Vancouver General Discussion Thread

[mcj]

Originally Posted by Klazu

Also Brisbane has a motorway terminating on the CBD peninsula, but everything's designed around it. I am also finding Brissy embrace layers in city design a lot more. Several toll tunnels cut through the city, their commuter rail is tunneled and also being expanded. One can only hope for something like this in Vancouver, where the world seems standing still.

I was checking Wikipedia for when many of their tallest towers have been built and several very modern-looking towers are from the early 2010s. Architecture here looks a lot more modern than in Vancouver, which oozes early 2000s in style. Also the variation in height, tower position and spacing make for so much more interesting cityscape, not to mention nighttime lighting!

Vancouver's Downtown is maybe a little more vibrant over a weekend than Brissy's, but their CBD absolutely bustles during weekdays. Brisbane could easily fool one to be a city of 5M, whereas I have always found Vancouver feeling very small in comparison.

Brisbane likely didn't have the same level of NIMBYism that happened in Vancouver in the 1970s through 2010s, preventing significant growth in the city and shifting it to suburban cores. Vancouver has been held back intentionally until recently. But still, we have hysteria from current NIMBYs over the Broadway Plan and the ODP, so who knows how long this will last.

[jollyburger]

Originally Posted by mcj

Brisbane likely didn't have the same level of NIMBYism that happened in Vancouver in the 1970s through 2010s, preventing significant growth in the city and shifting it to suburban cores. Vancouver has been held back intentionally until recently. But still, we have hysteria from current NIMBYs over the Broadway Plan and the ODP, so who knows how long this will last.

I mean it's both. Supply side NIMBYism, view cones, various levels of government wanting to push for regional growth. Demand immigration, office users, economy, housing investors.

March 2026: Brisbane plan must not be derailed by NIMBY opposition

“The key elements of the plan, including smaller lot sizes, reduced parking requirements and increased building heights in appropriate locations, would improve project feasibility and boost supply.

“However, excessive consultation delays, third-party appeals and ‘not in my backyard’ (NIMBY) opposition risk stalling projects and deterring investment.

“We have already seen how over-regulation and planning delays have reduced development capacity, with some sites losing up to 30 per cent of their feasible building area under current rules. Adding further layers of objection and delay through NIMBY resistance will only make the situation worse.”

https://hia.com.au/our-industry/newsroom...must-not-be-derailed-by-nimby-opposition

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by mcj

Brisbane likely didn't have the same level of NIMBYism that happened in Vancouver in the 1970s through 2010s, preventing significant growth in the city and shifting it to suburban cores. Vancouver has been held back intentionally until recently. But still, we have hysteria from current NIMBYs over the Broadway Plan and the ODP, so who knows how long this will last.

Central Brisbane has a much lower population density than Vancouver. The Downtown Vancouver residential density is four times the residential density of 'town', the Brisbane city centre peninsula (and we have the equally dense West End next door). The surrounding areas are generally lower density than the Vancouver suburbs.

Overall Brisbane had a slightly higher total population than Metro Vancouver, at 2.7m compared to 2.6m, in the 2021 censuses. But Brisbane sprawls over a much bigger area - the population density is 175/sq km, while Metro Vancouver is 918/sq km. The explanation is that "Brisbane has always been an un-usually car-dependent and low- density city, even by Australian standards. There's a simple reason for this: since 1885 Queensland has more or less banned townhouses and apartments"


Getty

[mcj]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

I mean it's both. Supply side NIMBYism, view cones, various levels of government wanting to push for regional growth. Demand immigration, office users, economy, housing investors.

March 2026: Brisbane plan must not be derailed by NIMBY opposition

https://hia.com.au/our-industry/newsroom...must-not-be-derailed-by-nimby-opposition

Seems like they face similar issues.

Originally Posted by Changing City

Central Brisbane has a much lower population density than Vancouver. The Downtown Vancouver residential density is four times the residential density of 'town', the Brisbane city centre peninsula (and we have the equally dense West End next door). The surrounding areas are generally lower density than the Vancouver suburbs.

Overall Brisbane had a slightly higher total population than Metro Vancouver, at 2.7m compared to 2.6m, in the 2021 censuses. But Brisbane sprawls over a much bigger area - the population density is 175/sq km, while Metro Vancouver is 918/sq km. The explanation is that "Brisbane has always been an un-usually car-dependent and low- density city, even by Australian standards. There's a simple reason for this: since 1885 Queensland has more or less banned townhouses and apartments"


Getty

I would have figured they, like most other cities, had more room to physically spread out. However that's interesting about population in the downtown core.

Downtown peninsula density is likely why Klazu finds Vancouver to be more lively on weekends. That is preferable to me, there's a lot to appreciate about Vancouver, large infrastructure projects is not one of those things though. We could only ever dream of a rail project like Cross River Rail here, even though we absolutely would be better for tackling a regional rail project, at least the BC Greens are talking about it. At least we aren't referring to our BRT projects as a "Metro" though.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by mcj

We could only ever dream of a rail project like Cross River Rail here, even though we absolutely would be better for tackling a regional rail project, at least the BC Greens are talking about it. At least we aren't referring to our BRT projects as a "Metro" though.

Cross River Rail is a nightmare, not a dream. It's a 10.2 km tunnel and surface route running under the CBD. (It links existing suburban lines). There are only four new stations, and some upgraded existing ones. It was proposed in 2010, and revised several times but only finally started construction in 2017. It was supposed to be opening in 2024, costing $5.4bn Aus ($5.2bn Ca at current conversion). In December 2024, the Minister for Transport and Main Roads announced a 3 year opening delay due to budget blowouts, strike action, and delays in new rollingstock.

"Cross River Rail likely to exceed $17B - The Queensland Government says the true cost of Cross River Rail is expected to go well over budget and may not be complete until 2029. On construction completion, the tunnel must be independently certified by the National Rail Safety Regulator and this testing and commissioning phase takes at least two years to complete." (Infrastructure magazine).

[Migrant_Coconut]

Important to remember that we're not the only ones with an Eglinton Line.

[mcj]

Originally Posted by Changing City

Cross River Rail is a nightmare, not a dream. It's a 10.2 km tunnel and surface route running under the CBD. (It links existing suburban lines). There are only four new stations, and some upgraded existing ones. It was proposed in 2010, and revised several times but only finally started construction in 2017. It was supposed to be opening in 2024, costing $5.4bn Aus ($5.2bn Ca at current conversion). In December 2024, the Minister for Transport and Main Roads announced a 3 year opening delay due to budget blowouts, strike action, and delays in new rollingstock.

"Cross River Rail likely to exceed $17B - The Queensland Government says the true cost of Cross River Rail is expected to go well over budget and may not be complete until 2029. On construction completion, the tunnel must be independently certified by the National Rail Safety Regulator and this testing and commissioning phase takes at least two years to complete." (Infrastructure magazine).

The point is about tackling projects of that scale here, we have the Broadway Subway and the Fraser River Tunnel as comparables, with the Fraser River Tunnel having a similar legacy so far. Neither is nearly as ambitious and both avoid the CBD. It really would only be equivalent to a rail tunnel connecting Waterfront to the North Shore and the Grandview cut, which would certainly see similar budget estimates.

[Migrant_Coconut]

For better or worse, all of Vancouver's rapid transit money goes to the SkyTrains... whereas Brisbane's "Metro" consists of two short BRT lines.

[SpongeG]

I was just watching a vlog by two UK youtubers in Brisbane, they went to a bagel place, ordered two bagels, and one flat white and one cappucino, the total was $51 or $49 Cdn. Crazy. So expensive in Australia. I was quite shocked how expensive even cheap looking places to eat cost so much when travelling there. Oh also they don't use the term Americano apparently they called it a tall black I think.

[mcj]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

For better or worse, all of Vancouver's rapid transit money goes to the SkyTrains... whereas Brisbane's "Metro" consists of two short BRT lines.

Their Translink does have 300+ km of regional rail though compared to our Translink's 69km "West Coast Express", give 'em credit where credit is due.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

I was just watching a vlog by two UK youtubers in Brisbane, they went to a bagel place, ordered two bagels, and one flat white and one cappucino, the total was $51 or $49 Cdn. Crazy. So expensive in Australia. I was quite shocked how expensive even cheap looking places to eat cost so much when travelling there. Oh also they don't use the term Americano apparently they called it a tall black I think.

Yes, Australia isn't cheap and to be honest, since tipping isn't a thing I've found the service in many restaurants to be very lackadaisical by our standards. The only place I've ever sent a meal back was Sydney.

[mcj]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

I was just watching a vlog by two UK youtubers in Brisbane, they went to a bagel place, ordered two bagels, and one flat white and one cappucino, the total was $51 or $49 Cdn. Crazy. So expensive in Australia. I was quite shocked how expensive even cheap looking places to eat cost so much when travelling there. Oh also they don't use the term Americano apparently they called it a tall black I think.

At this bagel place right in the heart of Brisbane bagels with cream cheese are $8 AUD, flat white and cappucino are $5 for a small, $7 for a large AUD. All in that should have been $16 + $14 = $30 AUD = $28.83 CAD, where in Canada that wouldn't include 5% GST or 15% tip, so that would be $23 CAD when looking at menu prices.

https://obagel.com.au/menu

To compare to here, Solly's charges $5 CAD for the same bagel with cream cheese, as well as $5 for a latte (only one size and doesn't have cappucino or flat white online). So that would be $20 CAD to compare, which makes Brisbane roughly the same if the small coffees are equivalent. Solly's also isn't located right downtown.

Think those vloggers were doing what they do best and exaggerated things for clicks.

[SpongeG]

I don't know, they didn't seem too mad or upset about the price, they just always put what they spend on things in their vlogs. They weren't plain, they had some meat and crap on them, one was the Chicken Run and the other was the Drop the beef, which according to their menu are about $17 and $21. I cannot eat bagels myself, they are are just gross lol.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Originally Posted by mcj

Their Translink does have 300+ km of regional rail though compared to our Translink's 69km "West Coast Express", give 'em credit where credit is due.

Merely pointing out that they dumped all their points into commuter rail and left none for urban rail, while we did the opposite. Saying that one's "better" or "worse" completely misses the point; there's likely Brisbanites complaining that nobody there has the vision for a light metro network like Vancouver's.

[Klazu]

I haven't found Australia expensive, but very comparable to back home. What is amazing is how cheap accommodation is. I am staying in 5-star hotels for $200-300 CAD per night which is ridiculously cheap.

I am currently at Gold Coast Airport and man, must be nice to have a full-blown Miami as close to Brisbane as Abbotsford is to Vancouver. Gold Coast is also home to an amazing variety of tall skyscrapers. Several 75+ floor towers exist and they are currently building a 90-storey skyscraper which will probably overtake Q1 as Australia's tallest. There are also plans for TWO 100+ floor supertalls, which is quite something.

Having all these tall towers rise along the white sand shorelike makes for quite a skyline!

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by mcj

Their Translink does have 300+ km of regional rail though compared to our Translink's 69km "West Coast Express", give 'em credit where credit is due.

They have a different geography, and much less density, so transit ridership in the whole of south-east Queensland is half the level here. There were 200m trips in the past year - 54 million train trips, more than 122 million bus trips, and more than 14 million tram trips. TransLink (Canada) saw 396m trips in the same period [APTA]

The Queensland numbers are despite a new $423m subsidy from the government to make all fares 50c. It means distant commuters can pay a fraction of their previous transit expense. "A worker travelling by train from the Gold Coast to Brisbane, four days a week is saving more than $4200 a year." Which probably contributes to the fact that, despite rising interest rates in Australia, "Gold Coast home values have surged by a massive 13.08 per cent in the past year" [news.com.au]

[gaviscon]

Looks like we're finally getting streetview updates from Google starting this month:



https://www.google.com/streetview/how-it-works/

[Tvisforme]

Originally Posted by gaviscon

Looks like we're finally getting streetview updates from Google starting this month:

Hopefully they'll include the Gulf Islands; some of the images date back to 2012.

[whatnext]

Oh, the horror!

No timeline to fix Gastown Steam Clock, stuck on wrong time for at least weeks
Kenneth Chan
Apr 13 2026

Talk about bad timing — in more ways than one.

For at least the last several weeks, visitors seeking a photo opportunity have been congregating around the Gastown Steam Clock, only to find its iconic face displaying the wrong time. The malfunction comes at an especially inopportune moment, just ahead of Vancouver’s busy tourism season, with a record-breaking cruise ship schedule set to ramp up later this month and global attention turning toward the 2026 FIFA World Cup starting in June...

...Upon inquiry, the City of Vancouver told Daily Hive Urbanized today the issue stems from an internal mechanical problem that is still being investigated.

The process to determine the issue is underway. After the problem is identified, a timeline for the repair will be established...

https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/gastown-steam-clock-time-wrong-broken

[Tvisforme]

Canada Post has announced the first round of community mailbox conversion locations; addresses in Abbotsford (V2S, V2T), Mission (V2V) and on the North Shore (V7M, V7P, V7R, V7S, V7T, V7V, and V7W) will be part of that change. There's no indication of proposed box locations yet, and Canada Post says that "converting an address from door-to-door delivery to a community mailbox typically takes months".

Canada Post moving forward with preliminary work on multi-year transformation

CBC: Canada Post announces first 136,000 addresses to lose door-to-door delivery

Daily Hive: Canada Post shares addresses where door-to-door delivery will end in Metro Vancouver