In 2010, the City of Vancouver, BC, reconstructed a segment of Granville Street, a primary transit spine and downtown destination. This reconstruction provided the opportunity to improve upon the existing transitway and shared street, by providing wide sidewalks, high-quality custom street furniture, and a better balance of local access and transit movement.
History
Granville Street, downtown destination street with heavy retail, recreational, and residential density, was originally dedicated as a transit mall in 1974. Over the course of three decades, the City of Vancouver was called upon by some business owners to return the street to mixed-traffic operations, for fears that it may suffer a similar fate of disuse to some other North American transit malls. However, officials ultimately resolved to maintain the transit-exclusive configuration (taxis and freight vehicles are permitted to use the street), as Granville had emerged as one of downtown Vancouver’s busiest commercial streets. Prior to reconstruction, the mall was serving 1,900 buses per day, with 7,500 riders per hour at peak.
Project Development
In 2006, coinciding with the underground construction of the Canada Line train, the City was faced with the decision of how to best reconstruct Granville Street’s limited right of way, only 80 feet building to building. While assessing the possibility of reintroducing mixed traffic, the project team determined that allowing private vehicles would create costly delay and congestion, while degrading an already limited pedestrian environment and disadvantaging vital bus service. As such, the team developed the new pedestrian priority space, which maintains width to serve the high existing transit volume while expanding and improving walking conditions to make a more comfortable, more inviting, and higher performing destination street.
Design
Given Granville Street’s importance as a destination and nightlife magnet, a primary goal of the project was to create a street that pedestrians would find safe and comfortable to cross throughout each block, not just at intersections. The design team created a nearly continuous street section, with low, mountable curbs delineating the pedestrian realm edge from the transitway. The edge is further reinforced by color-graded pavement and the placement of high-quality custom street furniture. The concrete transitway transitions gently over a mountable curb up to an aggregate sidewalk; pedestrians are alerted by the curb when crossing into the transitway, but are not discouraged from doing so. This design was enabled by an ordinance modifying pedestrian regulations that allows people to cross the street at any point. The result is a linear public space that provides full access, supporting entertainment, businesses, and activity along the street, while moving transit passengers and vehicles at a large scale.
Bus and trolleybus service operates at very high frequency on Granville Street, with headways averaging 80 seconds at peak periods. One geometric change incorporated into the redesign was to reduce lateral weaving of the transitway—prior to reconstruction, trolleybuses navigated a more curvilinear path along the street, limiting sight distance and clearance between opposing transit vehicles. The transitway still retains some gentle lateral sway along blocks, but shifts to an emphasis to a shared and continuous street, with open sightlines and . Additionally, intersections on the mall segment of Granville are raised slightly to the transitway level (about 3 inches), providing a continuous transitway and more distinctly pedestrian-centric realm along the corridor. The surface materials (concrete transitway and aggregate sidewalk) are continued across intersections to reinforce the continuity of the mall, with smaller curb ramps to promote accessibility and maintain delineation between the sidewalk and roadbed.
Deliveries are accommodated through design and regulation; commercial vehicles are allowed to enter the street at off-peak times and to park for short periods on the sidewalk, maintaining a clear transitway but enabling freight deliveries. The mountable curb allows freight vehicles to carefully enter the sidewalk realm, and adequate space is provided so as not to degrade pedestrian comfort and capacity. Bicycling is permitted, as on other bus lanes in Vancouver, and the route is popular among people using bikes for downtown access. Taxis are also permitted to drop off or pick up passengers, but other private motor vehicles are not permitted on the transitway.
Outcomes
In 2010, the City finished reconstruction and opened the street once again, this time as a shared transit and pedestrian space. Transit continues to operate at a very high volume, with transit vehicles running at 80-second headways and serving 82,700 weekday boardings.
The City has encountered a few challenges and continues to apply these lessons in the Granville Street design as well as other projects. For instance, while the sidewalk and transitway materials a color-graded, the city has received feedback stressing the importance of high color contrast between the two modal zones, especially for users with low vision who may have trouble discerning the sidewalk edge. Additionally, with the high volume of buses dwelling at stops, sometimes simultaneously, transit operators have noted some issues for riders finding “their” bus, revealing the need for legible stop zones and boarding procedures. Finally, the City has observed issues with taxis using the street, which is permitted but occasionally creates conflicts with transit vehicles and pedestrians when taxis attempt to pass trolley buses by using the opposing lane. The City continues to study and manage these issues as it fine-tunes the operations of the street.
The mall continues to serve as a marquee recreational and nightlife destination, bringing large numbers of visitors and serving local pedestrian and transit activity throughout the day and night. The Granville Mall is a demanded public space for retail activities, nightlife, and special events, proving its success in creating a high-quality shared transit and pedestrian street.