Transportation & Sustainability
Transportation can be a polluting, energy-wasting, climate-changing liability, or a clean, green enabler of both economic growth and civic amenity.
Vancouver has never built any urban freeways and as a result, is much less dominated by automobiles than the average North American city. The City favours walking and cycling first, then public transit, and the private automobile last, a policy which has helped make Vancouver’s greenhouse gas emissions the lowest of any major North American city. Since 1990, Vancouver’s population has grown by 27 per cent and employment by almost 20 percent, yet car trips into downtown have dropped by 10 per cent.
The City continues to push forward in making transportation truly sustainable by setting aside a lane of the Burrard Bridge for bicycles to encourage safe commuter cycling. We have also made our own City fleet steadily greener, and are working to bring electric vehicles to the streets of Vancouver. In the longer term, we are hoping to extend modern streetcars to downtown neighbourhoods, beginning with the Olympic Line demonstration project.
Want to know more?
Burrard Bridge Bike Lane Trial 
(391 kb)
Cycling Towards Sustainability (284 kb)
Green Fleet (Clean vehicle and fuel technologies) (238 kb)