A local cycling advocate believes the downtown portion of Burrard Street should be next in line for a separated bike lane.

“I have always been in favour and have always pushed, even 10 years ago, for having proper segregated routes on Burrard Street,” Rob Wynen, vice chair of the City of Vancouver’s bicycle advisory committee, told the Straight by phone. “Part of the reason for that is the idea was to have a bit of a promenade-style street. It’s also the most direct route off of the [Burrard] bridge.”

Wynen envisions Burrard becoming a “gateway” street around which a downtown network of bike lanes can be built. Car parking isn’t a “huge issue” on Burrard, according to him, partly because an adequate number of spaces are available on side streets and because curbside parking gets “stripped” for buses at certain times of the day.

Wynen said the issue will be discussed during the bicycle committee’s next meeting, which will take place at City Hall on Wednesday (May 19). He said it dovetails with council’s approval earlier this month of up to $500,000 in funding for the development of a new 10-year cycling program master plan.

Vision Vancouver councillor Geoff Meggs told the Straight that council directed staff earlier this year to “develop a segregated lane on that alignment, but said they could consider Hornby, Thurlow, or Burrard. So Rob is advocating for Burrard, which is fine, but the staff will consider three options to connect the proposed Dunsmuir route to the Burrard Bridge. So it could be Burrard.”

Charles Gauthier, a “fair-weather cyclist” and the executive director of the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association, told the Straight he is “in two minds on this”.

“Be it Burrard, Thurlow, or Hornby, it doesn’t matter—our concerns will still be the same,” Gauthier said. “So how do you address these issues with right-hand turns? How do you address loading capacity and on-street-parking issues? If the city has answers to those, we’d be interested in knowing what they are.”