History
History
Abstract
This presentation examines the effects of and responses to automobile-dependent urban growth in Prince George in the years 1940-1970. During that period, Prince George transformed from a frontier sawmill town into a modern city with one of Canada’s fastest growing populations. Between 1941-1951 and 1951-1961, Prince George grew by 57% and 66% respectively. Rapid population increase created high demand for new housing, shopping, and transportation infrastructure that the municipal government had not planned for. Increased automobile traffic posed numerous challenges for the city, with congestion in the downtown core becoming a major problem. By the 1960s, City Council and the Downtown Business Association were actively looking for solutions to this and other urban sprawl issues that were impacting the downtown. The answer they felt was in a modern approach to parking, which included the improvement of on-street parking, the implementation of parking meters and a parking fines system, increasing the number of parking lots, and the construction of a four-storey parkade.
Claudette Gouger
Claudette Gouger is a UNBC MA History student in her final year of study. Her current research interests focus on the growth of Prince George in the postwar period, specifically a sensory history of people’s responses to pulp mill development in the 1960s. Professionally, Claudette has over twenty years’ experience in post-secondary Student Affairs and seven years’ experience conducting community consultation processes for major mining projects in BC’s central Interior.