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Vancouver city staff recommend keeping downtown bike lanes
Vancouver council approved separated bike lanes on streets including the Dunsmuir Viaduct on a trial basis in 2010.
Stephen Hui
A staff report going before Vancouver city council next week recommends making the separated bike lanes downtown permanent.
The separated lanes on Dunsmuir Street, the Dunsmuir Viaduct, Hornby Street and connecting streets were approved on a trial basis in 2010.
According to the staff report, the lanes have led to “both immediate and sustained growth of cycling on these routes”.
The report shows a 19 percent increase in annual bicycle trips on the Dunsmuir Viaduct between April 2011 and March 2012, compared to the previous year. The permanent bike lanes on the Burrard Bridge are seeing the most bicycle traffic, with 51,000 trips recorded in March 2012, compared to 26,000 on the Dunsmuir Viaduct. Dunsmuir Street saw 32,000 trips during the same month, and 22,000 bike trips were recorded on Hornby Street.
Ongoing maintenance of the existing downtown separated bike lanes is expected to cost about $50,000 in annual operating costs.
City staff are also looking at additional safety modifications to the downtown lanes over the next few years, including signal or other changes at vehicle right-turn lanes, and raising sections of the Dunsmuir separated bike lanes “to improve accessibility for vehicle passengers”.
The report will go to the city’s planning, transportation and environment committee next Wednesday (June 13).
The CoV is still waiting for private enterprise to lead the way, but news-flash: there will always be another cell phone store, Starbucks or cheque-cashing place put there instead. Bike stations are not a sure thing, but one thing is sure: without them, we will be fighting to keep our bike lanes just the second a reactionary city council is elected. Which will happen in the next election or three.
Thank you City of Vancouver.
Helmcken/Comox greenway - coming soon - should be just the ticket!
I suspect anyone in opposition to these separated lanes has never actually tried to use them.
The intersection of Dunsmuir and Hornby is still awkward and it's unclear just what to do. This has been figured out in Europe years ago, they should have a look at how it's done there. Maybe they'll get some tips from Europeans at the Velo City conference coming up.
So, yay! I love living in a city that's situated in the modern world and not digging in their heels trying to make an outdated thing from the past still work.