Viaducts must go: Jeff Kenworthy, urban studies speaker

Professor Jeff Kenworthy, a prominent transportation researcher whom the Urban Studies Program brought to Vancouver to give a free public lecture on the concept of planning for  "peak car" in September, has now published an opinion piece in The Vancouver Sun that takes a strong stand in favour of removal of the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts.

"The City of Vancouver has created a great plan to accomplish the removal of these viaducts and to turn the area into a globally significant new urban district, including much-needed affordable housing. Few better opportunities ever present themselves to any city to do something excellent on so many fronts. Let’s hope that the City continues to be true to its well-earned global reputation and demolishes the Dunsmuir and Georgia Viaducts."

Read the full piece here.

Kenworthy (bio), who has travelled to Vancouver several times in his long career and included the city in his transportation studies, went on a walking tour of the viaducts with a Vancouver city planner after his September 22 lecture, along with a group of urban studies students.

Kenworthy's lecture and visit was part of the Urban Studies Program's "Moving the City" lecture series, which has been made possible through the generosity of the Fraser Valley Real Estate Board, the Real Estate Foundation of British Columbia, Langara College, the University of the Fraser Valley, and SFU's City Program.

The next lecture in the series is on October 28 by Robert Cervero: Mass Transit Needs Mass.