addition, City Council has approved TransLink’s short-term plan to create a new rapid bus route along Marine Drive/Marine Way between the Canada Line’s Marine Drive station in South Vancouver and the Expo Line’s 22nd Street station in New Westminster. was unanimously supported.
ABC City Councilman Peter Mesner said Rapid Bus would also fill a gap in public transit service in the fast-growing River District neighborhood in the southeast corner of the city.
During the deliberations, Kirby Yun shared that the current UBC SkyTrain feasibility study for the project’s business case, a work currently being led by the provincial government, is expected to be completed in 2024. .
