It's great to see progress on these important improvements to Vancouver's transportation network. By making cycling more accessible to those who feel intimidated having to share the road with fast-moving cars and trucks, this plan will provide a safe space for novice and timid cyclists and over time will mean less cars on the road.

With so many childhood health experts bemoaning sedentary children, these bike lanes will be one tool parents can use to get their kids moving. With safer streets for kids, we can get back to the good old days when we could ride our bikes around town without the constant fear that an aggressive or inattentive driver might create a family-shattering tragedy in a vain effort to shave a few minutes off their travel time.

Glad to see this Vancouver council actually doing something to promote sustainable choices instead of the usual political tactic of talking about the environment but failing to give people the tools to make eco-friendly choices an easy decision in their every day lives.

Jerry, do we really need to study it for $1,250,000? In local neigbourhoods, the streets are quiet enough to ride safely. If you cycle, you know that we need east-west and north-south dedicated bike lanes in downtown Vancouver to keeps cars and TransLink buses from running us over.

From your physique, you don't cycle but are providing solutions for cyclists. How do you get to work, if you call working for the city, work? Geez.

Rather then spending more money on bike routes that I don't use because they topographically suck (Ontario between 1st-16th, when the grade on main street just one block over is much easier to ride), how bout you spend money on how to teach parents and kids on how to ride on the street.

I rode my bike at seven years old on most of the roads around my house, with absolutely no issues, no reason kids today can't do the same. I then proceeded to ride my bike to high school with no issues on Cambie street during rush hour, because it has less of a hill then the Heather street bike route. In (counts) nearly ten years of continuous cycling around this city, I've only been in ONE actual crash due to a motor vehicle and that's due to them not shoulder checking, and I WAS IN A bike lane on Hornby and was cycling everyday as a bike courier.

If you want to increase your bike share of the daily commute, teach parents that it's safe to let their little darlings ride on the side streets, and when they have gone riding or at least supervised them and both feel confident that they can ride on a slightly busier street, let them. Let them build their skills like you teach them to drive. Cycling safe isn't hard, and they'll probably fall off their bike when they're little and come home with scrapes, but that's part of being a kid too. Cars don't specifically go out to the road to find a cyclist to hit(mostly), and generally do their best to leave space for cyclists, especially kids. The respect that I've seen cars give to kids on the Ontario bike route near my hour is astounding. Just like playing road hockey on the street, cars are quite happy to slow down and let the kid realize what's up.

Or at least that's my experience.

This is another step in the right direction.

Hopefully Jerry and the remainder of the city's citizens will start to cycle with the safer infrastructure. That is the ultimate goal....to improve it for all taxpayers. We all pay for it so we should all enjoy the benefits that arise from active transportation. Improved health, better air quality, and happier citizens as a result.

Dust off your bike and enjoy this thoughtful plan!

Please tell me Mr. Gregor Robertson, when your vision of flying unicorns and bike lanes around the city is complete, what will be done about the increased traffic congestion problems?

I'll tell you exactly what will happen: A new mayor will come in, address the problem from a sensible angle and say... hmmm.... we've got all this unused space (designated for a handful of cyclists). Let's turn them into vehicle lanes and solve the problem.

Drivers (and some here who claim to be cyclists but don't want to be 'inconvenienced' when driving) will always oppose any of their precious pavement being allocated for cyclists. They would oppose sidewalks for pedestrians too if they weren't occasionally pedestrians themselves. Just as a sidewalk with a curb is needed to protect pedestrians from motorists, so is a barrier needed to protect cyclists from motorists. No amount of 'education' of motorists (or cyclists) will prevent motorists from hitting or coming dangerously close to cyclists if there is no barrier preventing them from doing so. Of course, more driver education and stricter licensing and testing might help, but as it is now, most drivers lack both skill and care; hence the high rate of accidents, not to mention unreported 'close calls.'
I see large numbers of reckless and unskilled cyclists come out in the summer as well, and education, enforcement and infrastructure will help with this problem, but it is still secondary to the danger motorists pose to cyclists.