Downtown Transportation Plan
The Downton Transportation plan is a comprehensive plan for ensuring that Vancouver's city centre remains a thriving commercial centre and one of the easiest and most pleasant downtowns to get to and around in, whether you're walking, biking, taking transit, or driving. In conjunction with land use plans and developments in the downtown, the goal of the Downtown Transportation Plan was to accommodate more people travelling to the downtown without increasing road capacity on existing bridges and roads. Its objectives were to promote transit, walking and cycling while minimizing congestion.
Following extensive technical analysis and public consultation with both residential and business communities in the Downtown, Council approved the Downtown Transportation Plan (DTP) in July 2002. The DTP made 80 recommendations to achieve a more balanced downtown transportation system generally by providing greater transportation choices. The DTP was supported by the majority of stakeholders and received awards from the Canadian Institute of Planners and the Planning Institute of British Columbia.
In June 2003 Council approved an implementation program for the Downtown Transportation Plan. That program identified 83 specific initiatives that were to be implemented in a three year time frame with funding to support a dedicated staff team comprised of Engineering and Planning staff. The mandate and funding for the staff team is now complete, with the majority of the initiatives completed. The ongoing implementation of the oustanding DTP recommendations will now be pursued as part of ongoing staff work programs or, in the case of larger initiatives, as separate major projects.
In future, The Downtown Transportation Plan will be monitored in conjunction with the Vancouver Transportation Plan monitoring program. This includes the tracking of the DTP recommendations and transportation trends for the downtown.
