160 replies to this topic

[VicHockeyFan]

Bastion Square is fine with no cars cruising down it at 4am.

What do you mean? I drive to the Upstairs Lounge all the time. You mean Bastion Square is pedestrian-only...

[Mike K.]

Let's not forget Victoria is a very small city compared to, say, Montreal or Madrid...

I always forget that. Must be all of the new highrise condos that have thrown me off.

Now that Victorian's have to arch their necks up to see five new buildings I can see how their perception has changed. Has anyone bothered to think of the children?

[G-Man]

What I mean is no one is getting stabbed or anything because you can't drive through Bastion square. I am sure that Government street would be plenty busy into the evening. Once some more of theose t-shirt shops close up and are filled in by cafes restatuants etc. because this will happen. It will be even better.

[VicHockeyFan]

Bastion Square is fine with no cars cruising down it at 4am.

What do you mean? I drive to the Upstairs Lounge all the time. You mean Bastion Square is pedestrian-only...

.... :smt045 come to think of it, one time I did run into some opposition....

[Holden West]

As if you would be driving a Renault!

^I wonder if that would happen if you were to park on top of an automatic bollard when it was down.

Yep, sidewalk restaurants would be a huge improvement.

[VicHockeyFan]

^ almost as effective as a road-side bomb, and European companies would be happy to arm the insurgents with the technology for the right price.

I'm hoping the automatic bollard is activated by a guy in a City vehicle, or even a tow-truck, that drives by with a kind of remote control - and it goes up slow. He has to make sure no cars are in the no-go zone before he activates the mechanism.

[Mike K.]

^I was thinking the same thing.

I like the idea of cafes and such spilling well into the sidewalk.

[Holden West]

^You can't get more European than that.

So, we about wrapped up this topic. Only thing missing is what colour the bollards should be painted and fine-tuning the hours.

All we have to do is send this thread to City Hall and say, "We did all the work for you--have it set up for next summer."

[Holden West]

An amazing photo of Government street. It's hard to imagine it with four lanes of two-way traffic.

[Baro]

The posts should be spikes that shoot up on pneumatic power after a loud siren. If your car gets scured, it's you're problem.

They could hang the cars and people that ignored the warnings from the lamp posts as grim reminders of those who do not heed the warnings of the Government street sirens.

[Icebergalley]

I guess when one puts a 7-11 or similar chain convenience store on Government St, people think that they are in the suburbs..

Chap had a mini-van parked on the sidewalk in front of the Government St and Broughton location 8:00 am ish this am.. getting his coffee..

Humpth!!!

[ressen]

This is what we need complete with a video camera.
http://www.youtube.c...h?v=gc2zbhOHkzI

[Baro]

I'd seriously love to see these things. So long as there's ample warning, no excuse to miss them, and weekly idiot-driver highlights on A-channel or something.

[missjanny]

I love the idea of closing Government Street from Humbolt to Yates to vehicular traffic (except for early morning delivery trucks). I also love the image of the cheap t-shirt stores closing up (surely rent on Govt street is too expensive for them!!??) and getting more cafes spilling out into the streets. How European and how much more updated for our city. Having no vehicles going up that stretch of Government Street means much more room for tourists and pedestrians than on the overcrowded sidewalks. Come on Victoria, spice it up a little, move out of the same-old comfort zone.

[van-island]

Found it!!!


Some damn funny bollard action [url=http://www.biertijd.com/mediaplayer/flvplayer.swf?file=http://media.biertijd.com/movies/200610/onderen.flv&autostart=true&fs=true%3Ehttp://www.biertijd.com/mediaplayer/flvplayer.swf?file=http://media.biertijd.com/movies/200610/onderen.flv&autostart=true&fs=true:2bfc2]HERE[/url:2bfc2].

[gumgum]

I thought I'd re-inject some life into this thread since there have been some exciting developments on and around Government Street.
The new London-style pub and other businesses have moved-in, showing confidence that the street can sustain a healthy year-round business.
I think now we have some good momentum to seriously consider closing portions of the street to vehicular traffic. There's little disadvantage to doing this as long as loading vehicles have access early in the day. (Most loading and offloading happens currently early in the morning as it is.) There still could be limited access for certain loading vehicles all day, if needed.
It would be of minimal disadvantage to private vehicles. All major arterial roads can still remain open, and since there is no parking allowed in most of the this portion of Government St., parking would hardly be compromised.
This would cost very little. Put a couple gates up, remove some traffic lights - Bob's your Uncle! The physicalness of the street can be changed over time to more pedestrian oriented materials, (cobblestone, brick, benches in the center of the street, small artisan and food booths in the center, etc.)

Here's a map of the portions of Government that I feel should be closed to vehicles:


I just can't see why we shouldn't consider this.

[amor de cosmos]

I think just the current one-way section of the street should be blocked off to cars. That would be the least disruptive imo; that section goes from 4 lanes to two, then finally to... none.

[aastra]

I just can't see why we shouldn't consider this.

I think there's a legitimate possibility that at certain times of the night the absence of vehicle traffic would make that stretch of Government very quiet and potentially dangerous for people. I'd prefer it if the roadway re-opened at 11pm or midnight or something like that.

[Mike K.]

Open it back up at 7PM in the winter months and 10PM in the summer.

I agree with amor that it should be ped-only up to Yates. Bus traffic and a lot of the flow on Yates turns north on Government and plenty of vehicles turn south off of Johnson to cut through to Langley St. and the parkade.

[gumgum]

I was thinking that businesses would feel left out by not extending the ped section to Johnson, but you bring up a good point about traffic north of Yates. Working around this would mean reworking one-way streets etc. A bit of a headache I suppose.
I did leave Yates itself open on the map for vehicles,