After council voted in October 2024 to only pedestrianize Gastown on weekends in 2025, city staff are asking council on Tuesday, February 25 to decide key details for the second iteration of the summer event. However, among the choices offered will be one to kill the pilot entirely, turning Water St back over to cars full-time.
The first question posed to council is whether to bring back the pilot for a second year, or to scrap it entirely in the name of “accelerating” a permanent design. This permanent design still envisions cars on Water St outside of “special events” or time-limited “future Pedestrian Zones”—perhaps unsurprisingly given how much pushback even the temporary closure faced from some businesses in 2024.
If council chooses to continue the pilot in 2025, they will also be asked how many weekends to make Water St car-free. Of the three options proposed, two are stunningly unambitious:
- Option 1: No weekends (only observe the existing events Meet Me in Gastown & Grand Prix, which happen on weekdays)
- Option 2: Two weekends (in addition to the two events in Option 1)
- Option 3: 8-12 weekends (most/all summer weekends)
Vancouver’s 2024 Gastown pilot
Throughout the summer of 2024 the City of Vancouver piloted a pedestrianized Gastown which saw two blocks of Water St completely closed to cars, and one block that saw a “car-lite” treatment. The area was adorned with benches, lounge chairs, picnic tables; street performers and buskers animated the space; and businesses were given space to extend patios into the sidewalk and street. With Water St abuzz with activity, restaurants were busy and both locals and tourists flocked to the area.
Vancouver had done it! Finally, a truly pedestrianized space! Well, summer came and passed, and the innocent did not last: at the end of August the pilot was dismantled and the cobblestone street returned to its car-infested state. The very sunny September that followed was not graced with any sort of extension to the pilot.
In October 2024 city staff brought a report to Council with results of the pilot and sought direction on how to proceed. Despite the following, Council voted to “enhance” the pilot in 2025 by reducing its scope and limiting it to weekends only:
- 84% of people surveyed had a positive experience and wanted it to return
- 79% of Gastown residents surveyed wanted it to return
- 59% of Gastown businesses surveyed supported the pilot
- There was a 35% increase in visitors along Water St (56% on weekdays)
- There was a 75% increase in bicycle and micromobility activity
A weekend-only pilot is designed to fail
Anecdotally, the 2024 pilot was a huge success: Water Street seemed to come alive like never before, with people enjoying the repurposed space and street furniture. This was backed up by the surveys the city conducted, which showed most visitors, residents, and businesses supported the changes. Furthermore, statistical counts of pedestrians and cyclists through the area were significantly higher during the pilot. On top of all of this, despite the repurposed road space, it was shown that traffic in the broader area did not meaningfully change.
However, in the face of these overwhelmingly positive indicators, there was still immense pushback from a few businesses who argued that the pilot negatively impacted their economic well-being.
A weekend-only pilot will only make an unhappy compromise for many businesses in the area, as the temporary events will not allow patios to be extended outdoors like in the past.
Similarly, the quality of pedestrianization will be degraded since all street furniture must be easy enough to move every Friday and Sunday evenings to put up and take down the zone. Every weekend. One should not hope for heavy planters, painted street art, or anything else substantial; instead, imagine countless orange pylons and cheap plastic pieces of furniture. We saw similar issues with the previous Yew Street pedestrianization pilot, which produced confusing road markings, low-quality street furniture, and much controversy. Both businesses and visitors expressed a desire to either leave the street how it was, or turn it into a fully pedestrianized plaza like many other places in the city. Despite the project’s failure, it presented a valuable learning opportunity for the city on how not to do a pedestrianization pilot.
Unfortunately, it seems the City of Vancouver is determined to make the same mistakes again.
The City of Vancouver has no vision
With the proven success of the 2024 pilot, it might be assumed that a city priding itself on reviving downtown might expand and improve it for 2025, not use public relations doublespeak to “enhance” something by shrinking or entirely eliminating it. Both local street festivals and pedestrianized streets elsewhere prove that people crave spaces where they can be in an environment not built for cars, something Vancouver is struggling to accept.
For now, we will have to see what Council chooses for the 2025 pilot: maybe there will be something worth checking out on Water St, or maybe there will be nothing at all and they can just wake us up when September ends—we might not miss much
Let council know your thoughts
If you want to let council know your thoughts on the future of the Gastown pedestrian zone pilot, you can leave a comment for councillors or sign up to speak before 5pm on Monday, February 24 at this link.
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