https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/translink-king-george-langley-haney-place-brt-bus-lanes-proposal
Since the metropolitan area has rivers and an inlet, there should have been a regional network of bus bridges by now. Instead, BC insists on overloading the mostly narrow bridges in the Greater Vancouver Region.
https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2025/11/19/growing-calls-to-clear-richmond-encampment
Of course any neighborhood will be concerned when a bunch of people are living under a bridge and wandering around.
Living under a bridge is hardly affordable housing. There needs to be proper secure housing with plenty of security and staff to help people who are stuck living outside.
That bridge is so narrow and inadequate.
SW-Vancouver needs a proper transportation upgrade. Granville Street should be extended across the Fraser River on a parallel bridge to the Oak Street Bridge (OSB). Then, the 2 bridges could provide 4 general lanes each way. Plus, another 4-lane parallel bridge to accommodate 2 BRT lanes and 2 HOV lanes.
Or, a totally built a new version of the Oak+St+Bridge that could provide 6 lanes northbound. Then, a Granville Street extension could provide 6 southbound lanes onto a new OSB. Four general lanes each way, plus a rapid bus lane each way & 1 HOV lane each way.
For the most part, the Oak+Street-Granville+Street+Corridor has 12 lanes. A yellow paint strip designates 3 lanes each way. Instead, Oak could have 6 northbound lanes and Granville could have 6 southbound lanes. The 5th & 6th lanes could be for the Oak & Granville BRT lane & HOV lane on complete one way streets.
Unfortunately, the OSB remains as a 4 lane traffic bottleneck or chokepoint.
The 2009 Canada (embarrassment) Line is still only using 2 car trains in 2025. A proper big city YVR-Canada Line should have been started with 5 car trains. Unfortunately, this joke of a train is only designed to ultimately run a 2.5 car train, someday.
This stunted infrastructure approach is so absurd. Transportation planning in the most populated parts of BC is so inadequate, but its all part of backwards BC symbolism. The symbolism is all about showing a thwarted or watered down a city can be. Narrow bridges and short trains are some of the best ways to increase congestion and inefficiency in backwater BC.
Unfortunatly, there doesn't seem to be any BRB plan in place.
A North Boundary Road Bridge could provide an excellent BRT crossing between Burnaby and North+Vancouver. This would help to relieve pressure on the Iron Bridge.
https://movementyvr.ca/bby-heights-brt
The same with a South Boundary Roade Bridge with a BRT route between Vancouver and Richmond.
Then another BRT bridge between Richmond and Delta to the ferry terminal. This could help to relieve some of the pressure on the new tunnel, because it wasn't designed to have 2 HOV lanes & no train section.
https://www.translink.ca/plans-and-projects/projects/bus-projects/rapidbus-projects
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Boundary+Road
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=BRT
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Richmond+and+Delta
Backwards thinking & planning is so ingrained in BC. The R5 is already a frequent bus route along Hastings. https://www.translink.ca/schedules-and-maps/route/r5/direction/0/map
https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2025/08/26/transit-advocates-push-for-brt-through-burnaby-heights/
https://ehq-production-canada.s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com
A BRT route along Boundary Road would be much better in the long run. Especially, if someday there can be a serious BRT route running the entire length of Boundary Road between North Vancouver & Richmond.
https://www.translink.ca/plans-and-projects/projects/bus-projects/rapidbus-projects
A Metrotown-North+Shore+Rapid+Transit+route should ultimately have a train as well as a bus line. That's because the SkyTrain won't be running 24 hours a day & BC lacks transportation redundancy.
There still should be a foot, bus & bike bridge between Port+Moody and Deep+Cove.
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Metrotown-North+Shore+Rapid+Transit+route
https://everydaytourist.ca/calgary-visitor-information/2015/3/2/bridges-over-the-bow
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bridges_in_Calgary#Crossings
The 4 lane Louise_Bridge has a 2 track counterpart.
https://calgary.skyrisecities.com/news/2017/04/two-louise-bridges.26322
The Louise+Bridge & its LRT bridge is a good example of how a road & passenger rail corridor can work well.
The 4 lane Cushing+Bridge wasn't widened for buses, so the next best thing was done. A 2 lane bus bridge was built next to the Cushing+Bridge. What is easy & straightforward for Calgary to do seems to be very difficult for Vancouver & BC to achieve. Several bridges in Greater Vancouver should have bus & bike bridges built next to them.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/lougheed-transit-corridor-area-plan-maple-ridge-translink-brt
The Golden_Ears_Bridge should have been built with 2 wide shoulders, which could have eventually become 2 bus lanes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Ears_Bridge
The Pitt_River_Bridge also should have had 2 wide shoulders, so that they easily could have become bus lanes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitt_River_Bridge
Most of the existing bridges are too narrow, so there needs to be a regional framework of bus-bridges.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/bc-carbon-tax-abolish
The carbon tax was mostly another sad B$ joke in the history of backwards BC! Such a carbon tax should have gone towards the transportation infrastructure in the most populated parts of BC. Backwater BC has been so far behind in resolving transportation bottlenecks for several generations. Thus, an infrastructure carbon tax could have really improved things.
Instead, after 17 years, Greater Vancouver is still struggling to have a proper regional network of bus+lanes. In order the have such a proper regional BRT network, there has to be a series of bus-bridges and that hasn't happened yet. Most of the existing bridges are so narrow that there was no consideration for bus lanes, let alone HOV lanes.
The two SkyTrain bridges don't have 2 bus-lanes, despite the lines not being open 24-7. The first SkyBridge doesn't even have 2 sidewalks & 2 bike-lanes. However, the 2nd bridge has a shared bike & footpath, but there should be 2 of each.
The first 2 SkyTrain lines have stations that are barely half the length of a Montreal Metro station. The Canada embarrassment Line only has 50m station vs. the 152.5m Montreal Metro stations. Having half-length & one 3rd length stations is not indicative of planning for high volume rapid transit. But this is half-assed BC, so apparently its OK.
Where did all the money go? Evidently, not enough of it went towards the transportation infrastructure, because almost everything is still half-size, or worse.
Auckland & Seattle and especially Sydney and SF are very scenic cities. Yet, none of them has taken a watered-down approach to the extent that Vancouver has. Indeed, a mandate to thwart, restrict & limit things, has been part of the water-down Vancouver agenda for generations. This watered-down approach or agenda, has become a clever way to hold back all kinds of infrastructure in the Metro_Vancouver_Regional_District. The mentality to keep things small & backwards is all part of the horrible symbolic desire to not build for a big future.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_Vancouver_Regional_District#Geography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metro_Vancouver_Regional_District#Regional_planning Not planning to have trains as long as the Montreal Metro or the Toronto Subway, was an utterly foolish and inept decision. However, it makes sense from a congestive planning perspective.
In the meantime, a short train system can still work efficiently. Thus, there is no good reason as to why the SkyTrain can't be upgrades to the same level as the 24hr Copenhagen_Metro. However, BC is so stubborn & isolated with its approach to things, it would be quite a challenge to get to the standard of the Copenhagen_Metro, but it should be possible. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhagen_Metro#Route Eventually, backwards Vancouver will require proper long trains like on the Stockholm_Metro and the Montreal_Metro.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_Metro#Rolling_stock
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Metro#Models
Not planning & building a regional network of express bus and HOV bridges, was also foolish and inept decision. However, that also makes sense from a congestive planning perspective. Indeed, bottleneck or chokepoint planning is something that commuters don't like, but BC urban planners seem to perpetuate it every year. Of course the lack of infrastructure funding is also a big problem.
Unfortunatly, with Greater Vancouver having such an anti-bridge mentality, it makes it difficult to have a proper regional Bus_Rapid_Transit network. Yet officially, the region isn't against having a proper BRT network. Funneling busses onto the same narrow bridges with cars & trucks is idiotic.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_transport#Environmental_impact
The Lacey_V._Murrow_Memorial_Bridge opened in 1940 with 4 lanes. Once the Homer_M._Hadley_Memorial_Bridge opened in 1989, the Lacey_V._Murrow_Memorial_Bridge could be renovated. This was all part of a plan to have an 8 lane crossing with 2 train tracks.
The Samuel-De_Champlain_Bridge in Montreal opened in 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel-De_Champlain_Bridge#Specifications
Vancouver might eventually try to have its own version of train & highway bridge to the North Shore. However, what's straightforward for Seattle & Montreal is difficult to accomplish in backwards Vancouver.
However, it takes a long time to get things done in BC. At least an 8 lane crossing with 2 train tracks should have been built there decades ago, but there is such a reluctance to think big & build BIG in Vancouver & BC, in general.
https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2023/05/18/ironworkers-memorial-replacement-bc-transit/
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/north-shore-skytrain-burrard-inlet-rapid-transit-brt-lrt-study
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/upper-levels-highway-north-shore-upgrades-study
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/north-shore-rapid-transit-study-skytrain
Of course Seattle & Montreal would have an 8 lane crossing with 2 train tracks long before slow Vancouver would consider an upgrade to the inadequate Ironworkers+Memorial+Bridge.
Hopefully, the backward Vancouver city planners won't try to influence any lane removals on the 6 lane Golden_Ears_Bridge. As long as the GE Bridge is allowed to retain its 6 lanes, it can have 2 effective BRT lanes, along with 4 general lanes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Ears_Bridge , https://images.drivebc.ca/bchighwaycam/pub/html/www/827.html
The Metro_Vancouver_Regional_District should have pushed for express bus lanes & the eventual BRT decades ago. However, there is such a fear of adding more lanes, even in the form of BRT & HOV lanes. Ideally, it's also good to have truck lanes since Greater Vancouver is a seaport.
https://www.infrastructurebc.com/projects/operational-complete/golden-ears-bridge/
https://www.heidelbergmaterials.com/en/reference-projects/golden-ears-bridge
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RapidBus_(TransLink) BRT
Unless there is a series of us bridges or tunnels for BRT, it will just be another watered down transportation BC joke.
https://www.translink.ca/plans-and-projects/projects/rapid-transit-projects/bus-rapid-transit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RapidBus_(TransLink)#Metrotown_to_North_Shore
A proper Bus RT line will always move more people than any carpool or HOV lane.
There is North_Vancouver_(city) and then there is North_Vancouver_(district_municipality).
https://dailyhive.com/canada/canada-most-liveable-cities-ranking-2024
As long as you have everything you need on the North Shore, you are fine. Otherwise, you will be punished for using the inadequate The+Lion+Bridge+and+The+Iron+Bridge.
https://www.upperlonsdale.ca/blog/87130/north-vancouver-ranked-1-in-canada
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/article-canada-most-livable-city-north-vancouver/
Unfortunatly, transportation planners haven't seen a need to link Horseshoe Bay and Park Royal with downtown Vancouver. Indeed, a direct LRT connection from the North_Shore_of Greater_Vancouver to YVR might as well be part of a Sci-Fi story. However, multigenerational congestive planning in Vancouver is a harsh reality.
A 3 lane Lion Bridge never had any bus tunnels & especially an LRT line built far under it. The bridge is too narrow to accommodate one, let alone 2 proper bus lanes. This is the finest in BC bottleneck stagnation planning.
The Iron_Bridge was built too narrow for an urban TCH crossing. Unfortunatly, no one planned or designed it to eventually have a lower deck for buses, trains & trucks.
https://www.cnv.org/streets-transportation/travel-options/transit A bus and truck bridge should have been built next to the Iron Bridge, decades ago. Why do that, when you can cram everything into just 3 lanes each way?
https://www.translink.ca/plans-and-projects/projects/rapid-transit-projects/bus-rapid-transit
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/north-shore-skytrain-burrard-inlet-rapid-transit-brt-lrt-study
https://www.burnabynow.com/local-news/opinion-lrt-remains-the-best-option-for-north-shore-rapid-transit-9643033 Of course a train would be able to move many more people efficiently.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/fifa-world-cup-vancouver-hotel-tax-costs
https://vancouver.ca/streets-transportation/bus-network-improvements.aspx With so many narrow streets, its difficult to have a proper network of bus-lanes, especially on the bridges.
https://visionzerovancouver.ca/2024/07/10/take-action-add-bus-lanes-to-translinks-priority-routes Unfortunatly, most of the bridges in the Greater Vancouver Region are just too narrow. There was no logic to have enough extra width for future bus-lanes and HOV lanes.
https://www.biv.com/news/transportation/vancouver-new-dedicated-bus-lanes-translink-2024-9267523
Unless there is a regional network of new bus-bridges, Greater Vancouver will remain in a bottleneck or chokepoint nightmare. Stuck with only a half-assed express or BRT attempt. I suppose that would be impressive to Kelowna-Victoria-Prince+George-Kamloops (K-V-PG-K) standards. Unfortunatly, those aren't big league cities.
Of course the 3rd line, or the YVR-Canada-Line or the Canada (embarrassment) Line, still hasn't been expanded up to a 2.5 car train, let alone having 5 car trains. Right from the start, the trains should have consisted of at least three, 20m coaches, with a provision for 6 car trains. Apparently, because of budget cuts, the station platforms weren't built to be 60-100m long in the first phase, they are only a 50m joke.
The stations could have been roughed out to initially accomodate 3-4 car trains and eventually, 8 car trains. 8 x 20m= 160m. The Montreal Metro stations were built to accommodate a 152.5m train. Fortunately, Quebec doesn't have anything like a backward BC planning mentality to hinder it.
The YVR-Canada (embarrassment) Line doesn't have to be stuck as a symbolic example to not properly plan & build for longer trains in BC. This 3rd Metro-Vancouver rapid transit line doesn't have to be stuck with a 2.5 car train buildout. The incredibly short stations should be extended to 60m, which could accomodate a proper 3 car, walkthrough train. Then, with Selective_Door_Operation Technology, a 3 car train can become a 5 car train of 100m. Then, only the middle 3 cars would directly have access to the YVR-Canada-Line station platforms.
Unfortunatly, due to the shortsighted planning mentality that is Vancouver & BC, the underground stations don't have enough level clearance to be lengthened to 152.5m or 500 feet, like the Montreal Metro stations, which can accomodate nine, 55 foot cars. At least a 5 car, 100m or 328 foot train is still possible in short-minded Vancouver.
For some strange reason, the YVR Canada+Line wasn't designed to eventually provide a link beyond the Vancouver_International_Airport to Waterfront_station. Indeed, a 2nd phase of the inadequate line should have connected Waterfront_station with the Park_Royal_Shopping_Centre and the Horseshoe_Bay_ferry_terminal. Then the 3rd phase to connect the YVR-Airport_station with the Tsawwassen_ferry_terminal.
Like the Catheter Line, the George_Messey_Tunnel was designed to be inadequate, right from the start.
The George_Massey_Tunnel should have had at least 2 wide emergency lanes for future truck or HOV lanes. Plus, there should have been another tunnel section to accommodate a future express or rapid bus corridor & 2 tracks for a light rail train. Instead, cars, busses & trucks were all funneled into a 4 lane chokepoint. Ironically, over the past few decades, a bus & train tunnel or bridge should have been built, at least.
Express Bus lanes or Rapid Bus lanes vs. HOV & Truck lanes. Any bus lane has the potential to move many more people than any HOV lane. Any major port city & metropolitan area should have a truck lane as well as a bus lane. Thus any HOV lane would be more efficient in bussing people & trucking payloads.
Of course the new George_Massey_Tunnel still won't have a provision for a train section. No emergency lanes, but 2 bus lanes in addition to only 3 general lanes each way. Once again, backward BC gets its wrong. Greater Vancouver is suppose to be a major seaport. Unfortunatly, the new tunnel will only have 4 lanes each way & no HOV or emergency lanes, of course.
Even if there are only 3 general lanes each way, there should have been a provision for a truck lane in addition to a bus lane each way. That would be at least 5 lanes each way, but no emergency lanes & still no provision for 2 train tracks either.
Thus, the new tunnel will eventually have to have a bus & train bridge or tunnel next to it. That would allow the tunnel to have 3 general lanes each way & 1 HOV lane each way. A rapid bus & rail corridor would ensure 24 hour high capacity transit, even when the YVR-Canada-Line is shutdown overnight.
Unfortunatly, none of the 80m & 50m SkyTrain stations were designed to have 4 tracks. That would have allowed for a proper express & local train system. The BC mentality seems to be about keeping the trains as well as the roads inadequate to meet future high transportation demands.
The LG Bridge in Vancouver should have had bus, HOV & train tunnels near it decades ago. Surrey_and_Richmond also should have had proper bus, HOV & train tunnels, decades ago.
Why have 3 sets of tracks like the O'Hare_station in Chicago? Or, have at least have 2 tracks like at the SeaTac/Airport_station. The small-scale YVR-Airport_station just has a single track to make congestion more likely. The Vancouver_International_Airport should have had at least 4 long runways by now.
The multigenerational backwater BC mentality is a combination of overlapping restrictions and a, keep it small or backwards agenda. Why plan and build like a big city, when Vancouver can mostly do things that are only impressive to smaller places like, Kelowna-Victoria-Prince+George-and-Kamloops?
Short trains, mostly stumpy buildings and mostly narrow bridges, provides powerful symbolism for the antigrowth agenda. Building up proper size infrastructure is the opposite.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6md7gny4pY
Trains and BRT can easily move the most amount of people efficiently.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/north-shore-skytrain-burrard-inlet-rapid-transit-brt-lrt-study
Since the planned North_Shore train won't be running 24 hours a day, there should be at least 1 bus & 1 HOV lane for each direction. There should also be 2 truck lanes & at least 2 wide emergency lanes. Unfortunately, the Ironworkers-Memorial-Bridge-replacement-concept only depicts 3 general lanes each way, plus only 2 extra lanes that could become a bus & HOV lane. The shoulders don't look like they will be as wide as a regular lane, but still might barely function as an emergency lane for fire-trucks, etc. There also doesn't look like any provision for a bike & foot path for both sides of the bridge.
Thus, once again, it's a narrow-minded Vancouver & especially a backward BC bridge, being designed to be narrower than what it should be.
https://vancouvertraces.weebly.com/the-first-and-second-narrows-crossings.html
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Ironworkers+Memorial+Bridge
BRT can be very effective, if it has its own lanes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_rapid_transit
https://www.lightrailnow.org/facts/fa_brt.htm
https://www.metrolinx.com/en/projects-and-programs/queen-st-hwy-7-brt/what-were-building
https://coderedto.com/subway-vs-lrt
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/comparing-bus-rapid-transit-light-rail-which-superior-kumbhar-m-eng
https://steergroup.com/insights/news/lrt-versus-brt-which-better-option
https://andrewknack.ca/blog/lrt-brt-edmonton
https://urbantoronto.ca/forum/threads/brt-vs-lrt.32259
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