Group wants the city to ask for a vote of the people if the city is going to take away vehicle lanes of traffic from its thoroughfares

Paul Valencia
ClarkCountyToday.com

Representatives from Save Vancouver Streets dropped off thousands of signatures at City Hall on Monday, another step in the initiative process that they hope will lead the city to ask its citizens for their blessing before taking away lanes of vehicle traffic..

After years of the city’s Complete Streets projects, people are seeing what those changes have looked like, and many are unhappy that the city seemingly was uninterested in how the changes would affect people who live in those neighborhoods.

Many of the Complete Streets projects include taking away lanes of vehicle traffic.

That is what happened at the most recent Complete Street project, on Southeast 34th Street. 

Organizers of Save Vancouver Streets want to make sure citizens are heard before the next major change is made to city streets.

Save Vancouver Streets wants the city to have to go to a vote of the people any time it wants to remove current vehicle traffic lanes. 

Justin Wood, a committee member for Save Vancouver Streets, and a few of his supporters brought more than 6,500 signatures to Vancouver City Hall on Monday. A little more than 4,200 signatures is required for any further action.

“For me, in some respects I’m glad we got to it, but I’m actually somewhat saddened that we had to do it,” Wood said. “I think having to go this route was an extreme way to get the council to actually listen to people’s concerns. I wish we didn’t have to do all this effort. I wish they just wanted to listen to people and let people address their concerns and talk to council, which is very hard to do right now.”

Save Vancouver Streets was on the clock. Signatures are only valid for six months. It will be six months later this week when the organization first started collecting signatures.

There are a number of options that can happen in the near future. First, the city has to verify the signatures. Wood said he is thrilled to have so many more signatures than the required number. 

The city could then adopt the new proposal, challenge it, or allow it to go to the voters next November.

Monday was just another step in the process, but Wood is excited about how far Save Vancouver Streets has come in 2024.

Wood said that McGillivray Boulevard is next on the city’s “chopping block” to make major changes. The timeline of this initiative process might not work to stop that work, but it could put a pause on the city’s plans for future changes on major thoroughfares.

It has been about a month since the new Southeast 34th Street design opened. It was an aggravating few days worth of adjustments for drivers, especially those turning left on 164th Avenue to get to Highway 14. 

“Anecdotally, I’ve talked to a number of people who have changed their habits on where they drive,” Wood said. “They don’t know what that light is going to be like.”

There might be less drivers on 34th and 164t, but Wood said that just means more drivers on 192nd now.

“There are things they could have done that wouldn’t have resulted in the removal of lanes that could have provided better bicycle protection, better mobility for everybody, if they were truly trying to balance cars, pedestrians, bicycles,” Wood said. “The frustration for a lot of people is that cars are somewhat of an afterthought.”

Wood said it’s almost like the city is saying: “We want to check all the other boxes. Whatever’s left, we’ll figure out what to do with cars.”

For more information on Save Vancouver Streets, go to: https://www.savevancouverstreets.com/