VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – At least two dozen people have signed up to speak on Vancouver’s ambitious plan to get people out of their cars at today’s council meeting.

By the year 2040, city planners want to see only a third of people use their cars when they make a trip inside the city limits.

“The plan recognizes the critical importance of land use in bringing people closer to their daily destinations and shortening commutes,” says the report that’s going to council. “Reducing the need for car ownership and the associated expenses is an overlooked aspect of housing affordability that the plan helps address.”

To motivate people to use transit, bikes or their legs instead of their vehicles, city planners are proposing everything from more bike lanes to street cars.

“Street cars are a very friendly, great way to travel and every other city that has them finds them to be extraordinarily helpful for seniors because they’re not afraid to hop on them,” says city councillor Elizabeth Ball.

Ball is impressed with the 123 page document overall, but she wants to make sure seniors who rely on their cars aren’t being forgotten in the city’s ambitious goals.

“If you talk about cutting off vehicle access to certain streets, basically you’ve made it impossible for seniors who need to drive to be able to get to a doctor’s appointment and you’ve made their lives more difficult,” Ball says. “I have a 94-year-old father who has gone from incredibly active to being in a walker to a part-time wheelchair to a full-time wheelchair, so I’m really connected to the disabled community and the senior’s community.”

Critics have called the plan a war on cars because it calls for fewer parking stalls at apartment buildings and outside businesses.

“I think we have to not cut off all possibilities of people being able to drive in a responsible and sensible way,” Ball says.

The 2040 Transportation Plan has been in the works for two years.