Transportation 2040: Vancouver’s Blueprint for Sustainable Transportation

Lecture details

Transportation 2040: Vancouver’s Blueprint for Sustainable Transportation

23 September 2019
3.30 pm – 5.00 pm. Registration from 3.00pm, seated by 3.30pm 
CLC Training & Development Centre, 45 Maxwell Road #08-01, The URA Centre, Singapore 069118
2 SILA CPD Pts, 2 SIP CPD Pts, 2 BOA-SIA CPD Pts

Seats are available on a first come, first served basis. Please be seated 10 minutes before lecture begins, after which we will open the venue to walk-in guests.

Lecture video

Synopsis

In this lecture, Mr Dale Bracewell will cover Vancouver’s Transportation 2040 Masterplan and future developments for sustainability. The Transportation 2040 masterplan is the Vancouver’s high-level vision for all modes of transportation with specific mobility and safety goals. Guided by implementation principles, the city has achieved its interim target of 50% of all daily trips by sustainable modes and is on track to achieve further growth and two-thirds of all daily trips by walking, cycling and transit in 2040. Looking forward, Vancouver is also committed to get 100% of its energy from renewable sources by 2050. It is strategically transitioning to the full realm of automated, connected, electric, shared vehicles (ACES) while embracing road space reallocation to sustainable transportation modes, more rapid transit and higher speed rail to Seattle.

Lecture report

“A lot of the new mobility (solutions) need to go back to the really good things about the old mobility. We’ve been walking and doing complete communities for centuries, even millennia. So those things don’t disappear over time with all the technology. So yes, we need to be accountable, we need to be maximising all the opportunities that we have in front of us. (But solutions) are still found in good policy and planning.”

Today, half of all daily trips in Vancouver are made via public transport, cycling and walking. Not only was this shift to sustainable modes of transport achieved ahead of time, the Canadian city is set to increasing the proportion to two-thirds by 2030 as part of its Transportation 2040 Masterplan.

Vancouver’s successful push towards a sustainable transportation system is due to its bold leadership and vision, said Dale Bracewell, the city’s Manager for Transportation Planning. In the 1970s, the city decided against building an expressway network, and later embarked on a mission to become the greenest city in the world. Through better land use and transportation strategies such as reallocating road space and reducing vehicle traffic, the number of motor vehicles in the city dropped by 5% over the decades, even as its population and job creation grew up to 18%.

“If you only have three metres of space on your street, from an equity perspective, what’s going to be most efficient? Walking, biking and every expression of transit is more efficient than the private car. You still need to plan for the car, but if you want to grow and reallocate road space, these are the modes that are going to be heavy lifters,” explained Bracewell.

He added that creating such “active transportation corridors” also improved the health of its residents becayse they walked and cycled more.

“I had to learn the words ‘social connectedness’ because that’s what we talk about when you talk about a healthy city. And so weaving in not just land use and transportation, but a healthy city, a renewable city, a greener city.”

Another reason for Vancouver’s success is its determination to co-create solutions with the community. From the truck driver to the elderly pedestrian, the city ensures diverse groups and citizens with different travel needs are part of the discussion to find holistic and sustainable solutions.

“We brought everyone together onto the conversations like this and said: ‘Okay, how are we going to be a resilient transportation network?” said Bracewell. “It brought everyone together and expressing what they really wanted from a mobility perspective, and kept away that push and pull and trade-offs that you have from one transport mode to another.”

Besides working to ensure two-thirds of daily trips in Vancouver are made through sustainable modes of transport, the city also has a vision for zero fatalities from travel. Thus, it takes an inclusive approach to designing walking and cycling networks so that they are not just safe and convenient, but comfortable and fun to use.

Building upon existing bikeways and greenways that were developed in the 1980s, Vancouver began improving these infrastructures before the 2010 Winter Olympics as part of a plan to reallocate space for car travel. Pavements were widened for additional green infrastructure that made walking more delightful. The city also reduced the volume of cars on roads to be shared with bikes down to a maximum of 500 a day and built a minimum grid of protected bike lanes. Such separation was important for designing cycling lanes that catered to people of all ages and abilities, explained Bracewell.

“I have to think: ‘Can and would (kids) share that space for cycling?’ Would it be okay for my mom? She’s over 75 years old, would she be feeling safe and comfortable on it? Would she have fun on it? Or new people using bike share?” he asks. “We’ve been doing it for people walking for hundreds of years right, why is it so different as soon as we start thinking about people cycling? They should too have a dedicated space.”

Amidst the emergence of new transportation options for Vancouver today such as shared, electric, connected and automated vehicles, ride-hailing, private vehicle charges and rail connectivity to the American cities of Seattle and Portland, Bracewell said the city remains focus on its goals.

“We need to be accountable to what technologies are out there, to embrace them and welcome them. We’re not chasing technology, we’re embracing it for the civic, public and mobility goals that we have,” he said.

This Lecture report first appeared in Better Cities October 2019.

About the Speakers

SPEAKER
Dale Bracewell
Manager, Transportation Planning, Vancouver
Speaker, Designing Cities Conference

The lecture will cover the Transportation 2040 masterplan. This is Vancouver’s high-level vision for all modes of transportation with specific mobility and safety goals. Guided by implementation principles, the City achieved its interim target of 50% of all daily trips by sustainable modes and is on track to achieve further growth. As part of its Climate Emergency Response, the City is now working on planning for two-thirds of all daily trips by walking, cycling and transit by 2030, a decade ahead of our previous target. While doing so, it is strategically welcoming new mobility options including shared, electric, connected and automated vehicles while embracing road space reallocation to sustainable transportation modes. The lecture will also cover how Vancouver approaches sustainable transportation planning beyond 2050 as it begins a new citywide plan and plans for more rapid transit and higher speed rail to Seattle.

MODERATOR 
Mohinder Singh
Former Advisor, LTA Academy
CLC Panel of Experts

Mr Mohinder Singh is the former Dean of the LTA Academy in the Land Transport Authority of Singapore. The LTA Academy serves as the knowledge hub for governments, organizations and professional around the world to tap Singapore’s expertise and exchange best practices in land transport management and development. The Academy conducts capacity building programmes, conducts research and provides advice on land transport.
Mr Mohinder Singh was the Director of Planning of the Land Transport Authority from 1996 to 2007 before assuming his appointment as Dean of the LTA Academy. Before joining the Land Transport Authority in 1996, he served in various positions in the Ministry of National Development overseeing urban and transport planning in Singapore.

Resources

Lecture poster [PDF, 273 KB]