Broadway is a major east-west thoroughfare in
the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. In Vancouver's
numbered avenue grid system, it runs in place of a 9th Avenue, between
8th and 10th. The street has six lanes for most of its course. Portions
of the street carry the British Columbia Highway 7 designation.
The route begins as "West Broadway"
at the intersection of Wallace Crescent and 8th Avenue, in the affluent
residential neighbourhood of West Point Grey, a few kilometres east of
the University of British Columbia (UBC). Past Alma Street, Broadway takes over from 10th Avenue as one of Vancouver's major thoroughfares, as it enters Greek West Broadway
(or Greektown) section of Vancouver's Kitsilano district. East of here
are several blocks of generally trendy, upscale shops interspersed with
low-rise apartment blocks and small supermarkets. The surrounding
neighbourhoods generally consist of large, older homes dating from the
early twentieth century, many of which have been subdivided into rental
suites.
As Broadway approaches Arbutus
Street, the commercial establishments become larger before
transitioning into a mix of small to mid-size apartment blocks. East of
Burrard Street, the apartment blocks get progressively taller, and
commercial establishments larger and busier. Between Burrard and Main
Street, Broadway can be considerably congested by vehicular traffic. Past Granville Street, Broadway
yields completely to medium-to-large commercial structures and
high-rise apartments and condominiums. Between Cambie and Main, the
commercial establishments become smaller and somewhat more downscale.
At Ontario Street, two blocks west of Main, the route becomes "East Broadway." After bisecting Main and Kingsway, traffic on Broadway
eases somewhat, and the character returns to a mix of small-to-medium
apartment buildings and commercial establishments, interspersed with
older homes - all considerably less affluent than those to the west. At
Commercial Drive, Broadway passes by the
Commercial–Broadway SkyTrain Station. Past here for several blocks, the
neighbourhood consists predominantly of older residential homes.
As
Broadway travels east of Renfrew Street, the neighbourhood once again
becomes mixed, with older homes to the north and larger industrial,
commercial, and warehouse establishments to the south. Broadway finally
ends at Cassiar Street, just short of the Vancouver-Burnaby boundary,
where it becomes the Lougheed Highway.
Broadway was created at
the turn of the 20th century, along with other gridded roads south of
False Creek, to meet the needs of an expanding population in Vancouver.
The name of the route was changed from 9th Avenue to Broadway in 1909,
at the behest of merchants around Main Street (at that time the hub of
Vancouver commerce), who felt that it bestowed a more cosmopolitan air.
Commercial establishments originally spread out around the intersections
of Cambie and Main Streets, while the character of the rest of the
route remained predominantly single-family dwellings.
By the
1970s, the length of Broadway had become a major arterial route in
Vancouver, conveying commuters from downtown to the neighbourhoods of
the west and east sides. With the growth of UBC and the expansion of the
Vancouver General Hospital (one block south of Broadway between
approximately Oak and Cambie), traffic demands accelerated. In the
1990s, the agency then responsible for public transit in Greater
Vancouver — BC Transit — introduced an express bus route, the 99 B-Line,
to help reduce congestion. The Vancouver transportation plan for
Broadway notes that congestion is such that the bus service is at
capacity, and will not be eased until a new rapid transit line is built
paralleling the street. It is anticipated that the SkyTrain's Millennium
Line will be extended to Central Broadway by 2021; the extension is
expected to connect with Canada Line at Broadway-City Hall Station, at
the intersection of Broadway and Cambie Street.
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