The Cyclist's Guideto Vancouver's Downtown Transportation Plan |
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The Cyclist's Guideto Vancouver's Downtown Transportation Plan |
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Beatty Street is proposed for conversion from a one-way street to a two-way street. This will facilitate the implementation of bike lanes on both sides of the street. The existing width of Beatty Street allows this to be done without much impact to the existing two travel lanes and two parking lanes. The bike lanes on Beatty would serve as the main access route to and from the Cambie Street Bridge. This is also facilitated by the striping of bike lanes (by narrowing the existing traffic lanes) on Smithe and Nelson streets at the northern end of the Cambie Street Bridge.
[DTP p. 98]
Beatty traffic ranges from very light (0-5 000) to medium (10 000-20 000), with the peak between Robson and Georgia [DTP p. 44].
Beatty Street is recommended for conversion from a one-way northbound to a two-way street. The current traffic volumes along this street can be accommodated with a two-way street with minor re-distributions, and new southbound capacity is provided to offset proposed changes to Cambie Street. The conversion would provide better accessibility to the area, particularly to the hotels located on the west side of the street where bus passengers currently load and unload onto the street. It also facilitates the creation of bike lanes in both directions. However, the implications of the proposed changes on traffic management during stadium events require further resolution.
[DTP p. 51]
Oddly enough, this decision runs against popular opinion. In a city survey, a majority of respondents opposed making Beatty two-way:
[DTP second survey, May 2001]
However in a later survey with a larger sample size done by Ipsos-Reid, 68% of businesses and 74% of residents supported making Beatty two-way [DTP Ipsos-Reid survey, Feb. 2002, p. 4].
The Costco development will have an impact on Beatty St. The development is bounded by Beatty St. and Expo Blvd., and the two viaducts. The developer's proposal includes a new roadway:
Proposed CD-1 Rezoning: The proposed rezoning from BCPED to CD-1 would permit the following development on this large site:
[...]
- a roadway through the site, parallel to and east of Beatty Street, at viaduct level, with signalized intersections at Dunsmuir and Georgia Viaducts;
[Policy Report, March 5, 2002, CC #5303/5304]
These are northbound stats only. It's hard to estimate what usage will be once this street is two-way. I imagine that the total vehicle capacity of the street will be much lower once it's reduced to one lane in each direction, with much lower through and turn volumes as a result. It's worth thinking of Beatty and Cambie St. as a system—they'll both be two-wayed at the same time. Probably we'll see the existing northbound Beatty traffic split 50/50 between Cambie and Beatty, and likewise with the existing southbound Cambie traffic.
Unfortunately, we have no stats for the intersection of Beatty and Nelson. It would be useful to have an idea of what the demand at that (bizarre!) intersection is like.
| Intersection | Date recorded | Time | Left-turning vehicles | Through vehicles | Right-turning vehicles | Cyclists |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Smithe | 2003.06.25 | am | 54 | 284 | 0 | 8 |
| pm | 63 | 290 | 0 | 14 | ||
| Robson | 2002.08.02 | am | 100 | 476 | 0 | 50 |
| pm | 52 | 417 | 0 | 6 | ||
| Georgia | 2003.07.30 | am | 1 | 390 | 181 | 30 |
| pm | 0 | 314 | 320 | 25 | ||
| Dunsmuir | 2000.08.18 | am | 246 | 349 | 0 | 7 |
| pm | 229 | 367 | 0 | 13 | ||
| Pender | 2002.12.12 | am | 142 | 0 | 140 | 2 |
| pm | 115 | 0 | 241 | 0 |
The stats below are for Cambie southbound, just for reference.
| Intersection | Date recorded | Time | Left-turning vehicles | Through vehicles | Right-turning vehicles | Cyclists |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pender | 2003.07.28 | am | 26 | 324 | 20 | 9 |
| pm | 18 | 364 | 39 | 26 | ||
| Dunsmuir | 2003.07.30 | am | 0 | 375 | 114 | 8 |
| pm | 0 | 792 | 94 | 24 | ||
| Georgia | 2003.08.19 | am | 80 | 539 | 169 | 11 |
| pm | 248 | 773 | 110 | 25 | ||
| Robson | 2002.06.25 | am | 40 | 683 | 123 | 10 |
| pm | 41 | 918 | 76 | 25 | ||
| Smithe | 2003.06.03 | am | 0 | 577 | 137 | 7 |
| pm | 0 | 945 | 136 | 26 | ||
| Nelson | 2003.06.26 | am | 545 | 148 | 0 | 6 |
| pm | 756 | 291 | 0 | 22 |
No impact.
Beatty forms an arterial in the pedestrian network:
Major sports facilities, hotels, historic buildings and landmarks make this street an interesting and active pedestrian route. At the southern end of Beatty the route would link to Helmcken/Comox and the Parkway Greenway. At the northern end it would connect to the Stadium SkyTrain station and International Village.
[DTP p. 90]
Beatty is currently a trucking route, but is slated to be deleted from this list [DTP pp. 104-105]. Beatty lies within the downtown trucking area [DTP p. 106].
An Airporter bus runs on Beatty.
No changes.
Some of the parking lots we've identified on the street:
Beatty is indirectly part of one spot improvement:
36. Integrate the Northeast False Creek development into the downtown by extending the street grid into the site
Extending the street grid pattern around BC Place stadium into Northeast False Creek will help to integrate the site into the rest of the downtown. This includes creating a pedestrian connection from the intersection of Beatty and Georgia down to False Creek, extending Smithe Street east to False Creek, and extending Griffiths Way to False Creek and aligning it with Georgia Street.
[DTP p. 154]
This is relevant, since there are currently no cyclist connections eastwards from Beatty between Nelson and Pender, apart from the Georgia viaduct and a staircase at Robson. The route map shows a cyclist connection at Robson, but there is no mention of how this would be achieved. See map and comments regarding the Expo route for more details.
The northbound lane on this route should be dead easy, with very few right turn conflicts to deal with. The southbound lane has the same conflicts that most routes will experience. It's great to get a lane on this street now before commerce in this area picks up. I imagine it'll be more of a destination in the future, once the Costco goes in on Expo (with condos and pedestrian access on Beatty), and once more development happens around Northeast False Creek.
An open house for this route was held in May 2004. The engineers showed some good designs for the difficult conflict regions, including a dedicated right-turn bay for the intersection at Georgia. One concern with the current plan is that stripes will only be included on one side of the bike lane. Apparently, there are special "event" parking needs on this street, during major events at BC Place or GM Place, when all parking is stripped from the street as drivers flood out of nearby parking lots. Because parking is stripped, a double-striped bike lane would be in the middle of the street, with a narrow car lane to its right. In the view of the engineers, a single stripe makes this situation less dangerous than a double stripe. They expect event parking requirements to be removed from this street in the near future as the parking sites are redeveloped.
The VACC remains skeptical about this argument; we looked for parking lots on Beatty and found few remaining that exit on to Beatty, apart from hotel lots. Also, we don't agree that a single stripe is any better than a double stripe, even in event parking situations; a bike stencil mid-street will be confusing regardless, and double-stripes won't really change that much.
My personal opinion is that the two-way conversion of this street will have a major positive effect on cycling. I believe it will slow down traffic enough to make this an unpopular "through" street, and become either a local traffic street (ideally suited to cycling) or a shopping street. Other members of the VACC remain skeptical, however.
The intersection with Nelson St. is in dire need of attention. As it stands, this intersection can be confusing for both drivers and cyclists. Most lanes of Nelson continue on to the Cambie Bridge, but the leftmost lane does not. This lane allows left turns onto Beatty St., and also allows drivers to descend on Nelson St. to Pacific Blvd. and on to Marinaside. To further complicate things, cyclists are supposed to use this extension of Nelson St. to connect to the Cambie Bridge's north sidewalk. As it stands, drivers using this left lane are moving very fast, at the same speed as bridge traffic (50-60 km/h). Finally, drivers are also able to move westbound on the Nelson St. extension, turning north onto Beatty St., although traffic here is very low.
The dashed section at the very south end of this route is known as Beatty Walk. It's a short pedestrian right-of-way through a development; I understand there was some deal between the city and the developer regarding the right-of-way, and the developer owns the right-of-way. It's almost bikable, but unfortunately there are a few stairs in one section. There is a wheelchair ramp, but it's awkward for cyclists - not to mention rude. At first glance, the connection doesn't serve much purpose, so this wouldn't seem like a big deal. However, this route is an excellent connection from Pacific St. up to the Cambie bridge's south sidewalk. It also serves as a connection between Beatty and the Comox/Helmcken Greenway, and it's a good connection for cyclists shifting from eastbound Pacific to northbound Beatty; better than a big detour out to Smithe, anyways. Unfortunately, the developer is apparently more interested in pedestrians than cyclists.
It's very unclear how this intersection will look once the street is two-wayed, or if it this block will even be made two-way. Regardless, cyclists need to be better accomodated at this block. A proper bike lane on the approach to the Nelson St. bridge is included as part of the Downtown Transportation Plan; this would be a suitable time to design and build it. Bike logos marking cyclists' routes along Nelson would help. A raised island midstreet could replace the painted markings separating the bridge lanes from the leftmost lane; this would go a long way towards slowing vehicle speeds in the left lane.
The north end is also confusing. City staff has proposed normalizing the intersection of Beatty and Pender St., likely to help drivers make right turns onto Beatty. We would like to see any redesign of this intersection to include facilities for cyclists making left turns from Pender St. onto Beatty St., like a cyclist refuge in the median space. Some VACC members would rather avoid any normalization, on the grounds that it could encourage motorists to take right turns too quickly from Pender St. onto Beatty southbound.
Double parking is an issue in some sections of the street; we have observed some outside the YWCA building and the hotels. Loading zones might be more productive than on-street parking in these areas.
Once the street is two-wayed, the underground garage ramp on the south-west corner of Beatty at Georgia St. will probably need a corner bulge to have enough visibility to make safe turns. It would be good to see the parking spot closest to the 7-11 store at Smithe stripped. Parking in this location reduces visibility at the adjacent underground parking ramp, and could pose a risk to cyclists.
Finally, connections to a potential Robson St. bike lane need to be considered, as well as connections to the westbound Pender St. lane.
