Rail Rapid Transit for Vancouver in 1962

The pictures below are the ones illustrating a “Rail Rapid Transit for metropolitan Vancouver (15Mbytes)” study by the Province of British Columbia in 1962.

More than the conclusion of the study, mostly done to appease opposition to freeways plan of the time [1], it is interesting to note how the authors of it place themselves in the “motordom” paradigm [2] , where public transit is merely considered as no more as a means to connect parkings to workplaces.

One will also note how the authors question “Why Vancouver should does differently of other cities?”… Other cities then investing massively in Freeway systems, and will put an extensive map section (7 Mbytes) tending to demonstrate how Vancouver freeways plan lag behind those other cities in term of ambition.

Congress street expressway later renamed the Dwight D. Eisenhower Expressway (I 290) , Chicago, Il

park and ride at Triskett station, Cleveland, Oh

The study presents some other interesting facts on the population and employment projections worth to revisit (the later not taking account the more distributed pattern of employment the future will bring).

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[1] this is the report cited by Harry Rankin in its 1971 “beat the traffic rush” pamphlet

[2] The views expressed are not much different than the ones expressed in this May 1959 Buzzer edition

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