11042 replies to this topic

[Nparker]

The latest Committee of the Whole agenda specifies the level of community engagement for the Vancouver Street bikelane:

- Direct messaging to affected area residents (0)

[Brantastic]

That looks like pretty exhaustive public consultation. Are you not able to make the 6 public open house events, take one of the surveys, or go to one of the 11 community meetings, NParker? 

[Mike K.]

There were also two online surveys.

 

I think they covered their bases rather well. NParker, how far away from the actual bike lane do you live? Maybe whatever mail-outs were issued (like they are for rezonings/variances) didn't include your building.

[Nparker]

That looks like pretty exhaustive public consultation. Are you not able to make the 6 public open house events, take one of the surveys, or go to one of the 11 community meetings, NParker? 

Not one of those events was announced to me unless I went looking for the information. To the best of my understanding the CoV made no attempt to proactively inform residents impacted by the proposed "transformation" of Vancouver Street of any public meetings or surveys. For a small redevelopment project near my home I received at least 2 information notices from the City in the mail. The CoV should have done at least this much to inform residents of a project of this magnitude.

[Coreyburger]

The city has been talking about Vancouver St for nearly a year at this point. Information has gone out in many different forms. There is no perfect consultation and you cannot expect to reach everybody.

 

As for development project notifications - those are legally mandated notices and are paid for by the developer essentially. And yet you still get people who claim only to have heard about it at the last minute.

[Mike K.]

Wouldn't there have been signs posted informing nearby residents of the community meetings? There were also pop-up kiosks the city held on multiple occasions.

[Nparker]

Wouldn't there have been signs posted informing nearby residents of the community meetings..

If there were I never saw them and I walk along Vancouver Street frequently.

[FogPub]

If I recall, the online survey I did consisted mostly of questions that in the end boiled down to

 

"This is what will happen no matter what, do you approve?" (choose one)

[ ] Yes.

[ ] Absolutely.

[ ] Wholeheartedly.

[ ] Please do more.

 

Sorry, but that doesn't count as consultation.

[mbjj]

If there were I never saw them and I walk along Vancouver Street frequently.

I'm on Vancouver Street several times a week. I saw nothing. I did fill out the on-line survey though. It was useless.

[Nparker]

...I did fill out the on-line survey though. It was useless.

An online survey simply to reinforce predetermined outcomes isn't worth the bytes its written in.

[A Girl is No one]

I think the city’s definition of consultation is very different from most people’s definition....

[Brantastic]

So I've used the new Wharf Street bike lanes several times now, and although I think they're great overall, the design around the slip line seems incredibly dangerous to me. The lack of a bike lane to connect from the eastbound Johnson Street Bridge bike lanes to the Wharf Street lanes seems like a pretty obvious design flaw.

Worst of all are the lights controlling pedestrian movement off the traffic island and controlling car traffic through the slip lane. I sat and watched for several light cycles today and many pedestrians did not notice the orange hand and assumed they had the right of way like when crossing any other slip lane in the city. They would walk out while cars had a green light, and drivers had to slam on their brakes. Many drivers also didn't notice the light for the slip lane and proceeded past the stop line through the crosswalk and bike lane. When I biked through the intersection today, I had a green bike light and proceeded through but a driver who didn't notice their red stop light drove well past the stop line and had to brake quickly when she saw me. 

The pedestrian signal across the slip lane also seemed poorly timed with pedestrian signals across Johnson and Wharf Streets as well. People would cross from one traffic island to another, only to be trapped there to wait for their signal to get off. It all seemed unnecessarily convoluted and personally, I'd rather just see the slip lane removed entirely. 

[rmpeers]

That is total and complete BS. I live half a block from an impacted section of Vancouver Street and at no time has the CoV proactively reached out for my opinion or to hear my concerns. If I hadn't been following this in the media I wouldn't even know what changes have been "proposed" (translation = change decided before the so-called consultation began).

Ah yes. "Consultation" means the mayor and cycling lobbyists get whatever they want and too bad so sad for everyone who isn't part of the cult.

[rmpeers]

Not one of those events was announced to me unless I went looking for the information. To the best of my understanding the CoV made no attempt to proactively inform residents impacted by the proposed "transformation" of Vancouver Street of any public meetings or surveys. For a small redevelopment project near my home I received at least 2 information notices from the City in the mail. The CoV should have done at least this much to inform residents of a project of this magnitude.

Even if you had been properly informed, what difference would it have made? Anyone who doesn't favour whatever flawed designs they're pushing will be ignored. I live not far away but no one asked me what I think; but I know that I'm not part of the cult, so no one would listen anyway.

[Hotel Mike]

Government Street between Humboldt and Belleville has been completely hobbled as a street for vehicles. There used to be two lanes on each side. If you heading south and you were going to turn right and go west on Belleville, you were able to switch over to the right lane soon after the turn onto Govt, and get away from a carriage, someone wanting to turn into the Empress driveway, or just a rubbernecking tourist. Now, it's one lane until well after the crosswalk.

 

Similarly, if you come off Belleville and turn left onto Government Street going north and wanting to continue left onto Wharf, you're hooped now. There is only one lane for all traffic either going left to Wharf or continuing straight on to Government Street. Big tour buses are always in that lane. Takes them a while to get going, and if there are a couple of them and a camper or two, the traffic immediately backs up. Just to swing left onto Wharf now takes at least two full light changes. WTF?

[Nparker]

Government Street between Humboldt and Belleville has been completely hobbled as a street for vehicles...

You don't think this is a coincidence, do you?

[Mike K.]

But the mayor just said this was all about making things easier for drivers.

[mbjj]

I was watching a live webcam of the scrambled intersection in Banff. Quite a few close calls with cyclists, one went when he shouldn't and a car made a U-turn in front of him. The wait for each direction of traffic to advance seemed quite long as they had to wait for both the traffic in the other direction AND pedestrians crossing all at once. Another area of Victoria to avoid I guess....adding it to my list. Also, what has become of parking spots and the loading zone along in front of Miniature World? Wasn't that a stretch frequently used by tour companies and tourists?

[DustMagnet]

I think there's three scrambles in Banff under test right now.  I was watching the camera from the King Edwards Hotel (https://www.youtube....h?v=9HwSNgcdQ7k) for a few minutes (3-4 cycles)  and it all seemed pretty orderly.  I saw one pedestrian start to walk out on a straight cross then stop himself and return to the curb.  A saw a few bikes go through in order.  Mostly what I saw was drivers turning into the far lane, but none in contention.

 

I guess I'll have to watch it longer before I decide that the scramble in Victoria is a failure.  It would be easier if there was a livecam locally.

 

What is up with drivers making U-turns in intersections?  Are these California tourists or something?

[Jackerbie]

^ Scrambles were added to Banff Ave back in 2012 when I still lived there. There were previously advance right turns for vehicles, since the pedestrian volumes were so high that it was impossible to ever make a turn off of Banff Ave.

 

FWIW, Richmond has a scramble in Steveston, and Vancouver is getting a couple of them on Robson Street.

Edited by Jackerbie, 07 August 2019 - 03:28 PM.