Vancouver Olympics Activity Builds

Vancouver -- Helicopters are buzzing my house. Just now one was so close it sounded like it was going to land on my street. I am not even near downtown. Rather I live right by UBC, host to the Olympic women's hockey games. This is supposed to be a no-fly zone, but maybe that doesn't start for a few days. Regardless, for the past few weeks there has been significantly more small-plane and helicopter traffic over my neighbourhood than usual. Maybe security and media are capturing images before the skies are shut down.

Road closures throughout Vancouver as now in full effect. Someone was trying to tell me over the weekend that the roads downtown were a dream, that getting from the Stanley Park causeway (off the Lion's Gate Bridge), down Georgia and into town was actually faster than any other weekday recently experienced. I will have to see that for myself because I simply don't believe this is possible. A lot of people have left town -- this is true -- and others are making alternate arrangements for their jobs, like working from home or switching their hours to early or late in the day. But this decrease is far outweighed by new arrivals. Including tourists.

Despite the average two-to-five percent drop in resident traffic, the massive increase in visitors is going to cause huge problems on the road. The City of Vancouver's own map of road closures and restrictions (see attached image) tells it all; does that look like half of downtown to you? Because it is. The good news is that the blue lines, meaning "Olympic Lanes," do not indicate entire street closures but rather lanes set aside for buses and Olympic traffic only. Major streets, which are normally clogged during rush hour with three full lanes, will now have that traffic squished into two lanes. Mayhem is sure to ensue.

Athletes Descending on Vancouver

Olympic athletes are arriving in hordes. On Saturday night, my mum was stuck in the Vancouver Airport arrivals lounge surrounded by the Russian Olympic team because her husband got the time wrong and made her wait an hour. An expatriate Czech, who actually fled Prague the day the Soviet tanks invaded in August 1968, surrounded by cocky Russian athletes in her new home town of Vancouver. Yeah, her husband spent the weekend making it up to her, you know it.

The large orange area on the bottom right of the map is Olympic Village, home to athletes and their families. Even foot and bicycle traffic is restricted here. This part of False Creek is very new, so there are no local residents to disturb. However people coming from East Vancouver by bike will generally take this path as they don't have to share with cars -- for the most part, anyway. Also, the Cambie Bridge -- directly to the left of the big orange "area closure" of the Olympic Village -- will be closed to cars any time there is an event, including awards ceremonies, at BC Place. I heard the athletes will walk across the Cambie Bridge so am not sure if regular pedestrians will be allowed to go as well or exactly how that is going to be monitored.

Preparations and Changes Confuse Even Knowledgeable Residents

Now that I look at this map closely, it's not even accurate. There are going to be tents put up to the right of the Olympic Village, which will host some of the free live music events. There should be a brown area marked off on the east side of False Creek, where Science World is. I really feel for visitors. It took me about 10 minutes to find the proper UBC events schedule and attendant transit information the other day, and it has taken me some navigating between the official Vancouver Olympics site and the City of Vancouver Web site to find this map. Eventually I found it under a non-highlighted section of the City site at http://olympichostcity.vancouver.ca.

As I said, the athletes are here. A long walk through Pacific Spirit Regional Park by UBC this weekend bore proof. Usually there is a mix of joggers, cyclists and people languidly walking with their coffees and/or dogs. This weekend the vibe on the trails was significantly heightened; large and small groups of extremely fit people blazing at top speed while casually carrying on conversations passed me at regular intervals. Beeps and other odd sounds of heart-rate measuring equipment emitted from deep under layers of clothing.

If I was an athlete training I would choose this area to work out as well. Only those from undeveloped countries, other parts of Canada, or remote areas of, say . . . Russia, will have the pleasure of running through an actual forest so close to civilization. Anyone from Europe or Asia does not get to see a forest like this without a serious drive out of town. I have been to "forests" in Germany, for example, and they are completely manicured parks compared to this. The trees there are planted in neat rows, of all things.

It was just announced today that Vancouver Airport was closed for almost half an hour on January 31 as two CF-18 military jets were scrambled to intercept an "aircraft of interest" flying out of Boundary Bay Airport. No word as to whether this was a real emergency or just "something showing up on the radar."