I just read this entry, about a Calgarian’s visit to Vancouver (photos are here). He remarks:
Vancouver is great, but man the traffic sucks large coconuts.
I don’t drive very much. I live downtown, so I tend to walk, bus or cab to where I want to go. I’m lacking perspective on this issue.
Aside from the Lions’ Gate Bridge (is that apostrophe positioned correctly? I think so–there are more than one lion) during rush hour, is the traffic nasty in Vancouver? Nasty compared to Calgarian, I suppose, but I have few memories of being made ridiculously late by traffic snarls. If I lived in south Surrey, I guess I might have a different opinion.
DarrenBarefoot.com 
I used to commute downtown from Burnaby (Metrotown area) with my ex-boyfriend every morning on our way to work. Sometimes we’d be stuck in standstill traffic for nearly an hour, other times we’d be at work inside of 15 minutes. So, yes, the traffic in Vancouver blows.
Also, I made the mistake of taking the 99 b-line home from school the other day, and we ended up stuck in Granville construction traffic. It was not pretty.
As a prairie dweller who just spent the last 2 weeks driving in and around Vancouver – I can safely say that there is nothing wrong with Van traffic. No better or worse than Calgary.
And as a bonus – Whenever you are driving around in Vancouver – no matter where you look, you realize you are not in Calgary.
😉
Reading this post, I too became curious about the spelling of that particular bridge’s name, and references I found to it on the City of Vancouver website have no apostrophe at all – “Lions Gate Bridge”. I do know that there are, in fact, TWO lions, represented at the Stanley Park end of the bridge, but I think there may also be a reference to “The Lions” – a pair of mountain outcroppings that look like two lions sitting with their heads up and their front paws in front of them… I think it’s between Grouse and Cypress Mountains. I suspect the bridge was named after the geological feature.
I commute every day from South Burnaby to Richmond, and I have to say, it’s not so much the traffic that sucks in Vancouver, it’s the drivers.
My job takes me out of town a lot, and in other communities in this province people will actually use their turn signals to indicate their intentions. They won’t accelerate to cut you off should you choose to indicate you’re about to make a lane change, and they stop at red lights and stop signs.
Of all the cities I’ve driven (or been driven) in, Vancouver has by far the most inattentive, aggressive, and just plain rude drivers out there.
It’s gotten to the point, where I’m almost afraid to come to a complete stop at stop signs for fear of being rear-ended.
I think the problem is largely one of education and example. I believe that a lot of drivers out there honestly don’t know that they have to stop at a red light before turning right. Same thing with crossing solid lines, and indicating lane changes.
Can you sense my frustration? 😛
My philosophy for driving is now “Take it easy.”
I just wish more motorists shared it.
funny, just today i was thinking about how much i dislike vancouver, one reason being the traffic is awful (i live in victoria). i very nearly had a serious nervous breakdown while sitting in traffic in van a few years back (i ended up losing it at the ferry an hour or so later – but it wasn’t because of the traffic, really). i still have anxiety when driving in van. *shudder*
it’s the “lions gate bridge” without an apostrophe because the “lions” are an adjectival label (attributive noun). the lions don’t actually “own” the bridge, so there isn’t a possessive apostrophe. it drives me crazy when people use apostrophes in adjectival labels.
it also drives me crazy when people, especially those who write well *cough* darren *cough*, use hyphens with -ly adverbs. the -ly tells the reader that the word following it is modified. you would only use a hyphen “if the -ly word acts as one idea with the second word AND the -ly word can be used alone with the noun, that is, the -ly word is an adjective,” as in the “friendly-looking man.” (from blue book of grammar.)
okay well i’ll get off my grammar soapbox now.
Julie: It’s not unreasonable to consider that lions might, in a sense, own the bridge. But I agree with you and Matthew that it’s apostrophe-free.
I plead guilty on the adverb hyphenation issue. I just learned it wrong growing up, and have never corrected myself. I’ve got a simpler rule, which I rarely apply, which is only to use a hyphen when the two words are ambiguous without it.
The Lions actually do own the bridge. When the Guinness family built the bridge in 1937, they dedicated it to the beauty of West Vancouver, and towering over the municipality were the Lions (mountains that is). They placed 2 concrete lions at the south end of the bridge to ensure a safe journey for vacationers.
There is an interesting First Nations book about the Lions. The book “Legends of Vancouver” by E. Pauline Johnson contains a number of legends of stories of places in and around Vancouver. A must read for anyone new to the area. Pauline’s memorial (I don’t know if it is her gravesite) is at the entrance, just off the right hand side of the road to 3rd Beach in Stanley Park. As for traffic, well is doesn’t get any better with the additional cars on the roads year after year. At least we have Podcasting now which makes it…well a little easier to wait.
Traffic in Vancouver is occasionally annoying, but for anyone who’s ever been to Los Angeles, you know it’s not genuinely bad.
Same for the drivers. Spend some time in Europe or (legend has it) Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, and we look pretty tame.
Vancouver traffic rarely bothers me. Suburb traffic, now that bothers me.
I grew up in Cloverdale. I was forced to move home briefly in 2001. Around that time, I started a job in Burnaby. A week after the transit strike started. Yagh.
So, I was driving into work every day from Cloverdale. What should have been a half hour drive took anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half. It annoyed me. I would have had no problem with the hour-long transit ride, because I wouldn’t have been sitting in traffic and I could read a book and not think about how much money I was wasting on gas & insurance & other such necessities of driving. Sucked. I moved to Burnaby soon after.
Now that I live downtown, it’s golden. I have to cross the Lions Gate (see? no apostrophe!) to get to work now that I work in West Van, but again, I take transit so the traffic doesn’t bother me much. The few times that I actually take the bike in kind of suck (note: motorcycle, not ten speed) but more on the way home than on the way in. On the way home, it’s actually faster to take the bus over the bridge — I only go one stop… it’s just that the one stop happens to be from Park Royal to Denman & Georgia.
It doesn’t help that I’m going against traffic and therefore only have one lane open to me. Meh.
One of the things that kills me about Van traffic is that a major northbound highway (99) emptys directly into a residential/shopping district. I suppose this is because there is not a further northbound destination to warrant a highway through (or around) the city. Of course I’m speaking as a foreigner.
As you mentioned- the Surrey thing is a complete mess (a highway reducing to one lane and merging with two on-ramps within a about 200 meters.) I’ll lump that in with Vancouver.
Seattle has bad traffic to be sure, but I dread the traffic coming to and within Vancouver.
it is bad, but there are shortcuts and ways to minimize the traffic. Especially if you’re going in the right direction at the right time of day. It’ll hopefully improve with all the lanes they’re gonna add to the freeway soon.
I’ve never driven here, but I think the drivers seem sane. Montreal drivers were truly scary. I was even scared to be a pedestrian there.
Pauline Johnson is the only person ever to be buried in Stanley Park. Her grave was supposed to be unmarked, but a memorial marker was placed there later. I believe it’s near the Tea House / Sequoia Grill.
A friend of mine did her masters degree on the history of the Lions Gate Bridge. I’ll try to find out where the “Lions Gate” part originates. (Is the bridge the Lions Gate, or does the bridge connect Vancouver to wherever the Lions Gate is?)
Someone correct me if I’m wrong but I believe that the Lions Gate referrs to what is otherwise known as the first narrows (i.e. the narrow strip between stanley park and the north shore. Kind of like the Golden Gate in San Francisco. It’s the “gate” to the city just below the peaks of the lions.
vancouver traffic is really bad. we have the infrastructure of a city of about half our size i figure. anyway, it’s not all bad. let’s get rid of car culture here in vancouver and set the bar high for everyone else. 🙂
bicycle traffic is light
My morning commute from Boundary Road to downtown takes 30 minutes by car, and 22 minutes by bike. Yes, the auto traffic is crap, but the bike routes are fantastic. And if crappy trafic is what it takes to get more people commuting without their cars, then I’m all for it.
Plus my commute home goes right by Darren’s place. I think (along the False Creek bike route – Darren, I’m the guy in the yellow bike jacket).
One’s opinion of Vancover’s traffic problems depends on where you live. Inside Vancouver the lack of freeways means that there are interesting neighbourhoods with chances to turn around and into. If you’re from a sprawly suburb then there’s really no hope for you. 🙂
I think you folks are thinking to hard in regards to the name of the bridge. It’s a complete name: “Lions Gate Bridge”. Whether ownership belongs to the Lions or not is a moot point. The history of the bridge and how it got its name is also moot.
Heh, I’m glad the grammar police have little authority other than hurting the pride of writers.
Stop your complaining. Vancouver has no traffic….
Compared to other Global cities like LA, Sydney, Tokyo and London there is no traffic in this town.
More than 4 cars waiting at a traffic light is hardly what I call bad
I’ve been driving Vancouver too long (plus I drive for work). In the suburb someone let me turn onto the street past them – after I insisted – but didn’t wave. They yelled at me. And I thought the drivers in the subs were so much calmer.
Pauline Johnson is not thee first and only person to be buried in so-called stanley park. Whoi-Whoi was a Squamish village long before it was invaded by europeans.
Sheesh! The “Lions” in Lions Gate Bridge refers to a pair of mountain peaks which lie beyond the north end of the bridge. These peaks are known as the Lions. Gateway to the Lions. Get it?
Pretty dumb subject for a paper – it’s common knowledge what Lions Gate refers to! You can find the information you want at Wikipedia and probably base your entire masters degree on it – you don’t have to write anything. Just Google Lions Gate Bridge.
Honestly, first you need to know other cities. I live in Ṣo Paulo РBrazil. Here the traffic is really crazy.
I’ve been in Vancouver for 6 months and a think the Van traffic is soft, calm and the drivers are much better than brazilians ones.