Summer Road Closures in Vancouver, June 2008

If you’re a driver in downtown Vancouver the beginning of June might cause you a few headaches. Aside from the “usual” Canada Line or water main construction, June is “Bike Month” in the city and several events will be taking place that involve some major road closures.

Triathlon Vancouver: The Triathlon events will cause a few disruptions along some major arteries from June 1st until the 9th. On Thursday June 5th things kick off with the Parade of Nations along Beach Avenue, starting at the Inukshuk at English Bay. Access to Stanley Park by vehicle will be either limited or completely cut off during the week as well. One Sunday June 8th Davie street will also be closed from Denman to Burrard.

Photo credit: Stephen Rees on Flickr

List of Road Closures Triathlon Site, City of Vancouver, PDF
Triathlon Vancouver website (includes transit re-routing information)

Car Free Day Vancouver: This year’s Car Free Day involves several communities across the city simultaneously: Cambie Street, Kitsilano, Main Street, Marpole, and the West End. As you can probably deduce, roads in those areas will be closed.

Something that doesn’t involve road closures but still encourages alternate forms of transport is the Commuter Challenge: “The Commuter Challenge is a nation-wide event that promotes friendly competition among organizations and cities to see who can get the highest percentage of employees out of single occupancy vehicles and into healthier and cleaner modes of commuting such as walking, cycling, transit, carpooling, vanpooling and teleworking. This year the Commuter Challenge runs from June 2-June 6.” The Commuter Challenge is in honor of Canadian Environment Week, June 1-7, 2008 and Clean Air Day on June 4th.

For anyone making the change from gas guzzler to pedal power, the City of Vancouver issued a handy Bike Route Map in 2007 that should prove to be pretty useful.