The role of policy learning in urban mobility adaptation: exploring Vancouver’s plan to remove the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts

Abstract

In 2015, Vancouver’s City Council approved a plan for removing the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts and replacing 2.6 km of vestigial expressway infrastructure with a surface boulevard, parks, public space, and housing. This article explores whether policy learning from other cities influenced Vancouver’s decision. Using the Dolowitz-Marsh framework, we found evidence that planners,politicians, and the public introduced examples of expressway removal and infrastructure adaptation during Vancouver’s policymaking process and that lesson drawing influenced the outcome. The policy learning revealed here shows how North American cities can advance a more equal redistribution of urban space by removing expressway infrastructure.