Juno Fest

This weekend I was in downtown Vancouver enjoying some of the best music on the planet at Juno Fest with a friend from Winnipeg. Of course we were listening to music, but I couldn’t help myself and starting talking about urban form. :-) One observation that my friend made really quick was there was a lot of walking happening in the downtown core. She wanted to take a bus everywhere downtown, but I had to keep reminding her that it was faster just to walk. I think it is a really testament to some good urban planning (and also some luck [not having Interstate cash like the US]), that the easiest and faster form of transportation downtown is walking.


Of course this makes total sense, since the 1980’s Vancouver has committed to building mixed-use, high-density residential in the core. Since that time, there has been a doubling of population (from 40,000 to 90,000) with more to come (129,000 by 2031.) Also of note is that as the population has increased, so has transportation choice. When looking at downtown streets today, you’ll see less car lanes and more bus and bike lanes as well as sidewalks than even a decade ago. Of course this has been part of a transportation plan:

Our vision …
is for Vancouver to be the most livable city in the world.

Our transportation vision …
is for Vancouver to be the most accessible place in the region.

Livability depends in part on accessibility...
which depends on transportation choice.