Walking to YvR
 

What would be the safest path to walk to YVR from downtown Vancouver? Google maps is suggesting I "walk" across the skytrain bridge and take a back road, and Grant McConachie lacks a sidewalk from Arthur Lang to the airport it seems...

​​​​​​Is it just generally a bad idea to walk to an airport?

Yes it is generally a bad idea to try and walk into or out of any major airport. Especially when there is a cheap public transportation option to begin with.

https://www.translink.ca/Fares-and-P...R-AddFare.aspx

It's actually free from Templeton station to YVR. But I think the point is to either bike or walk the entire way. I see no reason why air terminals are special compared to say, bus terminals or train terminals, especially in metro Vancouver, a city that prides itself on bike lanes and such.

BTW this is a serious query. I intend to walk starting 3:30AM tomorrow to my YVR-SFO J seat. Right now it looks like knight street to Bridgeport will be the way... Aweful path for pedestrians, especially in the anticipated -8C overnight.

Wish I knew that last year when I walked from west Richmond where I stayed at an AirBnB before my coach flight to DEN connecting to my DreamLiner Biz flight to Asia.

It was OK, as I ended up hopping on a parking lot shuttle to the airport - lots of pax, so I did not look out of place.

Gotta say, from Vancouver it's an awfully long way to walk, especially if forecast calls for -8 :eek: :(

If you do walk, we have a thread on walking to airports in Budget Travel. Don't recall posting about YVR, but maybe I should give the thread a bump ;) (with a legitimate post).

Well to each his own DrunkCargo. I don't know why and you haven't said why you want to do this but it's your choice.

There is apparently a bicycle route into the airport and presumably you can use that to walk in as well. You can find a bicycle map linked here: Bicycles and Cycling | YVR

So why would anyone want to start walking at 3.30am in -8C weather when they could ride in nice warm public transportation for free?

Agree about walking at Zero Dark Thirty in freezing (and likely since it's Vancouver) wet weather, but the free part is only from Templeton station, but that is only about 45 minute walk to the terminal IIRC (yes, I took a shuttle to, but walked to west Richmond FROM terminal day before).

It's a free country, but I'm genuinely curious about why on earth you would do this???

What's the matter with walking?

I've walked into or out of a number of airports over the years - YUL, LGA, LAX, and SYD come to mind.
Maybe it's a way to get some exercise on the road. I'd take a good urban walk over a hotel gym treadmill any day.

Bolding mine.

And I HAVE personally walked to YVR from west Richmond, but since there is a river in the way, the long way, about an hour and a half.

Why not walk and swim:
"True North Strong and Free" :D

Having spent my last three college years and most of my working life in Texas, that has a whole 'nother connotation :eek:

And that river is pretty wide .... for a swim anyway.

I missed a bus stop once (driver issues) so ended up walking from the side of the road back and into the airport.

It’s certainly possible. But most airports are designed for vehicles so sidewalks may be limited or missing. For that reason doing it while dark could be dangerous.

I’m not an expert on YVR to judge accessibility by foot.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with walking. I walk a lot myself. I'm just not sure that it's sensible (which is why I'm trying to understand the motivation) to walk to an international airport (designed for car access) at 330 in the morning, in the dark at -8C. If it's exercise OP is after, how about a stroll through Stanley Park the afternoon before?

My suggestion is to walk down Miller Rd. There's sidewalk nearly all the way from Russ Baker Way to the airport.

Follow the bike path coming down the Arthur Lang and that'll get you onto Miller Rd.

Alternatively, that you could walk across the skytrain overpass as shown on Google maps. That'll take you to N Service Rd. Walk all the way down and you'll end up at Intl arrivals.

Great suggestion if anyone else intends to walk, but given that OP is probably at the airport or already in the air ....

I don't know if there's anything "special" per se (and more power to you if you want to walk to airports), but I can think of a couple of reasons why they do behave differently:

• Airports require substantially more land than bus or railway stations -- especially compared to some large central city railway stations where basically everything but the main concourse is underground, airports require large amounts of land on the surface, which often has the effect of blocking off the walkable parts of airports (the terminals) from other parts of the city. The noise and pollution can also make it unpleasant to walk.
• The average air traveler (on average! not the "HBO only" flyertalk crowd) has more luggage than the average bus or rail traveler, especially compared a lot of rail and bus travel doesn't permit checked luggage, so people often get naturally limited to what they can carry on their own. Because of their luggage air travelers often need to arrive by some kind of motorized vehicle (whether it be a train, bus or car).
• Airports generally "came of age" in the automobile era, where it was assumed that the majority of people accessing them would be by private vehicle, so little thought was given to pedestrian or even transit paths.
• Also because they came of age later than bus and especially railway stations, airports also tend to be located on the outskirts or in non-central parts of the city, so fewer people are willing to walk there.

Here's an airport that was re-engineered so that many of its passengers arrive by walking:

https://www.portstoronto.com/airport...an-tunnel.aspx

That is an airport on an island in Toronto Harbour. Before the pedestrian tunnel, you would have to wait for a ferry.
Many Torontonians still arrives for YTZ departures by transit, car or cab.

It would have been nice to hear what the OP's motivation was but it doesn't look like we will hear it now.

At -8C, he might be walking on water?

Having spent my junior high and high school days in Edmonton, didn't think too much about -8 (we used to use Fahrenheit back then), but isn't -8 kind of cold for Vancouver? Don't recall it being quite that cold in Victoria.

I've walked to SAN, and sometimes it's faster than sitting in traffic along that route. And I've walked to and from the Rogers Centre in Toronto to Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport for Blue Jays games. The only issue was bringing my carry-on into the park.

From where :confused:

Even from the closest Trolley station it would be no contest. And from downtown :rolleyes: I've walked that at least half dozen times, and there's no way car or bus would take an hour to do this, even when there was construction along the way.

Walk to YVR is nice over Skytrain bridge, just not at 3:30am.

Cycle is doable too. From downtown take Burrard to Arbutus corridor then over Oak Street bridge. Arthur Laing has a marked bike lane but is far too dangerous.

Years ago I walked to CMB, sort of. Because of the Tamil insurgency, the airport was closed to taxis and so I needed to cover the final 1.5 km on foot dragging my Samsonite behind me.
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