vancouver study trip debrief

Seattle Neighborhood Greenways Study Trip Vancouver BC June 2013

Who was part of the trip?Four cities: Seattle, Kirkland,

Portland, Vancouver

Jerry Dobrovolny, Vancouver's Director

of Transportation Services, attended

most sharing sessions

PBOT’s Mark Lear & Greg Raisman

Gordon Price, Simon Fraser University& Vancouver City Council emeritus

Vancouver staff, consultants, and non-profitsWere generous with their time

Professor John Pucher

Why Vancouver?

What is a connected AAA* network?*All Ages & Abilities

Waterfront has wide, separated bicycle and pedestrian pathways

Greenway uses street end park as a connector

Residential greenways 

Priority streets for people who walk & bike: stop signs, speed humps, trees

Beautiful effective traffic diversion in neighborhoods

Many greenways include “counter-flow” lanes for people on bikes

Bicycle signal to cross busy arterials

Parallel Park program uses street right-of-way for retail

Vancouver Greenways prioritize people who walk.

Downtown separated bikeways 

Prioritization& Cost

Inexpensive plasticsigns and PVC posts

Inexpensive and effective bicycle separation

Vancouver street calms traffic, creates beautiful public space, and diverts storm water in the right-of-way

Bioswales along greenways add beauty and high installation/maintenance costs

Recent greenway development includes finely-grained details @$3 million/mile

Vancouver Greenest City 2020

The best transportation plan is a great land-use plan. Brent Toderian, Former Director, Vancouver City Planning

Two greenways are connected through an engineered pocket park

Community volunteers maintain hundreds of planting strip gardens like these

Vancouver traffic is calmed by many tiny pocket parks in the street right-of-way

Tupper Greenway Park creates two quiet street ends

Photos: Brice Maryman, Cathy Tuttle, Greg Raisman, Jeff Linn

2013 Study Trip organizer: Eli Goldberg

www.SeattleGreenways.orggreenways are not pipes for bikes, greenways are places for people