Login / RegisterCycling advocate concerned Vancouver Sun headline will “drum up controversy" regarding bike lanes
A long-time cycling advocate is upset over today’s above-the-fold headline on the front page of the Vancouver Sun.
The headline reads, “Bike lanes sure to cause division,” but the online version of the story carries a different headline: “Vancouver bike lanes set to expand with Commercial Drive, Point Grey Road under consideration”.
“It’s disappointing that a paper like the Sun seems to want to stir up division for some reason,” Richard Campbell told the Straight by phone. “I guess maybe it sells papers, but it would be nice if they would take a more measured approach to their headlines and stick to the facts rather than trying to drum up controversy.”
Veteran Sun reporter Jeff Lee referred to proposed capital projects that may include changes to parts of Commercial Drive, Point Grey Road, or Cornwall Avenue “in a quest to reduce bicycle-vehicle conflicts”.
Campbell, also a 2002 Green city-council candidate, spoke at the May 16 planning, transportation, and environment committee meeting referred to by Lee in his story.
“The meeting was mostly about the capital projects that are being approved this year,” Campbell told the Straight. “They are essentially bikeways on residential streets, for the most part. There are short segments that are separated paths. But on most of them, it’s shared with traffic.”
Bike lanes, widened sidewalks, and various traffic-calming measures are among the potential design options that could be put to the communities around Commercial Drive and Point Grey Road as part of consultations on the city's long-term transportation plan.
Jerry Dobrovolny, Vancouver’s transportation director, said after the May 16 meeting that those areas are among the highest-volume routes in the city for cyclists.
“We don’t have a design at this point,” Dobrovolny told reporters. “That’ll be the discussion with the businesses and the neighbours.”
Dobrovolny added that bike lanes in those areas are among “many potential options” that will be part of consultations early this fall.
Campbell told the Straight: “These are all nothing new and they’ve been talked about for decades.” He claimed that the 1997 Transportation Plan approved by then-mayor Philip Owen and the NPA-dominated council had a map to show this.
“There were bike lanes along Commercial and Victoria, Kingsway and Point Grey, Cornwall, and Burrard up until 16th, and Cambie until West 8th, at Seymour and Howe and Nelson and Smythe downtown,” Campbell added. “And, really, none of those have been done, so the city has not been too quick about even implementing some of these things in even their 1997 plan. It is good to see that this council is starting to move ahead with these.”
City council approved five bikeway projects for construction this year.
Bikeways on 45th Avenue between Ontario and Nanaimo streets and on Dumfries Street between 37th and 59th avenues will go ahead, as will revised plans for the Ridgeway Greenway between Nanaimo and Rupert streets, the North Arm Trail between Cambie and Ontario streets, and Union Street at Hawks Avenue.
The projects are part of a cycling work plan approved by city council in May 2010, and the funding was approved in 2011.
Another project, the Comox-Helmcken bikeway, is still in the consultation phase, and staff will report to council on this route later this year.
Vancouver seems to have a very entitled cycling community, many of whom don't respect the rules of the road themselves, or perhaps don't understand that many of the laws that apply to motorists also apply to them. As both a driver and a cyclist I am very well aware of all the issues on both sides and understand the need for more dedicated bike routes, but perhaps some education for some of these cyclists would go a long way to reduce some of the problems and frustrations. As a motorist I had to go through testing, and a driver training program and understand the laws. I am also aware that there are a great number of terrible motorists out there, and jerks, but for every one of them also exists a cyclist who can be placed in the same camp.
The city seems to encourage car travel not discourage it. They've allowed car shares like modo, and car2go, yet have done nothing to bring in a bike share program similar to Montreal's Bixi.
A great number of communitng motorists also drive into the city and park in neighborhoods along transit routes, for the most part they avoid the hour or longer transit commutes on packed busses, and take up free residential parking. If Vancouver wanted to really have a greenest city initiative they would implement a congestion charge in the downtown core similar to that of London, while limiting parking on all streets in Vancouver to 3 hours between 5am and 5pm for all those without permits.
Right now the only incentive to change peoples opinions on cycling and transit is their own desire.
God, some people just don't know how lucky they are to live in Canada.
What Commercial does have is a vibrant bike culture and a neighbourhood of drivers and pedestrians that has long gotten used to seeing lots of bikes on the road. Bikes and cars and peds get along fine there. Accidents that do happen along the street are pretty much all about zany, stringy-haired dudes darting out of side streets on bikes with super-sketchy brakes (if any), carrying some sort of booty that might at some point be transformed into alcoholic beverages. Bike lanes are not going to keep those guys from entering the road with nary a sidewards glance. It's a great area with a weirdly happy balance between road users, it would be a shame to rearrange it.
Maybe if the police took bikes with faulty brakes off the road we'd have fewer accidents. Oh, but I guess helmets - those magic jellybeans you put on your head - are more important safety equipment than brakes!
And ever notice whenever they shoot footage for these stories that half of the cyclists are breaking the law and not wearing helmets? A minisucle minority with an overweaning sense of entitlement.
As a whole, cyclists cause less congestion, noise, pollution and don't take up precious real estate for parking. They cost less in taxes for maintenance of roads in the long run. They are getting exercise which improves health and well-being. Bike paths typically allow for more greenery which makes the urban environment more pleasant. Studies regarding on-street parking vs. bike lanes show increases in commercial activity.
I agree a sense of entitlement is off-putting but just because a few jerks have the right of it doesn't make it wrong.
I don't think they're drumming up resentment at any level. From what I see living downtown, the resentment is created by abso-fucking-lutely idiotic cyclists doing their best to disrupt traffic on a daily basis, and egged on by a completely moronic mayor and council who can't see the forest for the trees.
The reality is we all have to share the road at this point, people are idiots sometimes, whether in a car or on a bike, ALL cyclists and motorists HAVE to take this in to consideration when using the road.
As for the article, I think it hit the nail on the head. Vancouver is constantly upgrading its cycling infrastructure, and has been doing so for the past 30 years. The new lanes have been on the books, through a succession of left- and right-wing city councils, for 15 years. The Province and Sun are creating fake controversy to sell newspapers. It's quite despicable, but about what you can expect from newspapers associated with Conrad Black.