Blenheim Street improvements
The City of Vancouver is working with area residents to improve Blenheim Street from 16th Avenue to SW Marine Drive.
The City has designated Blenheim Street between 16th Avenue and Marine Drive as the pilot for a city-wide Neighbourhood Collector Initiative. This involves reclassifying the street from a secondary arterial to a neighbourhood collector, as well implementing changes to the street to increase safety, calm traffic, and improve liveability. Blenheim would be re-paved as part of this work.
Survey and open house
In September 2005, a survey was mailed-out to Blenheim Street area residents seeking their opinion on the reclassification of Blenheim Street and the proposed traffic calming plan. On September 28th, an Open House was held at the Dunbar Community Center. City staff were in attendance to answer questions. The proposed traffic calming plan is available for download. Note: File size and estimated download time using a 56.6K modem is shown.
- Blenheim Street from 16th Avenue to 26th Avenue
PDF, 5.3Mb - 23 min - Blenheim Street from 27th Avenue to 36th Avenue PDF, 3.6Mb - 15.5 min
- Blenheim Street from 37th Avenue to SW Marine Drive PDF, 5.6Mb - 24 min
Over 2800 surveys were delivered to residents of the neighbourhood bounded by Dunbar Street, West 16th Avenue, Quesnel Drive, Mackenzie Street and SW Marine Drive. City staff received nearly 1000 responses. The survey asked two questions regarding the classification of Blenheim Street and regarding a proposal for traffic calming. Preliminary results of this survey are listed below. More detailed results will be available when this project goes before Council in early 2006.
Q1: Reclassification of Blenheim Street from W 16th avenue to SW Marine Drive
Do you support the reclassification of Blenheim Street from a secondary arterial to a neighbourhood collector street? (This would mean Blenheim Street would continue to give local traffic access to the arterial road network and would generally not carry more traffic than it does now.)
| YES | Neutral | No | |
| All Residents | 69% | 5% | 26% |
| Blenheim residents | 94% | 2% | 4% |
| Off-Blenheim residents | 63% | 6% | 31% |
Q2: Traffic calming on Blenheim Street
Do you support the Blenheim Street traffic calming measures shown on the attached map? (these measures are designed to calm traffic on Blenheim street without diverting traffic to nearby streets.)
| YES | Neutral | No | |
| All Residents | 66% | 4% | 30% |
| Blenheim residents | 93% | 2% | 5% |
| Off-Blenheim residents | 60% | 4% | 36% |
Blenheim Street - frequently asked questions
Why is the City planning to reconstruct Blenheim Street?
The existing pavement conditions on Blenheim, between 16th Avenue and Marine Drive, are very poor in many blocks. Our traditional approach would be to simply repave the street. However, we have heard from many residents that they are concerned that a repaved street would result in high speeds and more traffic. Also, Blenheim has been identified as one of a number of arterial streets which could be re-classified as a collector and could receive some degree of traffic calming.
City staff have been working for some time with a group of Blenheim residents to develop a plan for Blenheim which will improve pavement conditions without leading to higher traffic volumes or speeds, and which will not divert traffic to nearby local residential streets.
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Will Blenheim be widened?
No. We are proposing that pavements widths remain as they are today, or narrower. For blocks with gravel shoulders and no curbs, this would mean a 6.0 m (20 ft) wide strip pavement. These blocks would retain their gravel parking lane. Most blocks which already have curbs would remain at their current width. There will be only one travel lane in each direction.
Our plan includes narrowing the street at most intersections by adding curb bulges. Between 16 th and Quesnel we have proposed a centre median to further narrow this section of Blenheim.
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Why only two bulges at each intersection? Why not four (i.e. one at each corner)?
We initially considered four bulges at each intersection, but when we did more detailed design and checked vehicle turning behaviour we found that moderate-sized trucks (furniture delivery, bottled water, etc.) would have to cross the centre-line into oncoming traffic when turning right onto Blenheim. City staff felt this was an unacceptable risk.
The two bulges treatment is our normal approach at local street intersections. The bulges provide reduced pedestrian crossing distance and improved pedestrian visibility. From a distance, two bulges create almost the same visual narrowing as four.
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Why add traffic circles to Blenheim?
The City's objectives in rebuilding Blenheim include discouraging speeding and reinforcing Blenheim's status as a collector street. Traffic circles would do this without diverting existing Blenheim traffic to adjacent residential streets, attracting new traffic to Blenheim or impeding emergency vehicles.
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Why three traffic circles, and why at 20 th, 29th and 37th?
Blenheim is to become a collector street. We want to differentiate it from arterial streets such as Dunbar and Macdonald, and from local residential streets like Collingwood and Balaclava. Local residential streets have stop signs every two blocks. Arterial streets in the area typically have signals or four-way stop signs every eight blocks. We want to calm traffic on Blenheim without diverting it to local streets. Asking drivers to slow or stop every four blocks on Blenheim seemed like a reasonable way to do that.
Blenheim currently has signals at 16th , King Edward (25th), 41st and Marine, and a four-way stop at 33rd. Leaving these in place and adding traffic circles at 20th , 29th and 37th would create the four-block interval we are looking for.
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Is the City proposing any new traffic signals?
No.
What is a Collector street?
According to the City's 1997 Transportation Plan:
- Collector - a street that collects traffic from local streets to access arterial streets
- Local Street - a street which is primarily residential and is used primarily by residents of a neighbourhood
- Arterial - a street that generally has two or more moving lanes, has traffic signals, may be a designated truck route and bus route, and is intended to serve through traffic
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What is Blenheim's current street classification?
It is a secondary arterial street, meaning that as an arterial it has relatively low traffic volume. Dunbar is a primary arterial street. Blenheim is neither a truck route nor a bus route.
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Why change the street classification of Blenheim?
The City's 1997 transportation Plan identified a number of secondary arterial streets with "relatively low" volume and which "pass through predominantly residential areas" which could be reclassified as collectors. Blenheim is one of those streets. Blenheim functions as a collector and its classification should reflect that function.
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Why aren't you recommending speed humps?
Our consultation with emergency services revealed that Blenheim is a frequently used emergency response route, particularly by the City's Fire and Rescue Services. Speed humps slow heavy vehicles such as fire trucks much more than they do regular traffic. Maintaining safe response times for emergency services is one of our priorities.
Speed humps are not an appropriate measure for an emergency response route or for the traffic volumes typical of collector streets. We have only installed speed humps on local residential streets.
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Will the speed limit on Blenheim change?
The speed limit on Blenheim is currently 50 km/h, as it is on most streets in Vancouver. We are recommending reducing the speed limit to 30 km/h in the two school zones (24th to King Edward and 41st to 43rd ). Elsewhere the limit would remain at 50 km/h.
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What about bikes? Why aren't you recommending bike lanes?
Improving Blenheim for cyclists was one of our priorities. So was preserving the mature boulevard trees which add so much to the neighbourhood. Adding bike lanes was not possible without removing trees or stripping parking.
As an alternative to bike lanes on Blenheim, City staff have developed a plan for a new bike route on Balaclava and Carnarvon Streets. This route will run from the Fraser River at Celtic Avenue to English Bay at Point Grey Road.
For further information, please contact:
- David Rawsthorne
Phone: 604.873.7343
- Scott Edwards
Phone: 604 873 7320
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