https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/comments/1uhkaiq/why_would_craftsman_collision_depict_the_lions/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lions_Gate_Bridge Too narrow for proper bus and HOV lanes. Not strong enough for an LRT train and express bus deck.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin_Bridge 7 lanes and 2 train tracks.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Harbour_Bridge 8 lanes and 2 train tracks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJtotvMq2ls
The Lion+Bridge will likely still not have an express bus and LRT tunnel near it. The+Iron+Bridge still might not have a proper BRT and LRT bridge next to it. The OSB and the KSB will likely not have a bus and bike bridge built beside them. There will still likely be no new Fraser Street Bridge for bikes and buses. No Boundary Road bridges to provide a direct link between the North Shore and Richmond for buses, trucks and bikes.
While the first 2 Skytrain lines will have 5 car trains, the stunted YVR-Canada Line will only have 2.5 car trains. Vancouver still might not permit any office tower to have a 40th floor, but might allow some residential towers to be on a Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane & Toronto scale.
However, BIG city thinking and planning in Vancouver has always been so difficult. Boston, SF and the City of Paris are ridiculously small cities like Vancouver with all 3 having a land area of less than 50 sq. mi. or 129.5 sq. km. Yet, Boston, SF and especially the City of Paris, have all been able to fit so much more into the same general space. That's because they aren't bound by anything like the inept and extreme Vancouver type restrictions.
https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2026/06/26/wastewater-plant-review-team-appointed/
How could a project run several billions of dollars overbudget? It was as if there wasn't any proper oversight with the project. A few of those lost billions could have gone towards a bus and train tunnel near the Lion Bridge (LGB). And, a bus and LRT bridge beside the Iron Bridge.
There are always allegations of corruption and financial mismanagement around the world. However, the Greater Vancouver Region has been stuck with several watered down versions of what should be proper BIG city size infrastructure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWeMvBEbok4 ...but the LRT is still pretty good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2nCtKvkujg
https://www.calgary.ca/major-projects/transit-blue-line-lrt-extension.html
https://www.calgary.ca/planning/projects/transit-green-blue-line-connector.html
https://pub-calgary.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ashx?DocumentId=145966
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POcg0oFvVf8
The larger Portland, Seattle and the Vancouver, BC (V-BC) region has a lot of growth potential. However, Seattle size buildings haven't been allowed in Portland and in Vancouver, BC. Nothing like a 12 lane Ship Canal Bridge has been allowed in Portland and Vancouver. While Oregon and backwater BC haven't been able to thwart the largest city in Washington State, Seattle might eventually become more of a magnet in pulling more people into the area between Portland and V-BC.
Right now, Vancouver, WA (V-WA) still has a wider bridge than V-BC. Most of the V-BC bridges are so damn narrow that its not possible to have an efficient regional express bus network. As long as there is a refusal to build proper BRT bridges as part of a regional system, it remains a sad joke.
The Skytrain (LRT) was built with shorter stations than what the underground stations in Seattle and Edmonton are at. Whenever possible, the Skytrain stations are shorter than the C Train stations in Calgary, DART stations in Dallas and even the Max in Portland.
The biggest mistake of the Skytrain was to not build all of the stations with a future level clearance to eventually have Montreal Metro size stations of 500 feet or 152.5 m. Instead, the first 2 lines only have 80 m stations and the line to YVR (The Canada embarrassment Line) is only 50 m. Backwater BC logic is that a 5 car Skytrain could run twice as frequent as a 9 car Montreal Metro train. Someday, a 2.5 car YVR-Canada Line train could also run much more frequently than a 9 car Montreal Metro train.
There is just one key problem with that type of BC logic. While initially constructing short stations and having short trains can save money, its not proper BIG city size infrastructure. In the long run, it costs more to try to lengthen stations for longer BIG city type trains.
The Iron Bridge should have had a bus, truck and LRT bridge built next to it decades ago.
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Second+Narrows+Bridge
Why BC, Canada Got it Right With its New SkyTrain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqo_KAEF81k
The argument is that a mostly elevated train can move more people than an 8-10 lane elevated freeway, at much less the cost. However, any major urban grade-separated LRT system should be designed to eventually become a very high capacity conduit.
The first 2 lines only have 80 m stations, which are just a little more than half the length of a 152.5 m Montreal Metro station. Unfortunately, the line to Richmond only has a designed level clearance for 50 m stations, not even quite a 3rd of the length of a Montreal Metro station platform.
While it might seem economical to opt for short trains and stations, the Skytrain stations should have still been designed to eventually become more like a proper big city train station allowing for much higher capacity.
The first 2 lines can run the newest 5 car trains, but the 3rd line can only run 2.5 car trains, some day.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironworkers_Memorial_Second_Narrows_Crossing#Collapse
After the collapse, there was a chance that the Iron_Bridge (IwB) could have been totally redesigned, but this is BC. Its very difficult in BC to design transportation infrastructure with significant future capacity. The Iron Bridge should have been built along the lines of the 12 lane Ship_Canal_Bridge (SCB) in Seattle. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_Canal_Bridge
Unlike Seattle and Washington State, so much in BC is built to a provincial backwater standard. Thus, nothing on the scale of the SCB has ever been allowed in BC. https://pauldorpat.com/2014/05/17/seattle-now-then-the-ship-canal-bridge Sunce an LRT line wasn't possible for the SCB, it runs sort of parallel in a tunnel to the UW. Of course LRT to UBC is still an incomplete BC pipe dream.
The IwB should have had at least 8 lanes on an upper deck and 4 lanes on a lower deck for extra bus and truck lanes. There should have also been a provision for 2 LRT tracks on a lower deck, but that would be properly planning for the future.
Unfortunately, the Vancouver Mind Virus (VMV) ruined the Burrard-Bridge. The Burrard_Street Bridge (BSB) opened with 6 lanes and a lower level provision for a double track streetcar crossing.
Foolishly, because the city didn't want to build a parallel bike bridge, 2 lanes were removed from the BSB. This has made it very unlikely that the BSB will be able to have 2 bus lanes. No lower level streetcar crossing was ever built. Yet, a streetcar line on both side of False Creek could have been a nice thing to have up and running. Ironically, Vancouver was one of the first cities to get rid of its streetcars and will likely be one of the last to bring them back. The VMV is such a horrible thing, yet it officially doesn't exist.
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Second+Narrows+Bridge
https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2026/05/24/vancouver-school-set-to-open-is-already-over-capacity/
Almost any big & medium size building in Vancouver should be designed with the possibility of adding more floors in the future. But that would be a little like designing bridges to eventually accommodate a couple of bus lanes, or even LRT. Thinking big and applying big-city planning in backwards BC is always difficult.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/canada-line-broadway-city-hall-station-platform-extension-millennium-line-interchange Fortunatly, the planning for the TTC Subway, Montreal Metro & Edmonton LRT, all have much longer stations than what backwards Vancouver settled for.
https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/skytrain-canada-line-rebuilding
Once all of the YVR-Canada Line stations have 50-metre-long platforms, it will become quite apparent that the long-range planning for 5 car trains wasn't seriously considered. The 50 m stations will only be long enough for a 2.5 car joke of a train.
However, there is a potential to work around this particular manifestation of the Vancouver Mind Virus. Selective_door_operation can allow for longer trains, despite the ridiculous short Vancouver stations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_door_operation#International_variations
There is such a problem with Vancouver and BC in general of not properly planning for future transportation infrastructure expansion.
https://www.railforthevalley.com/latest-news/zweisystem/the-skytrain-lobby-get-over-it/
https://cityhallwatch.wordpress.com/2026/05/02/opinion-the-yiyby-critique-bilsker
https://www.skyscrapercenter.com/building/the-stack/35667 Only 38 floors.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Centre_(Vancouver) Just 37 stories.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_Center Seattle's tallest has 76 stories.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_Canal_Bridge 12 lanes consisting of three 4 lane sections.
Mostly short buildings, short trains and narrow bridges are all part of the imposed symbolism to keep Vancouver small and backwards.
While Seattle had its first 50 story office tower in 1969 and Calgary in 1984, stubborn Vancouver still won't permit any office tower to have a 40th floor.
A 30-35 story office tower would be impressive if it was in Victoria, Kelowna, Kamloops and Prince George. However, what's impressive in backwards Vancouver & backwater BC isn't impressive in Alberta, Ontario, Quebec, Washington State, Victoria State, NSW, Queensland & WA...
Stumpy buildings, short trains and narrow bridges makes for the Vancouver trifecta of B$ city planning.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Fort+McMurray,+AB 10 lanes. Only the TCH bridge between Surrey and Coquitlam in BC has been allowed to have as many lanes as this. Some people still wish that everything could have remained funneled into just 2 or 3 lanes each way.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Quesnell+Bridge 8 lanes in Edmonton.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Hwy.+2A+Red+Deer+City+Centre+Bridge 6 lanes.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Calgary,+AB 10 lanes.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Calgary,+AB 8 lanes.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Lethbridge,+AB It has 6 lanes. Being from backwards Vancouver, its amazing that this 6 lane bridge wasn't funneled into just 2 lanes each way. That's what happened with the Knight_Street_Bridge.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Hwy.+2A+Red+Deer+City+Centre+Bridge As a 5 lane TCH crossing, it only has 1 less lane than the 6 lane Iron Bridge in congested, backwards Vancouver. Since Alberta isn't under anything like the imposed BC restrictions, this crossing will likely be eventually upgraded to have 6 lanes, plus 2 wide emergency lanes & 2 wide shoulders that could provide 4 lanes each way, some day.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Winnipeg,+MB A TCH bridge with 9 lanes, because no one from narrow-minded Vancouver was able to get them to narrow this crossing. The TCH Iron Bridge in Vancouver just has 6 lanes. No bus and LRT bridge has ever been built next to it, so far.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Winnipeg,+MB A 6 lane crossing.
As of 2026, congested Vancouver only allows 2 bridges to have 6 lanes. A total of 5 lanes were removed from 3 Vancouver bridges. Had Vancouver built a series of proper bus and bike bridges, no lanes would have been removed.
Despite NW trying to be one of the smallest cities in BC, Surrey is set to become the biggest city in BC. Fortunately, small NW & backwards Vancouver can't stop that from happening. However, narrowminded NW was able to force a narrower new bridge to Surrey.
This bridge-replacement is one of the best examples of BC bottleneck-chokepoint planning today.
McBride_Blvd. and Royal_Ave_in_New_Westminster are mostly 4 lane corridors.
King_George_Boulevard and Scott_Road both are at least 4 lanes wide. One might think that the new bridge should have had 10 lanes, or at least 8 lanes, because two 4 lane boulevards, a 4 lane avenue and a 4 lane road, are all funneled into a bridge that opened with only 2 lanes each way. The old bridge that it replaced was also a 4 lane crossing. A congestive approach to transportation planning is the name of the game in backwards B.C.
.jpg/960px-Stalewasem_Bridge_(2026-03).jpg)
The narrowmindedness planning by Greater Vancouver to still have mostly narrow crossings, has made it very difficult to implement a proper regional express bus network, let alone BRT.
The first 2 Skytrain lines only have station lengths that can barely accommodate the new 5 car trains. The YVR Line or the C Line, has stations than can only accommodate a 2.5 car train, some day. Given that the Skytrain network is a multibillion dollar transit system, all of the stations should have been designed to gradually accommodate 8-10 car trains, but that's what a proper big city would do.
https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2026/05/02/expo-86-40-years-later-the-memories-live-on
Four decades later and Greater Vancouver remains so far behind with the scale of its infrastructure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlJHHuLdOj0
Unlike backwards Vancouver, Seattle, WA has longer underground stations, just like Edmonton has. Longer stations make it easier to have longer trains.
The Narrows Bridge in Perth, WA, Australia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6mVXcX-4h4 It has 5 lanes each way and 2 commuter train tracks. The Homer_M._Hadley_Memorial_Bridge is part of an 8 lane I-5 crossing with 2 LRT tracks. The Samuel-De_Champlain_Bridge has 8 lanes, plus 2 REM commuter train tracks. These 3 fantastic bridges were all possible, because they aren't in heavily restrictive Vancouver. Plus, WA and Que. never wanted to adopt the BC-B$ approach to things.
Unfortunately, in backwards BC, the 1st two Skytrain lines only have 80m stations and the YVR-Canada Line has 50m joke stations. Some of the stations on the first 2 lines might have enough level clearance to only have an extra car at either end of a lengthened platform.
However, the shortsighted Canada Line wasn't designed to eventually accommodate 5 car trains, just a 2.5 car joke of a train, someday. It was as if someone thought that there was no need to have enough level clearance so that the very short stations could be double or tripled in length eventually.
At least by 2025, the first SkyTrain line was running some 5 car trains. Unfortunately in 2026, the 2nd Line and the 3rd Line are still only running 2 car joke trains. Every Skytrain line should have had stations designed to eventually accommodate 8-10 cars trains, but that's what a proper big city would do. Backwards Vancouver wants to hold out for as long as possible, by symbolically building small.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siemens-Duewag_U2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmonton_LRT#Stations
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmonton_LRT#Lines
https://www.edmonton.ca/projects_plans/transit/lrt-network-plan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmonton_LRT#Expansion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siemens-Duewag_U2#Variants
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siemens-Duewag_U2#Gallery
https://www.pattullobridgereplacement.ca/construction/bridge-opening/
There are still months of finishing touches.
https://www.pattullobridgereplacement.ca/construction/current-works/
Over the course of the year, many more people will start to realize that despite there being adequate bike lanes, there are no bus lanes, no wide shoulders and especially no emergency lanes. Its currently still too narrow for all of that.
https://www.reddit.com/r/SurreyBC/comments/1omufv6/the_new_pattullo_bridge_will_gradually_open_to/
In fact, the bridge was deliberately designed to be so narrow that there is only enough future deck space for either 2 bus lanes or 2 emergency lanes, but not both. For now, its just another 4 lane BC funnel.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/New+Westminster,+BC
No lower deck for a potential truck connection between Surrey and Front Street and especially, no lower deck for a future LRT crossing.
It seems that whenever its possible, a 4 lane BC bottleneck-chokepoint is all that's necessary.
https://www.reddit.com/r/SurreyBC/comments/1rb4nmd/bus_connect_surrey_and_coquitlam/
It really would be a good idea to eventually have a couple of bus lanes on that bridge, especially since the Skytrain doesn't run 24 hours a day.
Its still amazing how the SkyBridge (1990) was never built with 2 bus lanes, 2 bike lanes and 2 sidewalks. Such is the narrowminded planning methodology that is backwards BC.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SkyBridge_(TransLink)#Details
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Pattullo+Bridge+replacement
https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Queensborough+Bridge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnMLMp_gf1w
Unlike Toronto, SF and Melbourne, Vancouver was one of the first cities to get rid of streetcars and tram-trains or interurbans. Backwards Vancouver will likely be one of the last cities to ever bring them back.
No office tower in Vancouver was allowed to have a 30th floor before the 1970s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TD_Tower_(Vancouver) The first 30 story office tower in backwater BC opened in 1972. As of 2026, no office tower in Vancouver, or anywhere in BC has been permitted to have a 40th floor.
As of 2026, no Skytrain stations are even close to the length of the Montreal Metro, TTC subway and underground Edmonton LRT stations.
Unfortunately, almost every city around the world is expensive. Its just that you get less of things in Vancouver. Short trains, short buildings, narrow bridges and mostly narrow streets.
Thus, its no surprise that there isn't a regional network of bus-bridges. Congestive transportation planning is what Vancouver does best.
Vancouver seems to be reluctant in constructing a network of bike-bridges. The city would rather remove a total of 5 lanes from 3 bridges for bike lanes.
Broadway will eventually be reduced from 6 lanes to 4 lanes so that even some small towns will have wider major streets.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_largest_municipalities_in_Canada_by_population
