Its Not Just About Bus and Bike Bridges

Bike bridges might not be able to totally solve the transportation mess that is Vancouver. However, its quite odd how Vancouver Cycling_Infrastructure is missing a crucial bit of transportation infrastructure. Indeed, many cities will build least 1 proper bike bridge. The Vancouver approach is to take traffic lanes away from existing bridges, or not even bother to build a bike bridge next to a congested bridge. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_crossings_of_the_Fraser_River#North_Arm There should have been several bus and bike bridges in just this section alone. 

 https://bicyclenetwork.com.au/newsroom/2024/08/08/striking-perth-bridge-crosses-key-construction-milestone Unfortunatly, such a nice bike bridge in Perth isn't allowed in backwards Vancouver. 

https://www.mainroads.wa.gov.au/projects-initiatives/all-projects/metropolitan/causeway-path/

https://www.wsp.com/en-ca/projects/perths-boorloo-bridge If you are visiting Perth from Vancouver, you might cry when you realize what WA can do, simply because its not influenced or limited by the backwards BC mentality or mind virus.

https://www.destinationperth.com.au/listing/boorloo-bridge/3706 Unlike in backwards Vancouver, many cities build bike bridges so that they don't have to remove traffic lanes.

https://dissingweitling.com/en/project/swan-river-causeway-bridge 

https://www.buildingfortomorrow.wa.gov.au/projects/boorloo-bridge Unfortunatly, properly building-for-tomorrow is much more difficult in backwards BC than it is in WA. 

A bike+bridge in the right spot can make a huge difference. A bus+and+bike+bridge can be a huge improvement, especially in the case of Vancouver and the Greater Vancouver Region. 

The Arthur_Laing_Bridge, Oak_Street_Bridge, Knight_Street_Bridge and the Queensborough_Bridge all could be improved simply by building a bus+and+bike+bridge next to them. These bridges are simply too narrow to accommodate 2 bus lanes, 2 wide bike lanes and 2 wide footpaths.

The narrow North_Arm_Bridge for the very short Canada Line trains, is another lost opportunity. There should have been 2 express bus lanes, since the little train doesn't run 24 hours. There should have been 2 wide bike lanes as well as 2 sidewalks. 

Perhaps it was designed to be in the tradition of the narrow SkyBridge between NW and Surrey. Unfortunately, the SkyBridge wasn't designed to help the old Pattullo Bridge by accommodating 2 bus lanes, 2 bike lanes and 2 sidewalks.

While the Pattullo_Bridge_replacement opened with 2 nice bike lanes and 2 footpaths, there was a deliberate decision not to open it with 2 bus lanes and 2 HOV lanes. Especially, no wide emergency lanes or wide shoulders. Its another instant classic BC bottleneck-chokepoint. 

Somehow the Metro_Vancouver_Regional_District still hasn't realized that a regional network of bus and bike bridges can really help the region's mostly narrow bridges. Plus, proper big city long trains. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expo_Line_(SkyTrain) Only started to run some 5 car trains in 2025.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Line Still usually only 2 car train with the option to run 4 and the potential to eventually run 5 car trains.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SkyTrain_(Vancouver)#Canada_Line Despite a building cost cutting measure, this joke of a train and its short stations still could have been designed with enough level clearance to allow for 5 car trains eventually. Unfortunately, this line was designed to ultimately just have 2.5 car, 50m trains. Since 2009, this line is still only running 2 car trains. 

Multigenerational congestion planning is all by design in backwards BC.

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=bike+bridges

Is Surrey's Bus Network BROKEN?

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC62zzCbzsY Longer vehicles and more frequent bus service is key to mobility. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQdrpK1B1Ac&t=310s Longer trains running at less than 2 minute intervals would greatly help to efficiently move more people around.

Farmland and Food security in B.C.

 https://www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/article/food-security-in-bc-and-the-fight-to-save-a-little-piece-of-california/ 

Most of BC is a vast mountainous wilderness, but good farmland is becoming more scarce and should be protected as much as possible. 

https://globalnews.ca/news/11749736/future-uncertain-surrey-potato-farm-land-owned-federal-government/

https://surreynowleader.com/2025/11/19/beyond-potatoes-south-surrey-farmer-grows-agri-awareness-across-social-media/ 

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Heppell's+Potato+Corporation/@49.0956293,-122.7249097,19122m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5!1s0x5485cffe3fb43a21:0xf740ef552f63b2bb!8m2!3d49.0917863!4d-122.7144059!16s%2Fg%2F1tnsrm5s?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDMyNC4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

189-suite hotel opens in Surrey health-tech district

 https://surreynowleader.com/2026/03/26/extended-stay-189-suite-hotel-opens-in-surrey-health-tech-district/

Surrey should have more night-bus routes.

 https://www.reddit.com/r/Translink/comments/1rop925/thoughts_on_yvr_movenments_idea_of_making_surrey 

Alberta has two cities with over a million people each, those being Calgary and Edmonton. 

Vancouver has never had 1 million residents, but the Metro_Vancouver_Regional_District has well over 3 million people.

Victoria,_British_Columbia has yet to reach 100K, but the Capital_Regional_District is getting close to half a million. 

Surrey has almost 3 quarters of a million people and is expected to be the first city in BC to eventually have a million residents. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrey,_British_Columbia#Current_transportation_network 

Surrey like Burnaby, will eventually have some of the tallest buildings in BC, that's because they aren't under the extreme height restrictions that Vancouver has.

https://www.surrey.ca/about-surrey   

https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?cityID=2&status=15 Surrey

https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?stateID=1&status=15 BC 

https://skyscraperpage.com/diagrams/?countryID=1&status=15 Canada

Aerial view of downtown Vancouver in 1969

 https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/comments/1r960mq/tbt_aerial_view_vancouver_downtown_coal_harbour_c This was still a time when Vancouver didn't allow any office tower to have a 30th floor. As of 2026, no office building in Vancouver has been permitted to have a 40th floor. However, Burnaby & Surrey are planning to have their first office building over 40 stories. That's because they aren't under the extreme height restrictions that Vancouver imposes. 

Seattle had its first 50 story office tower in 1969. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safeco_Plaza 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_Square The first 50 story office tower in Australia (1967) was possible because they don't have anything like the height restrictions in Vancouver.

Toronto had its first 50+ story office tower in 1967. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto-Dominion_Centre#Late_20th_century

SF had its first office buiding over 50 stories open in 1969. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/555_California_Street 52 stories, but the equivalent of 60 when counting all of the mechanical plant floors.

Why Greater Toronto Has Several Skylines

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eI9WJa9Q8dA 

Of course many large urban areas around the world have more than 1 or 2 skylines or tower clusters. 

For the longest time, no building in Vancouver or BC, was allowed to be as tall as the 1930s CIBC tower, which is now a stump.

https://www.blogto.com/city/2017/05/toronto-lost-observation-deck-commerce-court-north/

https://www.torontojourney416.com/canadian-bank-of-commerce-building/ 

https://www.25king.ca/the-history 

It wasn't until the early 1970s when stumpy, Vancouver allowed a building to be taller than the L.A. City Hall, or the Smith Tower in Seattle. 

The 1930s CIBC tower, the L.A. City Hall and the Smith Tower, would still be prominent towers in Vancouver, but stumps in their own cities. 

Despite Vancouver being divided by an inlet and a river, the city wasn't able to build a huge wall along Boundary Road. Thus, the KEEP THEM OUT agenda was a little thwarted. The various White city councils tried to do the next best thing. That was to symbolically impose various restrictions as a reluctance to think, plan and build on a BIG city scale. The time especially from 1960 to 2000 had predominantly White City Hall and its councils continually impose several overlapping restrictions. 

Since Vancouver can't control immigration or the movements of non-white people, keeping things small and backwards, means that less people will move there than to Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Edmonton. However, with a mild winter climate, more and more people want to move to backwards BC, especially small-minded Vancouver and provincial Victoria. 

In spite of immigration and Multiculturalism, Vancouver was to perpetually promote its small scale agenda. 

While the first Skytrain line can finally run 5 car trains, the stations weren't designed to become long enough to eventually accomodate 9 car trains like the big city Montreal Metro has. 

The 2nd and 3rd Skytrain lines are still only running 2 car joke trains. Running 8-10 car trains is what a proper big city would do, but not backwards Vancouver. 

Narrow bridges provides strong symbolism of the cities narrow-mindedness. When bridges are too narrow, its difficult to have a proper express or rapid bus system. The reluctance to build parallel bus and HOV bridges helps to maintain the congestive planning approach that is vancouver and the Greater Region. 

Vancouver's refusal to build parallel bike bridges has meant that 2 lanes were removed from the Burrard Bridge, 1 lane from the Cambie Bridge and 2 lanes from the Granville Bridge. 

Keeping buildings symbolically short when compared to what scenic Sydney, Auckland, SF and Seattle allow, also helps to maintain Vancouver's reluctance to enter the big and tall urban scale. In fact, the scenic setting that Vancouver is in has been used as the main excuse to continually scale the city down. Yet, several scenic cities around the world are either able to have wider bridges, wider roads, longer trains or taller buildings. 

The world is mostly composed of non-white people. Canada has less than 1% of the world's population and stubborn Vancouver symbolically remains as a small provincial backwater on the Pacific Rim. 

https://centralparktower.com.au Unlike Perth, Vancouver forbids 50 story office towers and Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne size residential towers. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/108_St_Georges_Terrace In fact, no office building in Vancouver has been permitted to have a 40th floor. However, since Burnaby and Surrey aren't under the restrictive controls of Vancouver, they will eventually allow office towers over 40 stories. 

Despite Australia having less people than Canada, Perth is allowed to have taller buildings, wider bridges and longer trains than Vancouver. Taller buildings, wider bridges and longer trains are even less likely in Halifax than whats in Brisbane or Queensland.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q1_(building) To see buildings on a similar scale of what Brisbane allows, one has to get to Greater Toronto. Brisbane is allowed to have some buildings that would even be impressive in Melbourne and Sydney. 

While Montreal is allowed to have taller buildings than Vancouver, Montreal isn't allowed to have Sydney size towers. Especially not on the scale of what Melbourne and Toronto permit. 

SkyTrain's Canada Line service disruption

(service disruption ends after 14 hours) https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/skytrain-canada-line-service-disruptions-january-14-2026 

For a rapid transit line that opened in 2009, on the surface, it sure wasn't designed to be an efficient high capacity line for the future. It's still just a 2 car joke of a train. Fortunately, most real cities around the world planned for not only 6 car trains, but even 8-10 car trains. 

Unfortunatly, Vancouver has been hit very hard with a multigenerational agenda of continually imposed small scale infrastructure. Vancouver has water on 3 sides, as its on a peninsula. Since the powers that be couldn't build a Boundary+Road moat or trench, the next best thing was to symbolically show the reluctance to build proper big city size infrastructure. This stunted approach to things is about symbolically holding the scale of the city back for as long as possible. 

Despite backwards Vancouver not being able to apply a castle-moat-and-drawbridge control system, the next best thing was to symbolically keep things smaller than what normal or proper big cities allow. 

Here are some of the best examples of holding the size of things back. The 3 lane joke that is the Lions+Gate+Bridge has never had a rapid transit rail tunnel and no express bus tunnel next to it. Especially, no 6 lane highway tunnel. It's a classic BC bottleneck-chokepoint, by design.

From a 3 lane joke of a bridge to a two car Canada+Line joke of a train. It met the symbolic requirement to be shorter than the LRT in Edmonton, the C Train in Calgary and the trains in Seattle and Portland. 

The+Post+building+complex could have been Vancouver's first 50 story office tower, it's not even 25 floors. It would be impressive if it were in Victoria, Kelowna, Kamloops or Prince George. That's the unfortunate thing about Vancouver, so much is done to only be impressive to small cities or towns.  

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=The+small+Westin+Bayshore+Hotel+in+Vancouver

Things have been kept so small in Vancouver throughout its history, that any big city stuff might seem overwhelming. There has been an unofficial KEEP THEM OUT mentality, but since the city cant have checkpoints, building things small symbolically demonstrates the perpetual reluctance to not allow a big city in backwater BC. 

Since Vancouver can't control Burnaby and can't stop Surrey from eventually becoming the biggest city in BC, they are able to build things on a larger scale than Vancouver.

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=YVR-Canada+Line

About 90% of TransLink's first two Bus Rapid Transit lines will have bus-only lanes

 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://dailyhive.com/vancouver/translink-surrey-king-george-boulevard-langley-haney-place-brt-route-station-maps

Metro Vancouver's SkyTrain transit system turns 40

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeSQtHusn1A  

The history of SkyTrain 1985-2025 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEt76BgRP5E 

Expo Line Extension (Surrey - Langley) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CavX1TWYUsE 

Surrey Langley Skytrain Construction https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRARdwNIbls 

17 years and waiting for UBC SkyTrain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIEhFrTuqkc  

YVR-Skytrain: Canada Line https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvwFeKtbyxU

What the first year of building Surrey-Langley SkyTrain looks like

 https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/surrey-langley-skytrain-construction-one-year-milestone-progress

Pattullo to partially close for three nights as 4 lane replacement bridge opening draws near

 https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/pattullo-bridge-closures-replacement-opening 

No matter how much NW wants to be one of the smallest cities in backwards BC, it can't stop Surrey from eventually being the biggest city in what should be bustling BC. The SkyBridge was deliberately designed to not have any HOV or truck lanes. The narrow SkyBridge wasn't even designed to eventually become a bus and bike bridge. Just a train bridge without even any sidewalks. It really should have been given an award for one of the worlds best examples of inept urban infrastructure. 

It's like the SkyBridge (1990) was designed to be the first part of the new inadequate crossings between NW and Surry.

Indeed, just like its 1937 predecessor, the Pattullo_Bridge_replacement will open with only for lanes, but at least it will have 2 bike lanes and 2 sidewalks. The Pattullo_Bridge_replacement should have opened with 6 lanes and 2 wide shoulders or emergency lanes, but that would go against funneling everything into just 2 lanes each way. No emergency lanes or wide shoulders helps to reduce emergency vehicle inefficiency. No bus & HOV lanes helps to increase transportation congestion. Despite being a seaport region, there aren't any truck lanes. Perhaps the best feature of all is than the bridge wasn't designed to eventually have a lower deck for trains and trucks. 

Multibillion dollar bridges can be designed with future widening capabilities, or at least having a provision for a lower deck. Unfortunatly, it's very difficult for BC to design prober big city size transportation infrastructure. 

Some Canada Mega-projects Under Construction

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwsOVZ-j7hg 

Oakridge_Park is on a much smaller scale than Metrotown, Brentwood and Lougheed. It will especially be on a much smaller scale than Parramatta in NSW. 

Unfortunatly, the Oakridge-41st_Avenue_station was only designed to have 50m platforms, when it should have been at least 100m. Thus, the utter foolishness has meant that instead of allowing for a future level station clearance to accomodate 5 car trains, the Canada (embassament) Line was only designed to just have 2.5 car trains. While its extremely short stations might have been disguised as a cost saving measurer, there didn't seem to be any key people onboard to make sure that it could eventually become a proper big city train line. Its sad that a line which opened in 2009 is still only running 2 car trains. While the 2.5 car configuration is still a joke of a train, at least half of an extra coach-length is better than nothing. Plus, there should have been extra cars ordered by now so at least during the very busy times the trains could be operating at 1 minute headways. Unfortunatly, this goes against the Vancouver & BC congestion planning mentality.

Despite being built several years after the Sydney_Harbour_Bridge, the joke that is the Pattullo_Bridge was designed to only have 4 narrow lanes & only 1 sidewalk. Of course the replacement_bridge will only open with 2 lanes each way. It was as if someone really wanted to make sure that there won't be 2 bus lanes and no HOV lanes when the bridge opens. While the new bridge is designed to be expanded from a 4 lane joke to eventually having 6 lanes, it still won't be wide enough to accomodate 2 HOV lanes as well as 2 bus lanes. Of course the new bridge won't have any emergency lanes, just like the old bridge. However, it will have 2 bike lanes and 2 sidewalks. https://www.globalhighways.com/news/pattullo-bridge-completion-end-year Its only fitting that in backwards BC this new bridge wouldn't be designed to eventually have a lower deck to accomodate 2 bus lanes and 2 LRT tracks. 

If the planners were afraid to symbolically have a wide bridge between NW and Surrey, the old Pattullo_Bridge should have been designed to eventually have a lower deck for trams, trucks and busses. Even when the SkyBridge between NW and Surrey opened in 1990, it wasn't designed to have any bus lanes or emergency vehicle lanes and especially, no bike and footpaths. 

Is Vancouver the best city in North America? (2019) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8dmVUrNt38

 One of the biggest mistakes in Vancouver & SW BC is to have short trains combined with mostly narrow bridges. Thus, the region doesn't get to have long, high capacity trains and there isn't a proper regional network of bus-bridges. The refusal to twin most of the bridges means that it's almost impossible to have a proper and efficient regional network of rapid-bus and HOV lanes.  

While Montreal built the REM to augment their long-train Metro system, Vancouver should have allowed for enough clearance to eventually have 500 foot long trains. 80m-50m Skytrain stations are going to become inadequate, when there should have been a 152.4m provision so that the trains could eventually become as long as the ones on the Montreal Metro. 

Is Regional Rail in the Future of British Columbia? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PeIOVy6fFc

World’s Tallest Towers Comparison

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09pmnf8npA8 

There was a time when no structure in BC was allowed to be as tall as Blackpool Tower. Then there was a time when no building in Vancouver was allowed to be as tall as the Seattle Space needle or the Calgary Tower. Even in late 2025, only one Vancouver building has been allowed to be taller than the Calgary Tower. 

Burnaby, Coquitlam and especially Surrey, don't have such imposed height restrictions as stumpy Vancouver. Thus, Burnaby, Coquitlam and Surrey will all be having taller buildings than Vancouver.  

If Montreal can ever have its equivalent of La_Defense or Canary_Wharf, then it might be able to have some tall buildings that would be impressive by Melbourne and Toronto standards. Perhaps even Chicago or NYC standards. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Defense 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canary_Wharf

New Costco coming to Surrey has local residents concerned

  future condominium tower project in Surrey City Centre has now shifted its residential uses to 100 per cent secured purpose-built market rental housing.

44-storey hotel and rental housing tower planned near King George SkyTrain station

 https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/9699-9711-137-street-surrey-hotel-rental-housing

A future condominium tower project in Surrey City Centre has now shifted its residential uses to 100 per cent secured purpose-built market rental housing

 https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/102-park-surrey-rental-housing-tower-marcon

Over half of all Metro Vancouver homes projected to be condos by 2051

 https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/metro-vancouver-housing-growth-forecast-condos 

For several decades, trains, bridges and buildings had to be half the size of what real cities allow. Vancouver and especially the Greater Vancouver Region couldn't build a huge wall, so the next best thing was to heavily impose a symbolic resistance to build big. Thus, by watering the scale of almost everything down by imposing a series of overlapping restrictions, Vancouver & BC remained stunted. 

Then, things started to slowly change going into the 21st century. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Wall_Centre Opened in 2001. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogers_Tower 2004  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Georgia_(Vancouver) 2012 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_buildings_in_Vancouver 

While restrictive Vancouver started to allow some taller buildings, its still behind what many other cities permit. Especially that of what's in Melbourne, Sydney & Brisbane...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinnacle_One_Yonge Toronto 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainier_Square_Tower Seattle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stantec_Tower Edmonton 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telus_Sky Calgary

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_sur_le_Parc Montreal

Since Burnaby, Coquitlam & Surrey aren't under Vancouvers imposed restrictions, they can build taller. Eventually, Vancouver will have to allow taller residential buildings, but its as if there is a strong mind virus determined to hold the scale of everything back. 

Lions+Gate+Bridge Still, a 3 lane crossing with no plans for a bus, train & truck tunnel. Australia has no problem building tunnels near bridges.

YVR-Canada-Line Still, a 2 car train of a joke, when several cities will have 6, 8 or 10 car trains. 

Long-term plan to completely rebuild and expand Vancouver General Hospital

 https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/vancouver-general-hospital-vgh-campus-redevelopment-preliminary-concept 

It's about time that backwards BC start building up a proper big city size medical center in watered-down Vancouver. Another proper big city medical complex should be built in Surrey. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy%27s_Hospital#Facilities

Houston, TX has been building theirs over the past several decades. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Medical_Center 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Medical_Center#Hospitals

https://www.tmc.edu/about-tmc  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Medical_Center#Cityscape_and_infrastructure 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorial_Hermann_Memorial_City_Medical_Center#Facilities

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orion_Complex_Goi%C3%A2nia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tallest_hospitals 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lurie_Children%27s_Hospital 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokyo_Medical_and_Dental_University#Campuses 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herlev_Hospital 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_hospital_campuses#Ranked_by_capacity  

Backwater BC has been under a multigenerational, KEEP THINGS SMALL OR INADEQUATE agenda for too damn long. The overbearing implemented symbolism is too much! An inept 3 lane Lions+Gate+Bridge and an absurd Canada+Line with only 2 car trains, are classic BC Mind Virus (BCMV) B$! Even the 4 lane Pattullo+Bridge+replacement is another example of the BCMV. Somehow, Vancouver & BC fell behind with having enough hotel rooms. Its as if the city & province just didn't think that adding hotels would actually help the local tourism business. The Greater Vancouver Region should have made it easier for more hotels to be built by cutting out so much red tape. 

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=BC+hotels

Surrey primed to surpass Vancouver population in the very near future

 https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/surrey-vancouver-population-estimates-rennie Fortunatly, the Vancouver Mind Virus won't be able to stop Surrey from having taller residential buildings. While Vancouver still won't permit any office tower to have 40 floors, Surrey will very likely have the first office tower in BC to have more than 40 stories.

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/surrey-metro-vancouver-population-growth-forecast-bc-city-2038 

https://jfdatalinks.blogspot.com/search?q=Surrey