The City of Vancouver is moving ahead with a substantial traffic-calming program around the Adanac Overpass, with the stated goal of reducing vehicle volumes, discouraging shortcutting, and improving safety. One question lingers, however: where will the displaced cars go?
The City itself acknowledges that the Adanac measures “may affect vehicle volumes” in the adjoining Clinton Park area, making the neighboring community an important part of the project's safety equation.
This concern is not hypothetical. The Clinton Park area is a primarily residential neighborhood, flanked by homes, three elementary schools, two independent schools, its namesake Clinton Park, and several community institutions. This leaves it vulnerable to route changes - especially since the City is simultaneously implementing a traffic-calming plan there, which includes speed humps, roadway narrowings, raised crossings, and diversionary measures.
That creates an unusual situation: two neighboring communities are being traffic-calmed at the same time, forcing residents to navigate through interrupted infrastructure and poorly-implemented barricades; and, with peak volumes already reaching 179 cars per hour in Clinton Park (according to Shape Your City), concerns begin to grow over the displaced Adanc vehicles.
Historical data proves that cars don't disappear. They instead overwhelm adjoining neighborhoods. Consider the expansion project of 1995 - when traffic-calming measures slowed volumes on East Rupert Street from 500 motorists per hour to 300. This reduction was deemed a success... until residents realized that the vehicles were still in the surrounding area; they had simply shifted to a new route, which eventually led to the infrastructure changes seen today. The problem wasn't solved; it was hidden.
Now Clinton Park faces that same challenge - and its residents deserve to be angry.
Sources
City of Vancouver — Hastings-Sunrise (Clinton Park Area) Traffic Calming
City of Vancouver — Hastings-Sunrise (Adanac Overpass) Traffic Calming
City of Vancouver — Neighbourhood Traffic Management Program
City of Vancouver — Clinton Park Traffic Calming Implementation Plan
City of Vancouver — Neighbourhood Traffic Calming Plans
Share Your City — Traffic Volume Statistics
