Ha! That’s perfect, Glissando!!

Th olympics were overwhelmingly depressing – full-frontal evidence of the foolishness that is man. Why the ride on this planet is a doomed one.

No, Frances, there was nothing that that many of us “loved about the olympics”.

It was idiotic. Full-stop.

This is a no-fun city unless you drink to excess. Rationing drink units, anyone?

Legacy? Give us free entertainment on the streets, odd foods, and enough public washrooms.

Well said Lewis . . it’s not just the place, its getting there too.

Urbanism is art and should be taught and treated as such . . . a sort of big scale sculpture . . .

The experience of place is central to understanding urbanism.

I also took note of the view from the center of the road vs. the sidewalk. Granville Street is an 80-foot right-of-way. Redesigning it with four lanes of cars take up 50% of that space, relegating the pedestrians and the cafés to 20-feet on either side.

I miss the old curving pavement with a 2-lane carriage way, and the trees that by now had reached mature scale.

I noticed a couple of other things, too.

First, the lack of “destinations” or “places to go”. I don’t mean establishments, bars, cafés, etc., but actual “places”: You could go to Yaletown; you could go to Robson Square or Robson Street. Some of us made the pilgrimage to see the “Olympic Cauldron”. But, there was nothing to experience there.

The urban planners failed the test of stitching together for us a “meaningful sequence” of public open spaces. By closing the street to cars, the created public space, and the public showed up to use it. However, once you got there it became clear how much of an empty gesture that really was. There was nowhere to walk to.

The second point has to do with solar penetration. There we were in the middle of February, in a city we should not recognize because the usual lush greenness had not yet sprouted, two full months past the shortest day of the year… Yet, by 3 p.m. Granville Street was engulfed in shadow.

It was only when one approached Davie on Granville that the old buildings were low enough to let the sun reach sidewalk level.

… And from a pedestrian point of view, this is a problem in urbanism of the first order.

And from a pedestrian point of view, I did not realize until the Olympics how much better the experience is when one can wonder down the middle of the road as opposed to being forced on the sidewalks. The views of the mountains are spectacular from the middle of the road. Unfortunately if there are buses on the street, only the bus driver can see the view but can’t really enjoy it while dodging pedestrians. As well, the middle of the street gets more sunlight.

Here are some photos showing all this. As you will notice, I was not the only one taking some snaps.

From what I have heard from TL is that the buses work fine on Granville. Passengers say they are quicker on Howe and Seymour than on Granville. I suspect this is because pedestrians are allowed to and due cross Granville anywhere in the street so buses have to travel slow. I know when I used to take the bus on Granville it always seemed like it was faster walking.

Anyway, the bus priority measures could be improved on Howe and Seymour to make the buses even faster.

This is a totally new experience worthy of considered study and debate on making it permanent, and I now see bringing back buses and taxis as a quick way to defeat it and make people forget.

Transferring from one bus or train to another has to be analyzed. I suspect that the majority of transfers can be accommodated on the same street (Seymour or Howe). And just how many transfer are there compared to downtown being the primary transit destination in the Lower Mainland?

And if buses are bogged down by the turning movements of cars, then I suggest bus stops be bumped out (like on Main Street) with the buses occupying the second lane from the curb, therein avoiding turning cars. Buses should also be given signal priority and their own exclusive lanes off Granville where possible. Buses do generate their own congestion on whatever chunk of road they occupy.

These are the kind of questions & ideas that need to be answered with a study. I’d volunteer at cost to be part of the consultant team if they decided to tour Europe to see how they do it in several cities, like the 6 km pedestrian-only Stroget in downtown Copenhagen.