I recently came across the group called Depave. The idea is to work on reducing the amount of land that is covered by pavement or concrete. This is an idea I have been thinking about for some years because the urban environment is so full of impervious surfaces.
Between roads, parking lots, and buildings, a very high percentage of the land in an urban setting is covered with something. If the ground is open the sky there there are many benefits to the community. More plants can grow and this traps more CO2. The rain can soak into the ground in more places and reduce the amount of water going into the storm sewers. This protects from flooding and makes flows in streams more consistent.
I see the idea of depaving as a something in the similar vein as the movement to daylight creeks.
Here are some quick ideas of areas in this region where we could easily reduce the amount of pavement.
I like the idea of Cloverpoint being closed to cars. The loop at the bottom covers 1.3 acres of land.
Mount Tolmie makes sense, one could get rid of at least one side of the drive over the mountain. The access from the north side is 650 metres long - another 1.2 acres of land.
How about getting rid of pavement in Beacon Hill? Do we really need to have that full network of roads in the park? There are 4.4 km of paved roads in the park. 1.6 km og this is Arbutus Way, Bridge Way, Heywood Way, the road from Douglas to the lake, and Lovers Lane - none of them needed in the park that I can tell. That is 3.3 acres of land.
Rithet Street in James Bay is very wide. It is about 13 metres wide for the street, 17 metres with the sidewalks. Niagara Street to the north of it is 8.7 metres and 12 metres wide respectively. You could gain about 1/4 of an acre if Rithet were the same width as Niagara.
Is Beach drive needed through the Golf Course? That is 600 metres of road that is not needed with an area of 1.5 acres.
These suggestions would reduce the area of pavement in the city by 7.5 acres
Anyone else with ideas of where we could depave?
2 comments:
I love this idea! I can think of many spaces, even in green Oak Bay that I would like to see depaved. There is an intersection near my house that is such a wide expanse of pavement, that drivers fly along way over the speed limit, turn the bend and nearly hit kids crossing at the crosswalk. If we removed a good chunk of the pavement, the cars would slow down, the kids would be safer, it would look so much better, and it would do all the other things you mentioned.
If only I was an Oak Bay Councillor...sigh.
An extreme example would be the area just south of St. Ann's where not only was a building demolished and the street depaved, the area was incorporated into Beacon Hill's green space. I think future generations will be shocked to learn there was once a residential street here.
As far as new residential construction goes, permeable pavers, where rainwater drains back into the soil are standard equipment on many car parking areas.
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