Vancouver set an Olympic record for sustainable transportation during the 2010 Games, according to the findings of a University of British Columbia (UBC) report.
That record-setting sustainable transport experience is, according to the report, a lasting legacy of the Games that should be leveraged to make transportation in the city even more sustainable.
The Host City Olympic Transportation Plan Downtown Monitoring Study found that 1.17 million passengers crossed into or out of the downtown peninsula on an average Games weekday – 43.5% higher than the pre-Games weekday average of 813,000 person-trips.
Almost two-thirds, or 61%, of all trips into downtown Vancouver during the Games were taken in sustainable modes of transport such as transit, bike or on foot. Half of those sustainable trips were on transit.
The report found the number of vehicle driver trips dropped by 58,000 trips, or 16%, whereas sustainable mode trips doubled from 350,000 trips in November 2009, to 713,100 trips during-Games.
Foot traffic to and from downtown increased 288% to almost 117,600 trips during the Games. That high increase may have been due to transit services operating at full capacity.
Spectator travel to event venues were the most sustainable ever recorded, with 79.5% of such traffic being transit, bike or on foot.
The results of the monitoring study suggest that a new “Olympic record” was set, with 61% of all traffic into and out of downtown during the Games considered sustainable.
UBC recommends the city and Metro Vancouver leverage the investment and legacy of Games to, among other things, develop new ways of managing and measuring transportation demand – and, specifically, demand that occurs during mega-events and large celebrations.
As well, Vancouver should further investigate altering the Dunsmuir and Georgia Viaducts to revitalize the North False Creek lands and support more sustainable transport.
The City of Vancouver, in partnership with TransLink, VANOC and Transport Canada, appointed the UBC’s civil engineering department to monitor transportation during the Olympics.