Phase two of the 2010 Olympic transportation plan released today
Phase two of the 2010 Olympic transportation plan released today
As many of you may know, phase two of the 2010 Olympic transportation plan were released today. (Phase one of the plan came out in March.)
Most of the key info focuses on road closures and traffic management, and here’s a few links with more detail on that.
- an article from the Vancouver Sun
- one from the Province
- the official VANOC press release
- the Transportation page at Vancouver2010.com
Expanded Olympic transit service, plus travelsmart2010.ca
We’d also like to highlight TransLink’s expanded Olympic transit service in Metro Vancouver, which was announced today as well.
More transit info has been added to the revamped 2010 Games section of our website. In particular, the February 2010 Transit Service page covers the extensions to bus, SkyTrain, SeaBus, and West Coast Express service.
Another key item announced was the launch of travelsmart2010.ca, which is intended to be a one-stop shop for updated Olympic travel info before and during the games.
TransLink and the Olympic and Paralympic Transportation Team
TransLink is just one of many partners in the Olympic and Paralympic Transportation Team, which looks to manage the extraordinary travel demands of the event.
During the Olympics, TransLink’s chief role is to provide public transportation throughout Metro Vancouver, and to the six Olympic venues in the Lower Mainland. VANOC will provide bus transportation to the Whistler venues from Metro Vancouver, and B.C. Transit will be providing transit within Whistler itself.
Our fellow partners in the Transportation team are VANOC, the City of Vancouver, Resort Municipality of Whistler, BC Transit, the provincial Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, and the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit. Planning is also supported by other partners, including Transport Canada and the municipalities of Richmond and West Vancouver.
What Olympic travel info you would like to see?
I’ll have more details on Olympic transportation as we draw closer to the event.
And if you have any suggestions about Olympic travel info you’d like us to put up, please do let us know in the comments! We’d love to put together info you’d find useful during the Games period.
How do the Olympic lanes work for the buses?
Are the curb lanes the Olympic lanes? Are buses allowed to travel in these lanes? If not, how are curb pickups achieved?
Also are cyclists allowed in these curb lanes? Or would they be ticketed and their bikes seized for auction?
OK…. found the answer to my question…. buses ARE allowed to travel the Olympic curb lanes. No word if Olympic vehicles will be allowed priority to drive around a stopped bus by turning on their left turn signals.
Great information.
Too bad your PR people can’t count. Eight westbound WCE trains and eight eastbound trains is NOT 11 round trips.
Nor do the 5 westbound and 4 eastbound on Saturday equal 9 round trips.
I’ve submitted a complaint to customer service. Hopefully they’ll hire someone who passed kindergarten arithmetic.
David: well, thanks for bringing our attention to the info. I’m sure it will be fixed promptly.
Yep: ;-), I sent your comment along to our Olympic team and they confirmed the exact same info this morning.
???:
From the description on the City of Vancouver’s website, it seems the Olympic lanes are only designated for VANOC accredited vehicles, transit buses and emergency vehicles.
But the same page says bikes are allowed on the pedestrian corridors that will be in effect throughout the Games period, and those connect with SkyTrain stations, Olympic venues, and celebration areas.
I’d like to recommend SkyTrain control think back to the Pattullo Bridge closure when planning olympic service. How did they increase capacity? Longer trains, farther apart.
Going to 108 second spacing is probably going to result in big delays. Trains pile up at Commercial-Broadway and Waterfront with the current frequency.
It takes much longer to turn around two short trains than it does to turn around one long train.
David, Skytrain already runs at 108 seconds.
I wish they could run the 11pm/12:15am West Coast Express every Friday! At least a late night Friday/Saturday Trainbus. Would make staying downtown to hang out with friends etc. a lot more convenient!
It wasn’t actually longer trains farther apart, it was reducing the number of ‘spare’ cars from about 10% to about 5% of the fleet, creating longer trains at the same frequency as before…
…and trains usually only bunch at Broadway when the westbound turnback is in the mix; the turnback is actually in addition to the 108 second headway service. There was a PDF circulating that showed how this worked on a graph. Trains dwell at Broadway for 45 seconds. That’s why you get bunching, but the bonus of an empty train at Broadway is worth it imo.
I consider the turn back train a good thing, but the bunching up of trains is a long standing issue.
This morning I watched a 4 car Mark II leave Nanaimo while I was still walking down the street. Given how long it takes me to walk to the station from that point, ride the escalator and watch the train come in from 29th Avenue I’d say the spacing between that Mark II and my Mark I train was at least three minutes.
My train stopped at 12th Avenue because the Mark II that had been 3 minutes ahead was stuck waiting for the train in front of it to clear Broadway station. Of course we repeated the game at Waterfront.
But this morning wasn’t bad compared with my experiences last year around 10am when as many as 4 trains would pile up on the track between Burrard and Waterfront. Some days we barely got out of the tunnel before hitting the “traffic jam” of trains in front. My guess is those really long pile ups were caused by a train being parked on the spare track east of Waterfront, but I’ve watched that process enough times to know that it doesn’t take 5 minutes.
Even stranger, I’ve seen the same pile up of inbound trains when I’m leaving work in the evening. Given that there are no turn-back trains in the evening and the fact that I usually leave work after 6:00PM, such pile ups should be impossible.
Yesterday’s Olympic Transport plan (bc-091014-olympic-transport-downtown-map.pdf) has W 1st closed Nov 1 which forces bicyclists onto dangerous Quebec St (it’s dangerous because cars go too fast on Quebec, I wouldn’t trust my 5 year old cycling with me on his trailer bike on Quebec but I would trust him on the Central Valley Greenway section on 1st that will be closed because of the Olympics) from November 1st until January 15. So I will be forced onto the sidewalk on Quebec when bicycling with him. Question 1: Can Translink and the city put up a temporary separated bike path on the train tracks from Quebec and 1st to Science World? It’s major loss to lose the physically separated connector part of the Central Valley Greenway on West 1st so soon after the opening in July
And then from January 29 to the end of the Olympics, bicyclists on the north false creek bike seawall path lose access to Gastown and instead have to again take the very dangerous Quebec Street to Gastown. Question 2: Is it too late for the city to put up a temporary physically separated bike path along Quebec to Alexander during this period?
Roland: Thanks for the note. I’ll pass this on to our Olympic staff here at TransLink, but please do also send your question over to the City of Vancouver — I believe the road closures and such are much more their bailiwick in the overall transportation plan.
I’ve already sent this to Translink – but it seems somebody putting together the Olympic transit service website has no idea how to use a 24 hour clock; it shows the SeaBus running until 26:01.
Also, they managed to completely miss the N10 and N15 NightBuses.
David3:
Thanks for that. Btw I believe the SeaBus schedule is done that way so that the late night service is more obvious — ie: you often think of 2 a.m. on Saturday as still being late night Friday. I’ve seen that done on a number of schedules before.
But of course, you’re right, there’s certainly other ways to write that sort of timing, and probably each with its own pros and cons. Nonetheless, I think they know quite well that they’re stretching the 24 hour clock!
Roland:
A quick note from our Olympic staff. So yes, they’ve suggested that you check out the City of Vancouver’s website for more information on the bike routes. The CoV is leading all bike-related changes associated with the Games on City streets (or off-street too). Contacts from City staff have said they are currently putting together the Seawall rerouting info for the website, so you should see that reasonably soon.
Re David3 and the “48-hour clock” notation: I was going to raise the same complaint.
Writing “26:01” is assinine and unhelpful to any human being trying to interpret the information. Being used to 24-hour notation, I can only imagine the frustration it will cause a 12-hour person trying to decipher the time (my guess: they’ll give up).
If service is listed as starting at e.g. 4:00 a.m. and ending at 2:00 a.m., a reasonable person will conclude that the 2:00 figure refers to the following day (as opposed to ending two hours before it begins).
b
I have just tried three times to submit my above remark to the customer feedback form, but each time it has failed with the message “Your session has expired. Please open a new browser and try again. If the problem persists, please call Customer Relations at 604-953-3040.”
My session most certainly has not expired, unless the timeout is on the order of 10 seconds or less.
I’m giving up. Someone please feel free to submit this to Translink on my behalf.
b
I respectfully disagree that it’s the city’s responsibiity since Translink is behind the Central Valley Greenway and as such should take responsibility for closing portions of it during the Olympics
However I fully realize it’s not your responsibility Jhenifer, you are just the blogger :-) ! So, I’ll try to get the city to respond on their website
Is there any plans on keeping the NightBuses running until start of service the next morning after the Olympics if they prove popular (ie. actually used) or is the funding simply not there for those buses to run until 29:00/30:00? (5AM/6AM)
Roland: Well, that’s not exactly the case with the Central Valley Greenway. It’s a partnership between the three municipalities and TransLink, where we help plan and coordinate the project. But we’re not the city — while of course we can offer some direction with regard to the project, the city holds the ultimate say on how the Vancouver part of the CVG is managed and modified. And the sum total is that I’m glad you have sent your concern over to the City too!
David, ben K:
They’ve changed the 24 hour notation now — thanks for the heads up! (See the revised SeaBus schedule here.)
Cool! It’s nice to see improvements implemented that are directly driven by our feedback (or, at least, that somebody else made the same observations). :)
On an unrelated topic, I rode a 99 today for the first time since the Broadway Station renaming, and was bemused to read its front signage: “99 COMM’L BDWAY STATION”. It was worse than this since it was split halfway, too, so the first panel simply read “COMM’L”… then “BDWAY”. Yeesh, this is worse than before. If I didn’t have a priori familiarity with the name Commercial Drive, I’d have been flummoxed as a rider.
There was clearly enough space on the sign to spell COMMERCIAL in full. If that can’t be done, reverting to simply BROADWAY STN or something would be better. Fitting “COMM-BWAY STN” or similar onto one pane (obviating the need to split it into rotating views) would probably be the best compromise.
-b
Somewhat related to my previous unrelated remark: I was walking down Commercial tonight, and I’m pretty sure I saw the front sign on one of the 20’s declare “WECLOME / 2 CANADA”. Really? “Welcome 2 Canada”?! I hope I misread it…
Hey ben K,
So, what the folks at Fleet Overhaul have told me is that they are aiming to keep the wording consistent on all the buses. But since we have many different types of buses with different signage technology, it displays differently depending on what bus you’re on — including splitting over two screens.
But I hear what you’re saying. And I’d suggest that you put your complaint over in our online web form so that it’s formally noted and sent to the right people!
Joseph Bilac:
Yep — as you point out, I’m not certain we will have the funding to continue the NightBus service after the Olympics.
Blerg! What’s with the VanMaps applet on the TravelSmart page? Google Maps, please! It’s much faster, prettier, and searchable!
Thomas: Where are you seeing the VanMaps applet? Got a link?
does anyone know if we can cross over the pedestrian corriders in our vehicles?
Michelle: here’s the answer from our Olympic transport team.