The Value of Investing in Canadian Downtowns - International ...

uild freeways into downtown Vancouver. 14 Since
then, Vancouver’s land use and transportation
planning has upheld and reconfirmed this direction
and the City, the region, the provincial and federal
governments have invested heavily in rapid transit -
the Expo SkyTrain line in 1985, the Millennium Line in
2002 (both connecting Surrey), the Canada Line in
2009 (connecting the airport and Richmond) and the
West Coast Express commuter train in 1995
(connecting to Coquitlam). All of these trains service
the downtown. The City has also invested heavily in
alternative modes of transportation, with more than
400 kilometres of bicycle routes 15 and through the
creation of a high quality pedestrian environment.
Transit and alternative modes of transportation have
been so successful in Vancouver that it is
transforming travel patterns, leading to a surplus of
parking spaces. An article in the Vancouver Observer
(March 2011) reported that there are 7,000 surplus
parking spaces in downtown Vancouver. Moreover,
the article noted that Easypark, the city-owned
parking management company, has seen a dramatic
(20%) decrease in revenues since the Canada Line
was built. 16
Downtown Vancouver has also inherited some
features that make it very walkable; for example, its
compact grid has an average block sizes of 1 hectare.
This makes the downtown enjoyable and easy to
move around.
Downtown has
19,119
parking stalls for the
public
~100 structures
are listed on the
Vancouver Heritage
Register
40.5ha
building footprint (approx one
quarter of downtown land area
contains a building)
Average block size
1ha
14
City of Vancouver. (2011). History of Granville Street. Retrieved from:
http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/currentplanning/granvilleredesign/history.ht
m. Accessed 2011 September 15.
15
City of Vancouver. (2009). Cycling Statistics. Retrieved from:
http://vancouver.ca/engsvcs/transport/cycling/stats.htm. Accessed 2011
September 16.
16
Anderson, Graham. (2011) "New Life for unused parking lots" in
Vancouver Observer. Retrieved from:
http://www.vancouverobserver.com/city/2011/03/12/new-life-unusedparking-lots.
Accessed 2012 October 4.
170