Login / RegisterKingsway bike lanes off Burnaby's radar
The mayor of Burnaby has confirmed that he and his council are “not looking at any bike lanes along Kingsway”.
“We haven't contemplated that,” Derek Corrigan told the Straight by phone. “We're trying as much as possible to separate bike lanes from traffic, and not to mix cars and bikes when we can avoid it.”
Long-time cycling activist Richard Campbell told the Straight on May 17 that he'd like to see Kingsway accommodate some kind of bicycle lane from Mount Pleasant in Vancouver to Edmonds SkyTrain Station in South Burnaby. He said it could be one separated lane in each direction or a two-way separated lane to one side, as seen on Hornby and Dunsmuir streets in downtown Vancouver.
“People use Kingsway because it's direct,” Campbell said at the time. Whether you're in a car or on a bike, it's a “nice and quick way” to get close to downtown, he explained.
With new road infrastructure in Burnaby, Corrigan said his staff are looking at increasing the capacity for bike lanes, but he said they “haven't been inclined to do retrofitting”.
“Essentially, anytime you retrofit, you're going to remove more lanes of traffic, which is going to cause us nothing but difficulties, either for people who want to park or for the amount of commuter traffic that we're pushing through our city on a daily basis,” Corrigan added.
Vancouver-based sustainable-transportation advocate and former Green Party council candidate Bev Ballantyne agreed: “Kingsway is a logical spot for bike lanes,” Ballan-tyne told the Straight by phone. “It cuts through the city in a distinct way.”
If you'll permit me a generalization: There are two types of cyclists in North America: Hardcore racer-wannabees who unfortunately set much of the tone and context of how cycling is perceived (as in: if you don't look like a mechanoid bug in aerodynamic spandex, you're not a real cyclist), and then there is the rest of us. The rest of us don't want to ride on Kingsway, even if there is a white painted line that will run alongside massive trucks and drunk idiots. Super-cyclists have to start eating some humble-pills and stop demanding that their cities become training grounds for their Paris-Brest-Paris run, and push for cycling infrastructure that is inclusive, and ultimately mainstream.
Kingsway is quick and direct and lots of shops and other destinations are along it. Not surprising that it is heavily used. The BC Parkway for the most part is several blocks away and is really not an option unless you are going long distances. Saying there should be no bike lanes on Kingsway because the Parkway is a few blocks away is like saying there should be no car lanes on Imperial because Kingsway is just a bit way.
The right of way is really wide especially in areas where redevelopment. There is plenty of space for bike lanes.
I still have a few points I'd like to air, or for you to consider:
1. The article states that you want a lane from Mount Pleasant all the way to Edmonds, which, if used as an A to B commute, becomes a long distance haul that (basically) runs parallel to the 7-11 trail, right?
2. Maybe making 20th avenue from Main or Cambie to the 7-11 a designated bike street would help, but at around the Nanaimo station the trail starts to go reasonably parallel to Kingsway.
3. As for cyclists on the sidewalk: many of those cyclists will still be on the sidewalk even with a painted line, won't they? Either you have the thin white line separating you from the crushing weight of Hummers, SUVs and dump-trucks, which would still leave unsure/inexperienced cyclists (those fellow travellers we need riding to justify the infrastructure, right?) on the side walk, or you employ the (awesome) hornby model, and occupy a whole separate lane, ensnarling traffic for blocks and turning drivers apoplectic at the thought of a under-used trail two blocks north or south.
These kind of traffic delays make crossing Kingsway very scary, as cars often get stuck between intersections when the lights change, and you have to thread your way through tired, distracted drivers even though the light is green for you. I ride everyday with my son, and have to cross Kingsway around Victoria, and the recent construction (i.e., lane closures) resulted in brutal traffic jams and several scary incidences. It's hard to see this kind of separation occurring through parts of the Joyce shopping district, for example.
5. Using the model of the seawall would work, wouldn't it, if applied to the 7-11 trail? Separated bike and pedestrian lanes with many auxiliary bike lanes shooting off of the core path to connect you with the aforementioned shops and busy districts (metrotown, joyce-collingwood, etc.)?
There are also areas of kingsway (i.e., around crystal mall) where the sidewalks could accommodate bike thoroughfares too.
While the BC Parkway and Kingsway do cross at Boundary, the future east and west one goes, the farther the Parkway is away from Kingsway. Especially west of Nanaimo, it is really too far away to be a reasonable alternative. There are also hills between the two. It is not reasonable to expect that someone going to and from locations on Kingsway would detour over to the BC Parkway. Just too hilly or too inconvenient. So either they will cycle on Kingsway, risking injury and conflicts with traffic or more likely, they will just drive or cram on a bus instead.
You are likely correct. Some (or many) would still cycle on the sidewalk if there were only painted bike lanes. On a busy street like Kingsway, separated bike lanes would be much better than painted ones and would attract people of all ages. They have dramatically reduced injuries on Hornby and sidewalk riding.
Agreed, for the Parkway, especially in the busy areas near SkyTrain stations, seperate bike and ped paths should be built.
I'd like to se HUB spend more time and energy educating cyclists on how to ride safely in traffic, instead of trying to keep bikes off the road, which is the last thing I think a cycling advocacy group should be doing.
Cyclists who cycle on sidewalks because they are afraid of being hit by a car don't realize that they are in *more* danger of being hit by a car by using the sidewalk. On the sidewalk they have to cross a street at every intersection in the crosswalk, where right-turning cars can't see them. This is why cycling on sidewalks is illegal. It's because it's more dangerous. It's not an arbitrary law.
Cyclists are most likely to injured by falling, not by being hit by a car. And when collisions do happen, being rear ended while riding on the road is the least common type of car-bike collision, and yet is the one that many cyclists seem to be most fearful of, and which has them riding on the sidewalk.
Come on, HUB. Let's do some real cycling advocacy work.
To clarify, I'm not with HUB.
While rear-end collisions are not the most common, they are likely to fatal thus peoples concern of them is well founded especially on a street with fast moving traffic like Kingsway. Separated bike lanes have been proven in Vancouver and other cities to reduce collisions, injures and sidewalk riding.
Motor vehicles and bicycles travel at different speeds. Forcing them to "share" the same space is both frustrating for cyclists and drivers and dangerous for cyclists. While education does help somewhat, it does not solve this fundamental problem. Separated bike lanes do.
The Vancouver bureaucracy says it will make our neighborhood more "walkable" – by encouraging bicycles to continue to hurtle towards us along the sidewalk?
Officials pretend to consult. What they really do is to insult.