Big win for Prior Street residents as Vancouver council backs calming plan
Credit to Author: David Carrigg| Date: Thu, 03 Oct 2019 01:23:23 +0000
Residents on busy Prior Street in Vancouver’s Strathcona neighbourhood had a big win Wednesday night when council voted in favour of a pilot project to turn the thoroughfare into a two-lane collector street.
Green Coun. Peter Fry said he had been campaigning for the past decade to have Prior Street calmed, after his friend was killed on the street while cycling.
“I look forward to seeing Prior Street calmed, it’s something that residents have been fighting for for so long,” he said.
Council were voting on a string of recommendations and considerations related to plans to deal with a nuisance railway crossing at Venables Street and Glen Drive by building an underpass. This is part of larger considerations over which route to funnel truck traffic east to west with the arrival in a few years of St. Paul’s Hospital in False Creek Flats.
Council agreed with a staff recommendation to support the construction of the Burrard Inlet Rail Line underpass, at no cost to the city. They then also supported a suggestion that Prior and Venables (that join up at Raymur Avenue) be downgraded to collector streets with a 30-km/h speed limit alongside Strathcona Park. Prior Street is currently used heavily by trucks and buses, and connects with the viaduct system that is going to be taken down at some point.
As part of that downgrade, council also supported a pilot project to”reduce traffic volumes and speeds on Prior/Venables Street with low-cost initiatives in the near term, such as all-day parking on both sides and temporary curb bulges, with the intention of restricting traffic to one traffic lane in each direction.”
NPA Coun. Rebecca Bligh said before the vote that she was concerned calming traffic on Prior would lead to congestion elsewhere. She also questioned whether creating the underpass — that would eliminate the need for traffic to stop several times a day as trains passed — would lead to more traffic flow on Prior at a reduced speed, creating congestion.
Vancouver city councillors heard from many speakers Tuesday, mostly in favour of calming Prior Street, and had delayed their vote until Wednesday.
Earlier, city staff had recommended transforming Prior Street into a permanent east-west arterial route connecting the downtown to East Vancouver, despite having taken direction from a previous council to consider downgrading and calming the road for local use.
However, shortly before hearing from speakers, Jerry Dobrovolny, the city’s head engineer, told councillors they could consider downgrading Prior to a collector street with a 30-km/h speed limit near Strathcona Park. This was then added to the motion, in what was Dobrovolny’s last big play as a city staffer. He’s leaving the city to take on the chief administrative officer position with the Metro Vancouver Regional District.