We are proud to be Gold level sponsors for this prestigious event which will bring together in Vancouver an international collection of transportation engineers and planners from August 8 through 11 to participate in a full schedule of technical sessions and meetings on a broad range of Transportation Planning and Engineering subjects.

Bunt & Associates staff enjoyed a memorable evening among hundreds of others at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver on June 24, 2010, celebrating the many achievements and contributions of Dr. Michael Stevenson, who is retiring as President and Vice-Chancellor of Simon Fraser University in August 2010. Bunt & Associates has a proud and extensive project history with both Simon Fraser University the emerging and award wining UniverCity community on Burnaby Mountain, which we look forward to continuing in the years to come.

None of us will forget it when the Olympics came to Vancouver. For many, it was a once in a lifetime event. For the Bunt Vancouver office it was also the culmination of over 5 years of transportation planning. It started with the Sea to Sky Highway Improvement Project and ended with the development of traffic management plans for the Sea to Sky Corridor and Whistler with Olympic Strategic Transportation Plans somewhere in between. We did our part to prepare the City for the biggest event it had hosted since Expo ’86. Our office supported the region’s goal of a 30% reduction in auto traffic by changing our office hours to avoid peak commuting times and we offered various incentive prizes for staff to encourage use of alternative modes of transportation - easy for most of us!

Bunt’s office location could not have been better! With the Olympic flame within view and Olympic-related attractions within walking distance, we set out to enjoy two weeks of competitive spirit and activity. Many of us went out to welcome the Olympic flame into Vancouver on the opening day, we rode the street car, attended events, and soaked up the atmosphere on Robson Street.

A particular highlight was the special ‘Bunoc Curling’ Event! This was a tightly fought competition which involved pushing loonies around a light table. For the record, the Canadian’s were locked out of the medals with Israel capturing gold, Indonesia silver, and Team Great Britain taking home bronze.

Despite everything else that was going on during the Olympics, the single most amazing thing we witnessed was the change to Robson Street and downtown Vancouver. And we’re not just talking about the pedestrian barricades. We have never seen Robson Street so busy. The City of Vancouver closed the street (and others) to traffic and the residents filled it up. For the duration of the Olympics, it became the most popular place to go and hang out in the City to ‘take in theatmosphere’.

For us transportation planners, this suggests that people can be drawn to people rather than tangible destinations. What is the trip rate or parking rate for a crowd of people? This of course is not a new idea, but the Olympics brought it into perspective in Vancouver. People sought a communal experience, a sense of community. The high density centre of Vancouver usually means residents walk the streets as relative strangers to each other, not meeting (or even perhaps wanting to meet) anyone they know. This time though, people wanted to experience something as a community. But perhaps it was even more than that. People are drawn to being part of a common identity, in this case Canadian. If in doubt, just ask The Bay. Never have so many people been seen wearing the same ‘uniform’ outside of a sporting venue. In fact, it was a great visual example of community through common identity.

Jane Farquharson, a Senior Transportation Engineer and Principal with Bunt & Associates' Vancouver office, was invited to speak at the Canadian Institute of Transportation Engineer's luncheon meeting in Edmonton on January 12, 2010. Vancouver and Whistler welcomed the world on February 12, 2010 in one of the most successful Winter Olympics ever. Of course, transportation planning for the Vancouver-Whistler 2010 Olympic & Paralympic Games was initiated long before that as part of the Bid Book preparation in 2002, although activity picked up considerably after the 2006 Torino Games. The transportation planning work was lead by VANOC's Olympic & Paralympic Transportation Team (OPTT) and included preparation of Strategic Area Plans in 2006-2007 and Agency Tactical Plans completed in early 2009. The various agencies involved, including VANOC, the BC Ministry of Transportation & Infrastructure, Vancouver, Richmond, West Vancouver, North Vancouver and the Integrated Security Unit prepared more detailed operational plans which were announced in the fall of 2009. Bunt & Associates was involved in all three levels of transportation planning for the Olympics since 2006 to event day. Jane's presentation provided a brief overview of the challenges facing transportation planners in staging the Games as well as a few key elements of current Agency plans, and then focused on several specific Olympics planning projects undertaken by Bunt in the last three years. Click here for a copy of Jane's presentation.

Peter Joyce, P.Eng., President of Bunt & Associates, will be presenting a joint paper with Dr. Francis Navin, titled "Vancouver's Transient Parking Supply and Demand", at the 2009 Annual Conference & Exhibition of the Transportation Association of Canada (TAC) which is being held in Vancouver, BC from October 18-21. In their paper, Mr. Joyce and Dr. Navin consider the growth of parking in the Vancouver downtown area over the last century and present a method to estimate future transient parking demand, taking into account regional transportation objectives and the continuing need for access to convenient parking to serve downtown business interests.

Bunt & Associates is pleased to announce the recent appointment of Dr. Ezekiel Dada, P. Eng., a partner in our Calgary office, to the ITE International Parking Council Executive Committee. As a member of this committee, Ezekiel will draw upon his extensive knowledge of parking forecasting, management, operation and design so as to actively participate in program and research initiatives as well as strengthen the ability of the committee to assess and address the continuing needs of the ITE membership. Bunt & Associates is recognized in Western Canada as a leading firm in the area of parking planning and engineering, and this appointment will serve to expand the company's expertise in the area while concurrently providing an opportunity to facilitate growth and advancement of parking knowledge throughout the industry.

Bunt & Associates was retained by Alberta Infrastructure (A1) to undertake an extensive site investigation and preliminary transportation analysis for 14 proposed school sites in Central and Southern Alberta.The principles outlined in the Safe Routes to School program were considered, as well as issues such as pedestrian and cycle safety, intersection operations, road capacity, and the workability of pick-up and drop-off opportunities.

Bunt & Associates staff recently took part in a well attended public lecture and discussion on improving cycle parking in and around Vancouver. Senior Transportation Planner Adrian Witte outlined global best practice in cycle parking and how it could apply to Vancouver before taking part in a panel discussion with two other speakers. The event was hosted by the Vancouver Public Space Network (http://vancouverpublicspace.ca/) and the Museum of Vancouver as part of their Velo City ( http://www.museumofvancouver.ca/exhibition.php?id=6) exhibition celebrating all things bicycle related. Adrian and the two other expert speakers were also interviewed by CBC Radio as a promotion for the event.

Bunt & Associates continued its support of innovative and sustainable transportation practices as a silver sponsor for the recent CSCE/ITE Joint Symposium "Sustainable Transportation: Where Do You Fit In?". The Symposium, held in Edmonton, Alberta on March 12 & 13, 2009, provided attendees with a variety of topics, each of which addressed an important element of an overall sustainable transportation system. Among the speakers was Adrian Witte of Bunt Vancouver, who presented on the need to think beyond just route infrastructure in planning for an effective and well-supported bicycle environment.

Bunt & Associates has won the Bill Curtis Award for Project of the Year from the Greater Vancouver Section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers. This prestigious award celebrates technical excellence in the field of transportation engineering, design and traffic operations. The selection criteria included technical complexity and innovation, societal importance, sustainability, quantity of work and budget/schedule limitations. Bunt & Associates was given the award for two projects recently undertaken for the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic & Paralympic Games: the Olympic Travel Demand Model and Olympic Strategic Transportation Area Plans.

Paul Bunt, founder of Bunt & Associates, officially retired from the firm in December 2007. Paul has enjoyed a long and distinguished career in the transportation profession, as an educator, public server, and a consultant. Under his leadership, Bunt & Associates has grown over the past 15 years from a single office to one of largest specialist transportation consulting firm in western Canada with offices in Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary and Edmonton and most recently Pemberton, BC. From his southern Ontario home, Paul continues to be active in transportation consulting and has an ongoing relationship with Bunt & Associates.

Paul was awarded a Lifetime Achievement award from the Greater Vancouver section of the Institute of Transportation Engineers in late November, 2008.