A great big thank you to the Councillors who supported the motion, to the City staff that helped to develop the proposals, and to the many community members (and friends of the VPSN) who lent their voice in advocating for this important public space.

Thank you, also, to the many previous Councillors who have supported the initiative in one form or another. This truly is a project that has spanned several different administrations. 

The 800-block Robson earlier today.

The original idea for a civic square in this space goes back to the early and mid-20th century. It was most notably formalized in the 1970s by the work of Arthur Erickson and Cornelia Hahn Oberlander when they redesigned the Law Courts and Vancouver Art Gallery. Most recently, the real proof of concept came with the 2010 Olympics and a series of temporary activations and summertime initiatives.

There are a number of , Wednesday, January 30. These include support for extending the Broadway Subway to UBC (good idea!), and the public engagement process for a the potential Granville Bridge Greenway (also good, provided a full range of design options are explored).

There’s a third, very important, item up for consideration: funding for the creation of a permanent plaza at the 800-block of Robson Street. This is the very popular, and extremely well-used space on the south side of the Vancouver Art Gallery – and securing the needed dollars to make design a reality is critically important.

We know that many of you support the idea of a permanent plaza at the 800-block of Robson. The pathway to creating a permanent plaza at this site has been a long one, and we are very close to seeing this become a reality – but we need you to take a few minutes of your time to help to make it happen.

A quick recap:

• 2010 – Olympic closures help to showcase the possibilities of the 800-block of Robson and its role in expanding and enhancing Robson Square;
• 2011–2016 – Seasonal summertime programming confirm the popularity of the 800-block space for a wide range of activities;
• April 2016 – Council votes to make the temporary space permanent and directs City staff to develop a design for an improved, year-round plaza;
• December 2016 – A draft design concept for the permanent square was shared with Council;
• 2017-2018 – Design work continued; interim design installations and + programming introduced in advance of a refined design. Proposed final design and build anticipated to begin in 2019.

A lot of progress has been made over the past nine years; however, in December last year, Council voted to defer funding to the Robson Square project in the midst of discussions on the City budget. It was a decision that caught many of us by surprise – and was made amidst a variety of other discussions.

In January, the VPSN wrote to Council asking that they revisit this decision and encouraging them to expedite the process of completing the plaza. Our rationale: after this many years of discussion, testing ideas, temporary programming plaza uses, and planning and design for a permanent plaza, we need to keep the momentum going and finish the project.

We wanted to remind them of the importance of this popular public space. Robson Square and the 800-block is the public space ‘heart’ of Vancouver. So let’s complete this important project so that it can be properly enjoyed by residents and visitors alike.

City Council will be re-considering the funding question tomorrow, Wednesday, January 30, 2019. We take this as a positive sign, and think that there is a good chance that Council will be willing to revisit their earlier decision. However, to help the case, it is important that friends of public space, such as yourself, send a strong message to Council to support this initiative.

We’re asking for your help on this. Please take a few moments to do one or more of the following:

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP

Take 5 minutes to write a note to Council letting them know that you support the recommendation of City staff to (a) continue with delivery of the 800 Robson Plaza; and, (b) allocate capital funding for the project. (You can read the full recommendation and related details in the accompanying staff report – and you can also read our original letter in the appendix).

• Use the following email addresses for Mayor and Council (and key staff): kennedy.stewart@vancouver.ca; CLRbligh@vancouver.ca; CLRboyle@vancouver.ca; CLRcarr@vancouver.ca; CLRdegenova@vancouver.ca; CLRdominato@vancouver.ca; CLRfry@vancouver.ca; CLRhardwick@vancouver.ca; CLRkirby-yung@vancouver.ca; CLRswanson@vancouver.ca; CLRwiebe@vancouver.ca
• Be sure to CC the following key staff (the City Manager, GMs of Planning and Engineering, and the Director of Public Space): Sadhu.johnston@vancouver.ca; Gil.Kelley@vancouver.ca; Jerry.Dobrovolny@vancouver.ca; Margaret.Wittgens@vancouver.ca

Sign up to speak to Council and share your support in person. You can register to make a short (up to 5 minutes) presentation to Council by writing or calling the City Clerk’s office.

It’s important that we get as much support as possible for this, so if you have a few minutes this weekend to do one or both of the above, that will go a long way to ensuring that the Robson Square plaza project moves ahead.

Thank you in advance for helping to champion the importance of a permanent plaza on the 800-block and an expansion of Robson Square!

A quick post to let you know that City Council has just approved the creation of a permanent plaza on the 800-block of Robson. This move will pedestrianize this popular block, expanding Robson Square across the street right-of-way, and allowing for year-round programming to take place.

This is very exciting news, and we want to thank Mayor, Council and City staff for supporting this idea. This new and enhanced space will make a big contribution to public life in Vancouver. As Lon Laclaire, the City’s Director of Transportation noted: “it will be the premier plaza on the downtown peninsula.”

Council heard from about a dozen speakers, including the VPSN, several business associations, and community groups, in a discussion that ran over several hours. A lot of issues were raised around design, programming, stewardship, and transportation. These are all things that the City will be looking at through a design process that will unfold over the next year or so. (City staff noted that there will be further consultation on that, so stay tuned for future opportunities to share your ideas.)

In the meantime, a toast to the new plaza! After many years of discussion, and some great summertime experiments, it’s great to see things move forward with this important public space.

Photo credit: City of Vancouver. Corduroy Road. – 2013 summertime installation at 800-Robson.

The 800-block space has been the site of a popular temporary plaza for the last five summers. The current proposal would now keep the area car-free year-round.

This makes good sense. The block in question – all 90 metres of it – has more people walking on it than almost any other block in the city. It’s a lively one too: the site of innumerable events – from markets to protests to music festivals. The area is also a well-loved meeting spot, with some of the best people-watching opportunities in the city.

There are other benefits as well. For one, it has a more intimate feel to it than its larger cousin on the north side of the Gallery, benefiting from the mixed-scale of the surrounding architecture and the verdant landscaping that defines the Law Courts. There’s good sun as well – which always serves to animate a space. Consider, as well, the symbiosis that the site has with the surrounding cafes and restaurants that do a good, brisk trade at the hands of plaza users. Grabbing a sandwich or coffee and sitting on the Art Gallery steps is a true pleasure.

However, bisected by car-traffic as it currently is, this important public space has never reached its full potential. The presence of cars creates a barrier to programming, congesting the limited space and constraining its uses.

That’s why this proposal is so important. Permanently closing this space will be one a big step forward. It will open up the possibility of year-round programming – everything from the additional of more seating, tables and public realm features, to a broader array of events and activities.

There have been – and we have always noted this – fair points raised about the impact that pedestrianization will have on transit users and drivers, particularly those living in the West End. The proposed re-routing of the #5 bus goes some way towards resolving these challenges. It’s not a perfect solution, (we would have preferred a Burrard>Georgia diversion), but on balance it attends to many of the concerns that were raised. Similarly car drivers who are used to driving on this street will also need to plan new routes. We feel these are fair trade-offs to make in creating an enhanced plaza area that all residents and visitors can enjoy.

Pedestrianizing the 800-block is a great move – and we offer our complete support for this initiative. We hope you will too.

The proposal will be discussed at City Council next Wednesday, April 20. You can read the related staff report .

Please consider taking a few moments to share your thoughts on the idea with City Council. You can send them an email at mayorandcouncil@vancouver.ca.

Originally published April 13, 2016.

Sadik-Khan is widely regarded as one of the driving forces behind a series of groundbreaking public space initiatives. In the six years she was Commissioner (2007-13), she oversaw the installation of 400 miles of bikelanes, 60 plazas – including the radical pedestrianization of Times Square – new street design guidelines and a slew of other transformative projects.

In addition to an impressive transportation-related CV, Sadik-Khan is also a lawyer by training — which perhaps explains her ability to turn a phrase. Her talk, delivered to a full house at the QE Theatre Playhouse, was replete with quotable moments. We’ve compiled some of our favourite lines as a way to share some of the content of the event.

1. Streets are what makes a city great, or not so great. For a long time now, we’ve been governed by a dashboard view of the road.

Streets are a huge part of the public domain – often accounting for over 30% of the land-area in a city. Great streets are the defining element in cities… but all to often, the perspective on how they should function – and whom they should serve – is focussed around the automobile. The tendency – at least for much of the 20th century – was to downplay and even exclude the needs of pedestrians, cyclists and transit riders.

The consequence of that exclusion is an economic, social and health catastrophe. Congestion wreaks havoc, traffic crashes are a leading cause of death, and building more (or wider) roads only amplifies the problems. (Sadik-Khan quipped: is there a profession other than traffic engineering where 33,000 people a year die and no one gets fired?)

Changing this “dashboard perspective” is about shifting focus to other road users. Importantly, this doesn’t mean getting rid of cars; rather it’s about a better balance.

A painted bikelane in New York (source: Janette Sadik-Khan)

2. Paint the city you want to see… you can accomplish a lot with just the supplies you have on hand

Introducing positive changes does not require massive expense, nor even comprehensive planning and years of study. In fact, you can accomplish a lot with some short and sweet interventions.

This is Sadik-Khan espousing the “lighter, quicker, cheaper” approach that is the hallmark for a lot of good placemaking. In essence, this speaks to the ease with which you can get people to think differently about a space – by planting a few flowers, putting out some simple lawn chairs or a public piano, or hiring a local artist to paint a mural. These are the sorts of vehicles that lend themselves to overnight transformation.

As a plus for city governments – the cost of these projects, coupled with a can-do attitude on the part of electeds and bureacrats, is a great way to eliminate the institutional paralysis that can sometimes characterize bigger public space projects. Or put another way: you don’t need to over-think a street mural. If it really sucks, you can always paint something else.

3. Once you adapt a space, people adopt it

The short-n-sweet interventions described above can be a fantastic means to foster a sense of ownership amongst the public. One of Sadik-Khan’s best known projects involves closing Times Square to cars. The ensuing plaza space that was created was initially decorate with paint and low-cost lawn chairs.

Times Square (Photo: Mitchell Reardon)

You might think, in car-obsessed New York, that this would be a recipe for on-going complaint… and yet, after some initial hand-wringing in the lead-up, the discussion, post-closure, almost instantly moved to a debate around the colour and quality of the chairs. People had taken ownership over Times Square within a matter of hours.

Again, adapting a space isn’t that difficult. City Studio’s excellent “Keys to the Street” program began with a series of free pianos (thank you Craigslist) and a few cans of paint. For the cost of a few 2nd hand chess boards, another local placemaker we knew created games nights at the North Plaza for two summers. Easy stuff.

(A sidenote: Sadik-Khan gave a nod to the “tremendous talent” in the local arts community, encouraging their involvement in the process.)

4. There’s no shame in stealing good ideas.

This phrase is hardly the brainchild of Sadik-Khan – so it’s a bit self-reflexive in that regard. We reference it because the presentation made clear the fact that no city, even one as endlessly creative as New York, needs to feel bad about borrowing and adapting placemaking ideas that come from somewhere else. After all, why reinvent the wheel when you can utilize a good initiative that’s already been tested?

Part of the New York transformation had its roots in Copenhagen – when a group of top decision-makers visited the capital of Denmark and saw the bike-friendly city with their own eyes. This is big-scale “borrowing” – one municipality sussing out another way to approach transport infrastructure – but there’s lots more that can be done on a variety of scales. Thanks to the instantaneous nature of social media, you can see new examples popping up on a daily basis.

This idea of stealing good ideas made us wonder: why would there be there any shame in doing this? Is there a fear of being derivative? Is it the notion that our city (or any city) is so utterly unique that cool ideas from other places wouldn’t make make sense on home turf? We’ve certainly heard people make the “claim for uniqueness” in the case of local public space (our favourite variant: “a central public square in Vancouver would never work because the city is too rainy — this isn’t Europe don’t you know!”)

In our experience, such friendly adaptation doesn’t make a city any less innovative; rather the sharing of good foundational ideas – whether formulas for simple street closures, or methodologies for cycling programs – can actually lead to interesting variations, riffing, and the emergence of entirely new initiatives.

5. In God We Trust, Everyone Else Bring Data

Another great riff. This line was borrowed from Sadik-Khan’s boss, then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg was a strong adherent of evidence-based decision-making. Not only was data a key point in launching various public space programs – but it became a major factor in ensuring that their continuity and expansion. New bike lane and rapid bus lines were monitored for a range of impacts – related to traffic flow, business, safety and more. The success of these programs – and the numbers to quantify this success – provided the impetus for forging further ahead.

Caveat emptor: Data is only as robust as the data-gathering tools, methods and analysis that are brought to bear. New York has invested heavily in its research approach, and the result stands up to scrutiny. Poorly written opinion surveys (coincidentally, like the one an East Vancouver BIA released on the same day as Sadik-Khan’s talk) don’t help anyone. Exhibit A in the cateogry of leading questions: “Do you feel that separated bike lanes will negatively impact business by decreasing customer traffic, resulting in fewer sales and ultimately potential job losses as a result.?”

That’s right, vote for bikes at your peril, you job-killing, business-destroying heathen!

6. Follow the people, follow the footsteps. Look where people are walking today and you can see the city of tomorrow.

And on the subject of research… this line gives a nod to the role of observational studies, both for understanding how cities are actually used (e.g. the popular spot to jaywalk that’s a couple blocks away from the crossing lights) and for identifying where change needs to take place (e.g. where this desire line gets strengthened with improved pedestrian protection measures). The big point here is that the sociology of movement (quite) often differs from the cleaner and more rational assumptions that have typically informed 20th century traffic engineering. Good cities need to acknowledge and respond to this reality. In doing so, considerable gains can be made.

Engaging local artists in plaza design (Source: Janette Sadik-Khan)

7. Plazas and bike lanes, once installed, are now part of the status quo.

It can be a struggle to implement change. Given the neurology of cognitive biases, we actually seem to be hardwired against it. And yet, one of the beneficial consequences of introducing new people-friendly infrastructure is the opportunity to change – to redefine – the status quo.

Taking the plunge with new public space infrastructure – closing streets to cars, expanding sidewalks, creating plazas – meant that the previous “everyday normal” of cars, cars, cars, was transformed. This wasn’t easy (and to be sure, there are still people that grumble at Sadik-Khan about her initiatives) — and yet, when there are obvious benefits, then it also doesn’t take long for the good stuff to define a new, more positive status quo.

In practice, what this meant in New York is that residents came out in droves when the new administration of Bill de Blasio publically mulled the idea of both reopening Times Square to cars, and removing some of the other plazas and bike lanes that had been installed. The idea was quickly (and wisely) dropped.

Burrard Bridge is an excellent Vancouver example. In 2009, there was a major outcry about the impending carmageddon that would result from replacing a car lane with one for bikes on this important bridge. Fast forward to 2015. When the City announced that a sidewalk would replace a car lane, there was barely a whisper of complaint.

Parklet on Commercial Drive (Photo: Steve Chou)

8. Just try it. You can’t argue that our [current] streets are so perfect that you can’t try anything.

This sounds a little like the advice your Mom used to give… but that’s okay, because it’s actually a really important point. It is very easy to shoot down interesting project ideas for any number of reasons: it’s been tried before, it’s too risky, we don’t do that here, the psyche or social fabric of the city will be upended, etc.

We are – as a species – extraordinarily good at saying no. Fear of change is a powerful syrup that can keep us glued in place, and some of these new ideas seem as unsavory as – well, broccoli used to be… before you realized it wouldn’t kill you.

There’s always room for improvement – especially where public space and active transportation considerations are concerned. We want – no, need – to make sure our streets are safer, friendlier and more liveable for everyone, so there is absolutely no reason that we shouldn’t be experimenting, innovating, trying pilot projects and figuring out ways to introduce change.

To us, the real question here isn’t whether or not whether to “try”, it’s how. There needs to be good dialogue between different actors and stakeholders up front, a willingness to genuinely test ideas, and an agreement to evaluate the results after giving things a fair try. This could – and should – mean additional changes, including reverting back to the former situation of the experiment’s results don’t support its continuation.

Good city planning and design is about taking those steps. No one stakeholder should be able to veto a decent experiment. Sadik-Khan noted: “no one has a patent on pavement. The public domain is the public’s domain.”

A side note on Vancouver’s long-standing summertime “experiment” – the temporary pedestrianization of the 800-block of Robson (in front of the Art Gallery). Gordon Price, in a post-talk Q&A, asked Janette Sadik-Khan about whether or not the site should be permanently closed to cars (as is being proposed at City Council this week). Sadik-Khan made a few remarks about Times Square, ending with “try it out, do it… you’ll like it!

That seems pretty reasonable to us.

You can help with the process! This is the second year that the City has held a competition – Robson Redux – to select the winning design, and the jury-based selection will be informed by a people’s choice voting process.

According to organizers, over 80 design submissions were received from around the world for this year’s contest. They’re going to be on display at the Museum of Vancouver for two weeks between February 28 and March 15, and you can cast a ballot for your favourite entry. The Robson Redux exhibition is included in the cost of regular admission to the Museum.

There’s lots of interest in this initiative, so be sure to mark your calendars and check it out. For the enthusiasts: a launch event on March 6 is already sold out and running a waitlist. There’s also a public talk on the design competition by the City’s Scott Edwards on March 5.

For the second year in a row, the City of Vancouver is holding a design competition to support the seasonal activation of the block between Hornby and Howe. The aim is to improve and expand the already popular Robson Square area, fully pedestrianizing this important public space, and animating it for residents and visitors alike.

If you’re interested in working on a design, you may want to check out the Information Session that the City is hosting on Monday, January 12.

Join VIVA Vancouver for an inspiring information session on how to get your design concept noticed by the judges. Learn about a few changes we’ve made to the design brief and meet last year’s winning team and hear about their experiences. Don’t have a full team yet? No problem! The event will provide an opportunity for designers and artists to meet and mingle.

The Info Session takes place 6:30pm-8:30pm at the Vancouver Art Gallery. The event is free, but to help with planning, the City is asking folks to register.

While you’re at it, you may also want to check out the vivadesigncomp.ca webpage – where you can find the design brief, as well as information on the submission process (including all important deadlines).

The first Robson Redux competition, which took place earlier this year, saw the City receive almost 80 submissions from around the world. The winning design, a sweeping skeletal seating arrangement known as “Urban Reef” was created by a local design team comprised of Kaz Bemner, Jeremiah Deutscher, Michael Siy and Kenneth Navarra. Like earlier summertime installations on Robson Square, it proved to be quite a popular feature with residents and visitors alike.

People seated at Urban Reef – winning entry in the 2014 Robson Redux design competition.

We’re looking forward to seeing the array of submissions that come with this years competition. Designers: sharpen your pencils. Show us your chops!

For those interested in more details, here’s the Information Bulletin that the City issued:

Calling public space designers: Create a summer stunner
VIVA Vancouver’s Robson Redux design-build competition returns

VIVA Vancouver will open its 800 Robson Street space to the creative community once again with Robson Redux, a design-build competition that invites emerging and professional designers and artists to submit their design ideas related to the theme of “connection”. The winner will make their design a reality, building and installing it for the 2015 summer season as a public space for people to enjoy.

VIVA Vancouver’s Robson Redux design-build competition temporarily transforms the 800 block of Robson Street into a summertime pedestrian plaza. This block is located in the heart of downtown Vancouver, Canada. Installation will take place in early summer, open on Canada Day (July 1, 2015) and remain in place until the end of Labour Day long weekend (September 7, 2015).

The winning design will be selected by a jury composed of Marc Boutin (Principal, Marc Boutin Architectural Collaborative and Associate Professor, University of Calgary), Barbara Cole (Principal of Cole Projects, Executive Director of Other Sights for Artists’ Projects Association), Jane Durante (Founding Principal, Durante Kreuk Landscape Architects), Stanley King (Founder and Head of Co-Design Group), Matthew Soules (Director, Matthew Soules Architecture and Assistant Professor, School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, University of British Columbia). The winning team will be provided a small design honorarium and up to $40,000 to cover costs of materials, fabrication, construction, installation and de-installation for their projects.

Anyone may enter this competition, however, criteria and submission requirements lend themselves to expertise in architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, industrial design, contemporary art and other related fields. The competition encourages design teams with diverse skill sets to submit joint entries.

Teams can submit their designs ideas online at www.vivadesigncomp.ca for a small fee. Deadline to register is January 30, 2015; submission deadline is February 13, 2015.

Past temporary public space designs at 800 Robson Street include:

• 2011: PICNURBIA – designed by Loose Affiliates
• 2012: Pop Rocks! – designed by AFJD Studio and Matthew Soules
• 2013: Corduroy Road – designed by Hapa Collaborative
• 2014: Urban Reef – designed by Kaz Bremner, Jeremiah Deutscher, and Higher Works (Michael Siy and Kenneth Navarra).

VIVA Vancouver is a public space program that specializes in turning road spaces into people places. Working with various community partners, the program re-purposes road space to create temporary or semi-permanent public spaces.

This is particularly important for Vancouver’s public realm, as the route changes also contain options that support at least two major public space initiatives:

• The opportunity to expand Robson Square and transform the 800-block of Robson into a pedestrian-only space;

• the possibility of pedestrianizing the 600-block of Cambie Street (between Dunsmuir and Georgia) as part of the proposed relocation of the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Translink is looking for feedback on these concepts, and the deadline to provide input is this Monday, April 21. We are strongly encouraging VPSN supporters to take a few moments this weekend to complete the online questionnaire.

If you support the enhancement of Robson Square and pedestrianization of the 800-block and/or the creation of a new plaza at the 600-block of Cambie, this is the time to weigh in.

Good quality public space and transit – both are needed!

The VPSN has been following the Bus Service Review closely – both as fans of public transit, and as advocates for public space. The review is much needed and has been prompted by growth and change in downtown neighbourhoods, the opening of the Canada Line, and the potential to create substantial improvements to the downtown public realm. As noted in Translink’s study materials “over the past twenty years the downtown population has more than doubled.” The Review will help decision-makers plan for transit service that meets the needs of residents and visitors to the downtown peninsula.

We are particularly supportive of proposed changes to the bus routes that would enable the expansion of Robson Square. The Review has identified short-term changes to support the summertime activation of the 800-block, but it also looks at potential changes to support the permanent pedestrianization of Vancouver’s pre-eminent public gathering area. The idea of creating an expanded public square around the 800-block has been discussed since the 1950s. The Bus Service Review options have the potential to enable the City to take a strong step forward on this initiative.

Figuring out what to do with transit – and ensuring good bus service for West End residents – has been the key sticking point in expanding Robson Square. Suffice it to say, we are excited to see the kinds of workable solutions the City and TransLink’s review process has yielded. The Review shows that it’s possible to have better transit connections and create a more vibrant public realm.

What’s in the Review?

As part of the review, Translink has identified various ways that bus service in and around downtown Vancouver can be enhanced. These are explored in options that relate to three areas of potential change:

1. Downtown-only Routes (Buses 5, 6, C21, C23)
2. Cambie Bridge Routes (Bus 17)
3. Eastern Corridor Routes (Buses 3, 4, 7, 8, 19, 209, 210, 211, 214)

It’s worth taking a look at all of these possible areas of change, and you can do this by looking at both general and technical documents that Translink has produced. The online survey also provides much of this background information.

Our particular area of focus is on the first of these three areas of change, as it most directly relates to the possibility of expanding Robson Square.

Two overarching options for Downtown-only Routes… with important variations

The Local Bus Review identifies two potential options in redesigning the bus routes that stay within the downtown Vancouver peninsula. These are referred to as the L-shaped Loop (option A1), or the Rectangular Loop (option A2). In their basic form, both of these options show bus service remaining on the 800-block of Robson, but, both proposals also include alternate routings that would facilitate the expansion of Robson Square, and the creation of a pedestrian-only space on the 800-block.

Here’s option A1 – the “L-shaped Loop”, with the Robson-closure ‘sub-option’ below:

In this case the Robson Square variant routes the #5 north on Burrard (at Robson) and then east on Hastings and over to Cambie. With this route, the bus swings by Waterfront Station (or close to it). Its southbound route (along Cambie) then brings it in close proximity to key cultural services such as the library. The L-shaped Loop option also has a second ‘sub-option’ (not shown here) that accommodates the closure and pedestrianization of the 600-block of Cambie, but not the 800-block of Robson.

Here’s option A2 – the “Rectangular Loop,” again with the Robson-closure sub-option:

On the Robson Square variant of A2, the #5 bus turns north on Burrard to Georgia, and then over to Cambie – a route that would take the bus directly by both Canada Line and SkyTrain stations (at Granville), the VPL Central Library and other other key amenities and services – including the potential new home of the Art Gallery.

Again, it’s important to note that while both the basic A1 and A2 options offer interesting transit-focused improvements, neither support the expansion of public space at Robson or Cambie on their own. It’s the the various sub-options to A1 and A2 where these important enhancements are made.

Help support the creation of improved public space in downtown Vancouver. If you support the enhancement of Robson Square and pedestrianization of the 800-block and/or the creation of a new plaza at the 600-block of Cambie, this is the time to weigh in and share your thoughts on these proposed changes to the bus network.

How to have your say

The deadline for input is Monday, April 21. The online questionnaire can be accessed here, or by pasting the following link into your browser:

https://www.talkvancouver.com/R.aspx?a=240

You can share your thoughts on the downtown-only routes, as well as the Cambie Bridge and Eastern Corridor routes. (The survey allows you to pick which of the three areas you want to talk about).

As noted above, much of the background information on the Downtown Bus Service Review can be found on the survey website; however if you feel like reading more there’s also an interesting backgrounder and technical paper that offers more details on the pros and cons of different route options.

Please do take a few moments to share your thoughts. This is a key opportunity for downtown public space, and your opinion is important.

Downtown Bus Service Review

Last year, Translink initiated a review of Vancouver’s downtown bus network (the routes and connections of buses and community shuttles operating on the downtown peninsula). The intent of this review is to facilitate better linkages between downtown neighbourhoods, improved connection to Canada Line facilities, and greater reliability of service.

Part of the motivation for this work also relates to key public space initiatives:

• The opportunity to expand Robson Square and transform the 800-block of Robson into a pedestrian-only space;
• The potential relocation of the Vancouver Art Gallery, and the possibility of closing the 600-block of Cambie Street;
• Potential changes to the Georgia and Dunsmuir Viaducts and the North East False Creek area.

The Bus Service Review is an important opportunity. As noted in Translink’s study materials “over the past twenty years the downtown population has more than doubled.” The Review will help decision-makers plan for transit service that meets the needs of residents and visitors to the downtown peninsula. Equally importantly, it has the potential to play a significant part in the creation of some excellent new public spaces for the city.

This is particularly true in the case of an expanded Robson Square. Summertime re-routing of the #5 bus (to accommodate the temporary public space on the 800-block) has been a cause for concern among some West End residents. The VPSN has been calling for an exploration of alternatives that would enable these concerns to be addressed. Thanks to the Bus Service Review, we now have some options to look at – including some temporary measures to support the summertime transformation of Robson.

On April 2, Translink released a set of network design concepts for public review. The concepts feature alternative and enhanced routes for much of the downtown peninsula, as well as some eastern corridor routes (those routes coming in and out of downtown along Hastings, Powell and other east-side streets). The various options are assessed in an accompanying Technical Summary document, which reviews the various pros and cons associated with each. Of note: each of the alternatives also features a specific scenario relating to the expansion and pedestrianization of Robson Square.

Translink is asking for your opinion on these ideas. Please lend a hand by attending a public open house or sharing your thoughts online.

Open House Dates

There are three upcoming events (one also took place this past weekend) where you can weigh in with your thoughts. These take place:

• Wednesday, April 9; 3-6pm – Woodward’s Atrium
• Thursday, April 10; 3-6pm – Roundhouse Community Centre
• Saturday, April 12; 11am-2pm – VPL Central Library

Online

You can also review open house materials and share your ideas at via an online questionnaire – both available at translink.ca/downtownbusreview. Deadline for input is Monday, April 21, 2014.

One of 79 ideas for transforming the 800-block – part of the Robson Redux Design Competition

Robson Redux

Earlier this year, the City of Vancouver launched Robson Redux, a design completion to “build and install a temporary public space installation that will transform the iconic 800 block of Robson St. in downtown Vancouver into a pedestrian plaza for the duration of summer 2014.”

This will be the fourth straight year that Vancouverites (and visitors) will get to play in an expanded Robson Square. Previous transformations included “Picnurbia” (2011), “Pop Rocks” (2012) and “Courderoy Road” (2013). However, 2014 marks the first year that the design competition format is being used.

There are two awards being given – the Jury Selection and the People’s Choice award, and last Thursday, the City held a wildly successful event at the Vancouver Art Gallery that launched the public voting component. With a total of 79 different concepts in play, it is fair to say that a tremendous amount of creativity has been brought to bear on the creation of a vibrant summertime space.

You can view all of the concepts – and choose your favourites – online. The deadline for People’s Choice voting is Sunday April 13.