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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A southbound only bike lane can be accommodated on Richards Street if it remains a one-way street. This is accomplished by narrowing the existing lanes and relocating rush hour parking regulations from the west side of the street to the east side.
[DTP p. 98]
This is described in more detail in the spot improvements section:
32. Create a southbound bike lane on Richards Street
The Issue: Richards Street is proposed to remain one-way, however, it is a residential area for a significant length of the street and a southbound bike lane is proposed to help provide access to the Granville Bridge.
The Approach: Part-time parking can be converted to full-time parking on the west side of Richards, while still providing adequate flow in the remaining lanes. A bike lane could be provided next to the parking on the west side of the street. With full-time parking corner bulges could also be added at most corners. On some blocks the extra road width could be converted to pedestrian space while still maintaining the bike lane and standard width vehicle lanes.
In the north, Richards between Pender and Cordova Street could be designed to provide two-way access for buses and bikes
[DTP p. 152]
Richards has medium traffic volume, 10 000 to 20 000 vehicles per day. The southmost and northmost ends have slightly lighter traffic [DTP p. 44]. Richards has no special designation within the road network.
Richards Street (between Cordova and Pender) - is recommended to remain one-way southbound, but that a northbound counter-flow bus lane be added. Full two-way operation of the street would offer few potential benefits for general traffic. The counter-flow bus lane would improve bus access to Cordova Street at Waterfront Station and could offset bus looping problems if Pender Street were to be made one-way eastbound. It would also facilitate a two-way bike connection between downtown and the waterfront.
[DTP p. 52]
| Intersection | Date recorded | Time | Left-turning vehicles | Through vehicles | Right-turning vehicles | Cyclists |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cordova | 2002.08.06 | am | 0 | 469 | 529 | 15 |
| (from Water St.) | pm | 0 | 302 | 343 | 42 | |
| Hastings | 2002.08.08 | am | 13 | 489 | 99 | 5 |
| pm | 32 | 477 | 61 | 20 | ||
| Pender | 2002.10.08 | am | 25 | 754 | 69 | 0 |
| pm | 31 | 673 | 49 | 7 | ||
| Dunsmuir | 2003.07.25 | am | 0 | 663 | 130 | 10 |
| pm | 0 | 933 | 125 | 31 | ||
| Georgia | 2002.07.26 | am | 108 | 869 | 118 | 14 |
| pm | 282 | 1057 | 86 | 32 | ||
| Robson | 2003.07.21 | am | 43 | 749 | 152 | 12 |
| pm | 66 | 1230 | 150 | 33 | ||
| Smithe | 2002.08.16 | am | 0 | 597 | 160 | 6 |
| pm | 0 | 1235 | 171 | 32 | ||
| Nelson | 2002.08.08 | am | 162 | 635 | 1 | 4 |
| pm | 424 | 913 | 0 | 30 | ||
| Helmcken | 2002.08.09 | am | 38 | 459 | 169 | 6 |
| pm | 43 | 977 | 144 | 29 | ||
| Davie | 2003.06.27 | am | 41 | 296 | 104 | 6 |
| pm | 116 | 788 | 177 | 21 | ||
| Drake | 2003.07.07 | am | 35 | 252 | 53 | 2 |
| pm | 46 | 593 | 146 | 14 | ||
| Pacific | 2003.08.11 | am | 32 | 3 | 231 | 3 |
| pm | 54 | 1 | 598 | 8 |
The west end bus loop currently runs along Richards southbound between Pender and Cordova; this could be reversed to run northwards, given a two-way conversion of this section of Richards [DTP p. 162].
The north end of Richards is also recommended for a future pedestrian connection to the Central Waterfront district.
While physically close to the downtown, access to the Central Waterfront is currently limited to the Main Street overpass and Waterfront Road. The rail yards create a significant physical barrier to pedestrians accessing Portside Park and future development throughout the Eastlands. Future pedestrian connections from the downtown to the Central Waterfront district are recommended via Carrall and Richards Streets.
[DTP p. 83]
One block of Richards is currently a trucking route, but is slated to be deleted from this list [DTP pp. 104-105]. Richards lies within the downtown trucking area [DTP p. 106]. Rush-hour parking restrictions will be eliminated from Richards from Pacific to Dunsmuir, and parking will be removed from Dunsmuir to Cordova [DTP p. 125].
Rush hour parking will be added on the west side of Richards from Pacific to Dunsmuir. All parking will be removed from Dunsmuir to Cordova [DTP p. 125].
Some of the parking lots we've identified on the street:
See also: DVBIA parking map
The Richards St. bike lanes run quite close to Waterfront Station, and some mention is made of them in that spot improvement. Curiously, this diagram shows the pedestrian connection north of Cordova street as a full street, including bike lanes.
50. Redesign Cordova Street in front of Waterfront Station to enhance the Transit Hub
With West Coast Express, SkyTrain, SeaBus, helicopters, and seaplanes, Waterfront station is the pre-eminent multi-modal transfer station. Currently the curb space available and the one-way street system limit bus access to the station.
One option would be to create a northbound bus lane on Richards Street. This would improve bus access to the station. In addition a "bus station", built as an island median in the middle of Cordova Street, would provide additional curb space for bus stops. The additional bus zones would allow for the West End bus route and the Oak and Cambie bus routes to terminate at the enhanced Waterfront station. The sidewalks on Cordova east of Granville Street are narrow. Changes to Cordova Street should seek to improve the conditions for pedestrians.
[DTP p. 159]
Overall, Richards is a fairly straightforward design. The largest issue is the absence of a matching northbound route. There has been some discussion of using Homer St. to form a couplet, although no decision has been reached yet. If the RAV project proceeds, Seymour and Howe would no longer be needed for express 98 B-Line service, and could eventually be developed to include a north/south cycling couplet. Seymour would then also be a natural match for Richards.
The Waterfront Station connections at the north end remain an unknown. This station will likely undergo some major changes in the near future, to include a RAV station, and to better accomodate downtown buses. The ground floor of the parking lot at Granville may be used to help with buses in the area. There has also been some discussion of a pedestrian/cyclist bridge at Richards north past Cordova and over the tracks, but it's unlikely this will happen any time soon.
In terms of detailed design, the largest difficulty along this corridor is the large number of parking garages. There are a number of conflict points between cars entering/leaving garages and cyclists, and some care should be taken to ensure that sight lines are good so that cyclists and vehicles using the garages can see each other clearly. There are two major parking structures between Dunsmuir and Georgia, and two more between Georgia and Robson. The worst is probably the Telus employee parking at the corner of Robson, which has curb cuts right at the intersection, on both Robson and Richards. Due to the position of the Richards exit, vehicles exiting onto Richards will frequently block the bike lane as they wait for the intersection to clear. We would like to see exiting from this ramp prohibited in favour of the Robson ramp.
Recent designs have included dedicated vehicle right-turn bays at several high-volume intersections. At the public open house, staff showed bays at Smithe and Pacific, and there might have been one at Robson (I can't recall). Judging from the VanMap stats, these are the most important intersections to consider.
There could be some issues with the ambulance depot just south of Davie, which currently has poor sight lines with respect to a bicycle lane. Stripping the one neighbouring parking spot would improve matters, as would improving the exterior red flashing lights.
The south end of Richards St. remains an issue. According to the False Creek North ODP, Beach Ave. will be extended from Hornby St. around to Homer St., with connections to Pacific Blvd. Decisions about access on these roads will impact cyclists' needs at the intersection of Richards and Pacific Blvd. From plans shown at a recent open house, right-turning motorists will be channeled to a lane right of the bike lane, and cyclists will be able to turn left from their lane on to the Pacific eastbound bike lane. However, this relies on all other vehicles making left turns; if they can continue south to Beach Ave., they will conflict with bicycle movements. We need to see more details regarding this intersection.
Finally, the issue of connections between bike routes remains an outstanding issue in the downtown. A bike box on Richards at Pender may be useful for making right and possibly left turns.
This route went to city council in April 2005. The staff report with the final decisions is available here.
