This was supposed to be a surface transit mall, but now there is a desire to just have it as a pedestrian mall.
Granville_Mall should have been designed to eventually have an underground bus, streetcar or tram-train level, several decades ago. The current GSB should have been modified to have a lower transit deck. Unfortunatly, each version of the GSB wasn't designed to have a lower deck.
The First Granville Bridge: 1889-1909:
Just getting a basic bridge across the creek was challenging enough. Thus, there was no reason for the-first-Granville-Bridge to have a provision for a lower level for such a provincial backwater.
The Second Granville Bridge: 1909-1954:
The 21st century was too far away for backwards Vancouver to think big, so the 2nd Granville-Street-Bridge was also designed with no provision for a lower deck & wider sidewalks.
The Third Granville Bridge: 1954 – Present"
The 3rd Granville-Bridge also had no provision for a lower deck for public transit in the 1950s. Since it was intended to be an expressway bridge for a cancelled city freeway plan, there was no need to have wide sidewalks and a lower-deck for streetcars or tram-trains. Unfortunatly, no one seriously considered that the 2nd Granville-Bridge should have been kept as a streetcar or bus and bike crossing, with widened sidewalks. Indeed, the two bridges could have worked well together.
https://placesthatmatter.ca/location/granville-st-bridge 3 strikes & this Vancouver bridge is out, not quite. The reconfigured GSB loses 2 lanes, but gets 2 bike lanes & wider sidewalks. Unfortunatly, still no lower deck for a potentially revived streetcar line. Vancouver was one of the first cities to get rid of its streetcars in the 1950s and will be one of the last cities to revive them. Of course Seattle & Portland would reinstate some of their streetcars long before slow-moving Vancouver ever will.
