Host City Olympic Transportation Plan (HCOTP) for the 2010 Winter Games

The Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games are the biggest events to occur in the history of the City of Vancouver, with more than a quarter of a million visitors and 10,000 media expected in the City during Games time. This will mean a significant increase in activity on city streets (30% more trips to Downtown), while dealing with a reduced road capacity in areas surrounding Games venues (20% less road capacity to Downtown). To manage Games time conditions, the City developed a Host City Olympic Transportation Plan (HCOTP). The HCOTP includes measures designed to allow local businesses to operate and residents to get where they need to go while allowing athletes, officials, and the media to reliably travel to Games events. These measures include: • Giving priority to athletes, officials and the media with Olympic lanes • Create enhanced pedestrian routes and improved wayfinding • Support transit capacity improvements, led by the City’s partner TransLink • Maximize capacity of streets such as limiting construction-related closures • Adjustments to traffic flow such as 24 hour parking restrictions As a world leader in sustainable transportation, the City is also actively encouraging measures to reduce vehicle traffic by at least 30% by increasing the use of sustainable transportation options such as walking, biking, public transit and carpooling as alternatives to single-occupancy vehicle travel. The City is working closely with its transportation partners including the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC), BC Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure, TransLink, BC Transit, and the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit (VISU), on an integrated Games time plan for getting around the region in 2010. A comprehensive integrated transportation plan was released in March 2009. This paper describes the Host City’s Olympic Transportation Plan (HCOTP) and its relationship to the broader 2010 Winter Games integrated transportation.