Bob Mackin
At the Vancouver International Auto Show, closing March 29, a sneak-peek at two of the vehicles that will be the most-visible on the streets of Vancouver and the other 15 FIFA World Cup host cities in June and July.
FIFA sponsors Hyundai and Kia with World Cup-branded vehicles at the Vancouver International Auto Show (Mackin)
South Korea’s Hyundai and Kia are FIFA’s global vehicle sponsors. Kia’s EV 5 and Hyundai’s Kona N Line models will be used to shuttle FIFA executives, foreign and domestic dignitaries, officials, sponsors, staff and volunteers to and from Vancouver International Airport, hotels, B.C. Place Stadium, the UBC and Killarney training pitches and the PNE Fan Festival.
Like the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, FIFA World Cup will mean street closures for the fleet of FIFA-accredited, sponsored vehicles, along with chartered buses and their police escorts.
The full network map has not been published. But the downtown maps of match-day and tournament-long closures and local traffic-only streets was quietly updated on March 2.
Some of the streets previously planned for closure have been converted to local traffic only zones.
Downtown Vancouver FIFA World Cup 26 map, as of March 2. Red means closed. Blue means local traffic only. (City of Vancouver)
That followed a Feb. 24 Vancouver city council meeting where a housekeeping motion was sent to the provincial government for rubber-stamping.
Under the Motor Vehicle Act, the following will be designated special use lanes, within 800 metres of arterial highways, from June 11-July 19.
- Granville St. from Southwest Marine Drive to 8450 Granville St. (midway between 68th and 70th)
- West 41st Ave from Dunbar St. to Crown St.
- West Georgia St. from Chilco St. to Broughton St. (lanes on the north side)
- West Georgia St. from Denman St. to Broughton St. (lanes on the south side)
- Pender St. from Nicola St. to West Georgia St.
- East Hastings St. from Boundary Rd. to Slocan St.(~35m west of Kaslo St.)
- McGill St. from Highway 1 on-ramps to Renfrew St.
General ticketholders will be directed to Main Street-Science World SkyTrain station for a “last mile” walk to B.C. Place and its multiple layers of security barriers and airport-style checkpoints.
Downtown road closures will run from mid-May to the end of July.
B.C. Place is hosting seven matches from June 13-July 7. The Fan Festival at Hastings Park will open most days during the 104-match tournament. It was originally supposed to open for viewing of all matches, on every match day.
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