Transportation System Plan

Vancouver is a city on the move! We’re growing and diversifying, putting increased pressure and fresh demands on the transportation system. A new waterfront district, increased multifamily development, great parks and schools, and significant job and business growth continue to attract people and investment to Vancouver.

Following extensive planning and community engagement, we’ve developed a new transportation system plan that will prioritize how we invest in a safe, reliable and comfortable transportation system over the next 20 years.

Background

This fall the City of Vancouver Transportation System Plan (TSP) project team released the Draft Plan for public review and comment. The TSP is the broad vision for our transportation system – and a roadmap for getting there. The TSP will guide investments in our transportation system for the next 20 years. Vancouver’s transportation system includes our network of streets, sidewalks, bicycle routes, bus routes, trails, and ADA-accessible facilities. Since the last TSP was published in 2004, our City has grown and more people and businesses now call Vancouver home. The TSP will help us address new transportation trends resulting from this growth while supporting the City’s broader goals around transportation safety, climate-friendly transportation, and equitable travel options for all people.

Most importantly, the TSP is a community-driven planning process to shape the future of our transportation system for the next 20 years. Since the project launched in 2020, we’ve spoken and heard from hundreds of Vancouver residents, businesses, and organizations online and through in-person outreach at Farmer’s Markets, schools, and neighborhood associations. Now, we’re ready to share the Draft Plan with the community.

Public comment was collected through Monday, November 20, 2023.

This December, the Draft TSP will go through formal review and public comment periods in front of the Vancouver Transportation Mobility Commission and Vancouver City Council. Please make your voice be heard by staying up to date on the plan and consider participating in the upcoming City adoption meetings.

TSP Project Goals

In the Summer of 2021, the City engaged with community members online and in-person to gather feedback about draft goals and values for the TSP. The TSP goals guide the plan’s policies, projects, and programs and include:

Safety: Our transportation system keeps people safe when they walk, roll, bicycle, take transit, or drive.

Equity: Transportation in Vancouver supports the needs of all and counteracts historic and current inequities.

Climate: Our transportation system helps to reduce our impact on the climate and natural environment.

Transportation Choice: People in Vancouver have multiple comfortable, convenient options to get where they need to go.

Regional Connectivity: People and goods flow seamlessly through the region, advancing our shared prosperity.

Maintaining our Assets: We take good care of our transportation infrastructure and invest strategically in new tools that help us operate the system better.

Big Ideas for the TSP

The TSP will include a variety of strategies designed to help us meet our goals. We’ve organized these strategies under six themes — our “Big Ideas” for the future of transportation in Vancouver.

Big Idea #1: Thriving Neighborhoods

Support multiple convenient transportation options and connections in all of Vancouver’s neighborhoods.

How do we achieve this?

• Connected neighborhood streets: Make sure new development is walkable and bikeable by requiring smaller blocks and a more connected street network.
• Green streets: Manage stormwater, create shade, and reduce impermeable surfaces through landscaping, trees, and green infrastructure.
• Safe routes to school: Make it safer and easier for students to walk and bike to school through street improvements, education and outreach, and events.

Big Idea #2: Complete Corridors

Create complete corridors that connect growth areas, support business, serve transit, and increase safety for all modes.

How do we achieve this?

• Vision Zero: Adopt a goal of eliminating traffic fatalities and serious injuries and identify high-crash corridors for safety improvements.
• Street design: Update guidelines and standards to ensure pedestrian crossings, bicycle facilities, signals, and other elements of major streets are designed to keep people moving safely no matter how they travel.

Big Idea #3: Connect People to Transit

Support transit use with stop access improvements, partnering with C-TRAN to improve bus speed and reliability, and transit-supportive land use strategies.

How do we achieve this?

• Access to transit: build sidewalks and improve crossings near transit stops and stations.
• Bus speed and reliability: Work with C-TRAN to identify locations to improve speed and reliability through projects like transit signal priority and bus lanes.

Big Idea #4: Build Low-Stress Networks

Provide a low-stress bicycling and walking experience on key corridors that connects Vancouver’s neighborhoods and destinations.

How do we achieve this?

• Provide low-stress connections for walking, rolling, bicycle and small mobility routes that provide greater protection from traffic.
• Wayfinding: Make it easier to navigate the City on foot or by bike by investing in wayfinding and directional signage throughout Vancouver.
• Lower speeds for safety: Higher speeds make it more likely that pedestrians and bicyclists will be killed or severely injured in a crash. Lower driving speeds through street design and reducing the speed limit in some locations.

Big Idea #5: Make Growth a Benefit for All

Manage growth and development to support multiple transportation options and advance climate goals.

How do we achieve this?

• Manage on-street parking to make more efficient use of new and existing parking spaces.
• Create and expand commuter programs that encourage employees and residents to travel to work or school by transit, walking, and bicycling.

Big Idea #6: Embrace the Future

Prepare for future mobility and data needs.

How do we achieve this?

• Prepare for private shared mobility services like scooters and e-bikes by creating a city policy; consider a city-sponsored bike or scooter share program.
• Try out new ideas for managing package delivery, such as neighborhood lockers.
• Support electric vehicle charging and an electric City fleet.

Proposed Network Improvements

We want all Vancouverites to be able to travel safely to their homes, work, schools, and anywhere else they go to meet their daily needs. The TSP has created four draft “networks” that connect streets and corridors designed to serve as travel corridors designed for the safety and network of different modes. For example, the low-stress bicycling and small mobility network will have infrastructure and design to make cycling or riding a scooter more comfortable. The Enhanced Transit Network will focus on making sure bus stops are safe and accessible. The Complete Corridor Network are streets that have a high number of destinations, activities and people, and require that the street operates safely and comfortably for all users, no matter how they get around.

• Complete Corridor Network
• Low-Stress Walking and Rolling Network
• Low-Stress Bicycling and Small Mobility Network
• Enhanced Transit Network

How to Get Involved

We want to hear from you. Please visit our Transportation System Plan Be Heard Vancouver page to share your ideas, tell us your story, ask questions and much more.

• For more information about the Transportation System Plan, please see this FAQ Fact Sheet.
• For questions about the Transportation System Plan update, please contact vancouvermoves@cityofvancouver.us or reach us by phone at 360-487-7945.