Transportation

Transportation planning for the 2010 Winter Games—Vancouver’s largest special event—was a complex challenge. Through public engagement, careful planning and evaluation, the City developed a wide range of strategies to create the Host City Olympic Transportation Plan. The plan had three primary goals: support a successful Games, maintain a functioning urban city, and establish a sustainable transportation legacy.

By prioritizing walking, promoting cycling and public transit, and accommodating movement of goods and general-purpose vehicles, the Host City Olympic Transportation Plan was not only well-balanced, but it also reflected the City’s values and priorities on sustainable transportation planning.  While all users of the transportation system needed to plan on more travel time, everyone was still able to move in and around Vancouver in a reliable and sustainable manner during the Games.

By almost every indicator, the Host City Olympic Transportation Plan was a success. Both the Host City Olympic Transportation Plan and the Olympic Line streetcar won Vancouver 2010 Sustainability Stars for their contributions in representing new solutions to local and globally sustainability challenges. 

2010 Winter Games transportation statistics

The success of the Host City Olympic Transportation Plan was also verified by the City implementing a Games-time transportation monitoring program. The primary goal was to observe the actual travel behaviour during the Games using in-the-field data collection and compare the findings to pre-Games levels.

• The transportation network accommodated 44% more person trips to Downtown
• Walking, cycling, and transit to Downtown more than doubled over 24 hours
• Vehicle trips to and from Downtown decreased by 29% during peak periods
• Average vehicle occupancy to and from Downtown increased 14% over 24 hours
• Almost 80% of spectators at Downtown venues walked, cycled, or took transit
• The Olympic Line streetcar carried over half-million riders in just 60 days
• Over 350,000 people used the Downtown Pedestrian Corridors on its busiest days

View more results from the Games-time monitoring program (5 mb)

A significant amount of the City's Games-time monitoring effort was completed by the University of British Columbia's Civil Engineering Department. The monitoring and related study by UBC, the Host City Olympic Transportation Plan Downtown Monitoring Study (1.4 mb), was conducted for the City of Vancouver with a funding partnership with TransLink and technical assistance by Transport Canada. The study provides a detailed summary of how people travelled to downtown during the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, as compared to pre-Games levels, and how the results relate to the targets and goals of the Host City Olympic Transportation Plan.

The experience of the Host City Olympic Transportation Plan was a proven example of a large scale travel behaviour shift to sustainable modes in unprecedented and record numbers. Final results of the Host City Olympic Transportation Monitoring Program are a significant transportation legacy for planning future Olympic Games, hosting large-scale special events in the Metro Vancouver region, and gauging the regional readiness towards more sustainable transportation modes. Moving forward, the City will build on its 2010 Winter Games sustainable transportation legacy and monitoring achievements through an updated long-term Transportation Plan.

Key components of the Host City Transportation Plan:

Pedestrian network

Four kilometres of the City’s downtown streets were converted into pedestrian corridors to encourage walking and to accommodate increased pedestrian activity during the Games between February 12 and 28, 2010,. The pedestrian corridors featured special street lighting, banners and vendors. The City also created a Walking & Cycling Map, and implemented an easily recognizable and consistent wayfinding program.

 

Bike route network & parking

The City developed a 2010 Bike Route Network to encourage cycling during the Games and provided temporary, secure bicycle parking near Games venues and Live City sites. Better Environmentally Sound Transportation (BEST) was contracted to provide staffed free bike valet services for all users at all seven locations.

Olympic route network

Twenty-six kilometres of Olympic Lanes were in place between February 4 and March 1, 2010, (24 hours a day, 7 days a week) to ensure that athletes and Games officials could arrive at venues on schedule. These lanes were reserved for use by VANOC-accredited vehicles, transit and emergency vehicles.

Public transit network

Public transit was one of the most popular transportation options for getting around due to temporary road closures and parking limitations downtown and at venues. Part of the integrated transportation Plan included VANOC and TransLink supporting public transit riders by including transit use with event day tickets. The City also allowed all TransLink buses to travel in Olympic Lanes.

Reducing Vehicle Traffic

The TravelSmart 2010 Challenge—a 2010 Winter Games partner communications campaign—encouraged incremental reductions in vehicle traffic to downtown as road closures and transit service increases were put into place before the Games began. City staff conducted vehicle data monitoring on behalf of the Olympic and Paralympic Transportation Team (OPTT) each Friday, and reported on the vehicle traffic reduction results the following week.

Olympic Line – Vancouver’s 2010 Streetcar

The City and Bombardier Transportation worked together to run a free demonstration project: the Olympic Line, a modern streetcar. The streetcar provided an accessible and exciting transit experience for people travelling from Granville Island to the new Canada Line Olympic Village station. The Olympic Line ran on 1.8 kilometres of newly constructed track every 7 to 10 minutes during both the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Road closures and parking restrictions

Road closures around Games venues were in effect to support public safety and security. There was no parking at Games venues for security reasons. Temporary 24-hour on-street parking and stopping restrictions were put into place on many streets in Vancouver between February 4 and March 1, 2010, to accommodate Games vehicles. The City developed parking plans to meet the needs of residents and commercial businesses in neighbourhoods surrounding Games venues.

Truck routes, goods movements and deliveries

To account for temporary road closures associated with the Host City Transportation Plan, the City established temporary truck routes and deliveries were allowed downtown 24 hours a day to facilitate the movement of goods during the Games. Businesses were also provided a 2010 Business Reference Guide to plan their alternate drop off/load zones due to the temporary removal of parking and loading zones.

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