Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr.C
What Vancouver really, really needs is to focus on densification. And people have to simply accept that the city has changed irreversibly, and if you want a huge house with a yard, well, Langley and Maple Ridge are only 45 minutes by car away.
|
The biggest problem with going the densification route is traffic, or at a larger scale, city infrastructure. For better or for worse, Vancouver is mostly designed to primarily support vehicular traffic. In many residential areas, even the main roads would only support single lane traffic. When you turn a plot into even just a low rise apartment, it will create traffic problems. My crappy condo is exactly like that. Leaving the apartment in the morning, it often takes a solid minute's worth of waiting or more just to get onto the main road partly because there is often a constant stream of traffic, and partly because people don't know how to drive (ie. keep waiting for a completely clear, no-car-within-500m-either-way type of opening). Coming back into the apartment is even more of a gong show if you are on the "wrong" side of the road. Because the main road is single lane traffic, a long line of cars are often found behind the single left-turning car that is trying to get back into the complex.
A friend lives in a 30-something storeys condo around Metrotown, and the entrance lane into the parkade is even more of a gong show.