Suddenly … nothing happened
Globe reporter Rod Mickleburgh does a nice year-end summary on the Burrard Bridge bike lane. And, in addition to the Monty Python bit above, he also captured a quick summary of ‘post-motordom’ in his quote of my comments:
Urban expert Gordon Price, the former councillor who spearheaded the 1996 experiment, said the tactic worked better this time for three reasons.
Officials communicated the change effectively, they closed the southbound lane to cars instead of the northbound lane used in the morning rush hour, and Vancouver is a different city than it used to be.
“It’s moving into post-motordom. By that I mean, everything used to be designed around the car. Now, we have to have other choices, or the car fails,” he said. “That’s happening.”
Full story here.
Maybe Wim Vander Zalm should be looking for less business from car-based customers and focusing more on car-less customers: home delivery, a more attractive store entrance for pedestrians, and targeted advertising, to name just a few strategies that might help him to survive what will eventually be a change affecting many more businesses than just his.