VANCOUVER, October 7, 2026 — Road safety matters. Children walking to school, seniors crossing the street, and families out in their neighbourhoods should not be put at risk by speeding or shortcutting. That has not changed.
What has changed is the scale of the concrete “banana barriers” recently installed as traffic-calming measures across Vancouver. They were meant to slow vehicles. In practice, they have gone too far. They are turning local streets into mazes, restricting residents’ access to their own neighbourhoods, pushing excess traffic onto quiet streets, and taking away parking that families, seniors and small businesses rely on. In some places, they are creating new hazards of their own.
Indeed, a petition from Hastings-Sunrise residents calling for removal of the barriers already has more than 3,000 signatures. People are telling us plainly that this is not a solution. This is what happens when City Council lacks the authority to provide effective oversight of certain key changes within Vancouver neighbourhoods.
For local businesses, access matters. When streets are repeatedly diverted or parking is removed, businesses can face additional challenges getting customers, staff, suppliers and deliveries to their doors.
Mayor Ken Sim, along with other ABC councillors and candidates, has toured the neighbourhood, spoken directly with residents and local businesses, and heard their concerns firsthand. ABC majority will change it.
If re-elected, ABC Vancouver will:
- Begin removing the recently installed banana barriers, starting with locations that restrict access, push traffic onto school streets, or fail to deliver a clear safety benefit
- Review every remaining diversion and closure on residential streets, with input from the neighbours who live there
- Restore parking where the barriers removed it
- Keep other measures that slow dangerous driving: speed humps, better crossings, enforcement, and lower posted limits where they make sense
- Ensure that council has the authority to provide effective oversight of major changes, like the large-scale installation of banana barriers, within Vancouver neighbourhoods
Vancouverites deserve streets that are both safe and usable. We’ll start by taking these barriers out.
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