A CLOSER LOOK

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Denman and Robson makes the top ten list for the number of pedestrians hit by vehicles (7) BETWEEN 2018 to 2023.

LEARNING TO DRIVE ON WEST END STREETS

by John Streit
(click images to enlarge)

I believe there’s no place better to teach someone to learn how to drive than in the West End and Stanley Park.

Almost every imaginable road scenario, obstacle, and generally scary situation (minus highways) can be experienced by new drivers simply by practicing in our hopping neighbourhood. I’m not saying everyone from outside the West End should flock down here — it’s probably best you stick to your familiar neighbourhood routes.

Many new drivers start their basic motor vehicle training in Stanley Park, as my teenage son did recently. Easy loop, right?

Here are just some of the many things we encountered in the park:

  • Excessive speeding

  • Blowing through stop signs

  • Multiple wrong way drivers

  • Multiple illegal stops

  • Pedestrians bursting onto the road without looking left or right

  • Swerving cyclists

  • Canada Geese

  • Racoons

That leisurely 30 km/h drive along Stanley Park Drive can get pretty hairy at times — especially for the teacher! The next step for the young driver in our family has been getting around the West End. And boy, talk about a quick education!

Here are just some of the many things we encountered in the neighbourhood:

  • Dangerous driving

  • Excessive speeding

  • Impromptu U-turns

  • Traffic-circle scofflaws

  • Poor parking behaviours

  • Red light/stop sign ignorance

  • Oblivious pedestrians

One of the most dumbfounding moments happened on Nelson Street between Cardero and Bidwell. My son was driving eastbound and properly waited for a faster westbound vehicle to go around a large garbage bin blocking a portion of the street. Good driver behaviour, right? Well, TWO impatient eastbound vehicles passed us as we waited. A very dangerous move that could have resulted in a crash if my son hadn't done his proper mirror/shoulder checks.

VANCOUVER CRASH MAP (IMAGE COURTESY ICBC)

Another situation I’ve rarely seen, if ever, as a driver was a vehicle passing on the inside in an alley while I’m waiting with signal on to make a right turn. Denman can get busy with pedestrians as we all know, and my son was being cautious – the driver behind us was not. He blew past us AND a couple of startled pedestrians with centimetres to spare to make a dangerous right turn. Another good lesson on patience and keeping your head on a swivel while driving.

All this action during basic driver training in the West End led me to ask – where are the most crashes happening? TWEJ went through the latest ICBC crash maps from 2018-2023 for a general idea of where the major trouble spots are in our neighbourhood. According to the insurance corporation, their numbers are based on a mix of injury/death crashes and property crashes, excluding collisions in parking lots and with parked vehicles. ICBC advises that “crash information is self-reported and not always verifiable.” It adds crash data from 2020 and 2021 may also be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic when fewer of us were on the road.

Here are ICBC’s top 10 West End locations (excluding Burrard St) for crashes:

  • Davie and Thurlow — 148

  • Robson and Thurlow — 133

  • Denman and Robson — 129

  • Nelson and Thurlow — 100

  • Davie and Denman — 89

  • Pacific and Thurlow — 70

  • Haro and Thurlow — 56

  • Robson and Bute & Harwood and Thurlow — 54

  • Denman and Nelson + Robson and Jervis — 52

  • Davie and Bute — 47

Along the eastern boundary of the West End, busy Burrard Street has several intersections where crashes are in the low hundreds, including Davie, Nelson and Robson. The worst intersection in our area, and one that many West Enders use all the time, remains Denman and West Georgia in Coal Harbour at 410.

Overall in Vancouver, the Knight Street Bridge is tops for crashes at 1,127, Boundary Road and Grandview Highway at 1,033 and the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge at 730.

WEST END/DOWNTOWN PEDESTRIAN HIT MAP (IMAGE COURTESY ICBC)

When it comes to crashes involving pedestrians, west of Denman is where you want to be in the West End. Thankfully, only a handful have occurred in that heavily traffic-calmed area over the last few years, according to ICBC stats.

Here are the top eight West End locations for collisions with pedestrians:

  • Davie and Thurlow — 10

  • Robson and Thurlow — 7

  • Denman and Robson — 7

  • Davie and Broughton — 6

  • Comox and Denman — 4

  • Denman and Nelson — 4

  • Denman and Haro — 4

  • Bute and Robson — 4

Overall in Vancouver, Main Street and East Hastings is the most dangerous intersection for pedestrians with 55 hit, while Cambie Street and West 49th Avenue, Commercial Drive and East Broadway, and Main Street and Terminal Avenue are all tied for second with 26. Davie Street and Pacific Boulevard was third with 23 pedestrians struck in that long crosswalk bisected by a grass median.

Cycling has exploded in the West End with the addition of the Beach Avenue Bikeway during the pandemic, the removal of the Stanley Park Temporary Bike Lane, and the increasing number of bike rental stations. Also, with the price of gas, experts say many are leaving their cars at home and choosing to bike.

WEST END/DOWNTOWN CYCLIST HIT MAP (IMAGE COURTESY ICBC)

Here are the top 10 locations in the West End for vehicle crashes involving cyclists:

  • Burrard and Davie — 19

  • Thurlow and Davie — 10

  • Robson and Thurlow — 8

  • Bute and Robson — 6

  • Denman and Robson — 5

  • Comox and Nicola — 5

  • Denman and Haro — 4

  • Jervis and Beach — 4

  • Beach and Denman — 3

  • Davie and Denman — 3

The seasonal tourist bike rental zone just outside the West End at Denman and West Georgia saw 11 cyclists hit. As far as the worst intersections for cyclists, Beatty and Dunsmuir is number one with 20 struck while Burrard and Davie, Cambie and Dunsmuir, and Cambie and Nelson each had 19. Remember, there are new provincial rules for drivers regarding cyclists. If you want to pass a cyclist, at least one metre is required if the speed limit is up to 50km/h and 1.5 metres if the speed limit is higher than 50km/h.

Davie and denman.

This comes as ICBC has released results of a new driving poll conducted by IPSOS. They found 68 per cent of drivers rated their driving skills as excellent. However, 33 percent believed other drivers have poor driving skills.

So, what driving actions need to be improved upon? 58 percent said leaving enough following distance, 47 percent wanted more space merging onto a highway while 36 percent said more drivers need to come to a complete stop at a stop sign.

Jerry Boal is a driver licensing office manager at ICBC and he said many drivers could use a refresher. “For some of us, it may be decades since we learned to drive and our road test is a distant memory in the rear-view mirror. We’re sharing tips to help drivers feel more confident with certain manoeuvres such as parallel parking and reversing into a parking stall. These are important skills for drivers to have and it’s never too late to improve,” Boal said.

Check out ICBC.com for driving refresher videos and other information.

West Ender John Streit has been a B.C. radio, TV and online journalist
for more than 20 years. You can listen to John anchor
Global News on 980/CKNW in Vancouver.