Well, without some kind of benchmark, such as how many bike trips occurred before the separated bike lane or how many cars are using the street, it’s difficult to draw much in the way of any conclusions from the numbers at this point. Hopefully, as the City posts more data going forward, we’ll better be able to judge the effect of the lane.

As far as improvements, assuming the bike lane is there to stay (a safe assumption, IMO), the main change I’d like to see from my perspective as a pedestrian is for more breaks in the ugly grey planters, to make J-walking easier between Robson and Smythe (not necessarily the most sympathetic request, but there you go).

I’d also like to see the planters replaced by something less ugly one day, though maybe they’ll look nicer in the spring.

@IanS

Perhaps those places were people frequently jaywalk are good candidates for mid-block crosswalks. I see a few places like that around town (Dunsmuir/Melville between Burrard & Thurlow is a good one.)

Being only an occasional driver, but frequent pedestrian on Hornby St. I’ve noticed a lot more snarled traffic in the blocks between Nelson and Georgia, but honestly not that many bikers. I agree with the above that they should have a few more breaks in the planters.

In a slightly related note, I seriously hope that the City will just keep Robson Square fully pedestrian and not return the street to car traffic after the improvements are complete. It could be such a useful area for all people not just specific segments (i.e. bicyclists, drivers).

When I do drive, I’m disheartened by the way lanes seem to randomly end and funnel cars at intersections that don’t meet drivers’ needs.

I also agree that there should be far more parking north of Dunsmuir.

Let’s try to break 300 this time, folks!
gmgw

In the summer, expect the hornby numbers to quadruple. More and more people will find how it fits into their lives. Just give it a few months.

Also, have a police officer at Drake at Hornby, and ticket every car that turns right on a red light on drake going north west. I stood at there for 2 minutes, and counted 3 cars turning on a red light. Can’t Drivers see the sign? It says “no right turn on a red light”

Accoding to Kevin Quinlan’s twitter, the city has stats on commute time increases due to the Hornby lane.

No link yet, but the claim is no increase in the morning, 60 second increase in afternoon.

Forgive me if I and others are somewhat skeptical as to any numbers that Vision, er, the city, er, Penny Ballem puts out……

I wrote to the relevant dept. after reading Councilman Meggs’ recent promise in the Sun to make the data available. No response yet, but it’s only been a week or so.

Er, the data has been released. Unless you mean some other data. Such as traffic volume.

@ spartikus #16

Perhaps if there were proof that the final numbers were actually put out by the CoV Engineering department, some would be less skeptical. And note, ‘less skeptical’.

However, it has been reported from time to time there are other fingers involved in the numbers pie. Those that have the final ‘say’ in what is issued out to the unwashed public. Like, Penny Ballem.

Kind of like the percentage of businesses the CoV reported as being ‘for’ the Hornby bike lane, which weren’t quite in keeping with what the biz associations were reporting on behalf of those same members.

And how the enitre supposed ‘public consultation’ surrounding these lanes were a complete sham.

It isn’t like the city hasn’t doctored numbers to suit their needs in the past.

So, unless a third ‘untouched’ party is involved in the reporting, I have zero reason to take the ‘city’ at their ‘word’.

I’ll echo citybiker’s request (#2) for a clearer way for cyclists to turn right from southbound Hornby onto westbound Drake.

I’d also like to see Robson Square be pedestrian only with a pedestrian scramble crossing at Hornby and Robson.

So, 1900 trips could inlcude cyclists traveling to work and then, traveling the same route back home, or bike couriers making frequent trips back and forth along the same route.

Kind of like this announcement (below) made by the Mayor and the city, where the city’s website did not support the numbers at the time (and still doesn’t) . They announced the ‘millionth rider’ as if this was achieved solely because of the bike lane. What they failed to include in the announcement was that the number included all those riders that used the bridge prior to the bike lane as well as those after the bike lane. I still can’t figure out how they came to the number as there was no counting mechanism in place at the time. But hey, they say it is so, so who am I or anyone to question it….right?

…”With the millionth cyclist crossing the Burrard Bridge before the lane’s first birthday and use of the Dunsmuir separated bike lane up 250 percent over the past few months, the City is asking for public input on the proposed Hornby Street bike lane.’

It was about the same time that they announced a ‘24% increase in bike ridership’ over the Burrard Bridge, without qualifying that 24% was the equivalent to a 0.8% increase.

So when I and others question the ‘numbers’ we have reason.

Spartikus, the text of the email was as follows:

Hello Bike Vancouver:

I’ve looked at your website on the downtown separated bike lanes:

http://vancouver.ca/engsvcs/transport/cycling/

I’m not sure if this information is posted, and I’m unable to find it but can you direct me to, or provide me, any stats showing bicycle usage of the Hornby Street bike lanes? Preferably stats comparing the use of the previously non-separated lane, and the current use of the separated trial bike lane?

Thanks very much and regards…

@ Westernder #25,

pssst….they’ve not had a chance to manufacture the numbers yet….

But now that they know people are asking, I am quite sure the comparative numbers will be very positive and show a definite upswing!

@Frances… Thank you for asking. And I agree, even being a staunch opponent to how these lanes were designed and imposed on us, I can almost certainly say now is not the time to start judging statistics. We have absolutely no benchmark to go by so no matter what we see in these stats it will certainly be up for debate. However living on Hornby street I can say that the numbers do not APPEAR to be false. If you take the latest weekly numbers and divide by 7 days a week and 10 daylight hours a day you get an average of about 44 trips per hour. That’s entirely believable. Admittedly there are times where I won’t see a cyclist for ages, but I have also seen waves of 6 or 7 go by as well. So they obviously balance out.

A huge temporary improvement I would like to see to reduce confusion is to change the red and yellow advance right turn lamps into red and yellow arrows. More often than not at the corner of Hornby and Nelson northbound drivers stop at the intersection because they see the red light, missing that it’s the right turn signal. This is especially acute in the dark when the lamp is very bright and you can’t see the “right turn signal” sign that’s beside it.

Once more stats are in I’ll be sure to have PLENTY of other recommendations.

Really interesting to see the network effects on Dunsmuir due to the opening of Hornby.

For example, on Jan 17, Dunsmuir between Hornby and Howe was 1426 bikes which is pretty close to the summertime high for that segment. The highest bike traffic on Hornby is near Dunsmuir as well.

The east-west routes across downtown really need improving. There is really no good access to the West End from Hornby. If east-west routes were improved, I expect the Hornby numbers would increase dramatically.

@pacpost #12,

Absolutely. That was, at least in part, my point.

@Spartikus #17,

Here’s what Mr. Meggs wrote:

“A broad range of data are being collected, including vehicle volumes, bike volumes, pedestrian traffic, travel times and more. It will all be posted on the city’s website as available.”

I was heartened to read that the City was collecting all of that data and look forward to seeing it.

If I was to venture a suggestion, I would also propose that data regarding safety be collected and released.

And, FWIW, I don’t question the data provided by the City.

@ rob #30

As reported on various news sites:

VANCOUVER — On the same day that Vancouver city council is to consider a plan to make separated bike lanes on Burrard Bridge permanent, the city says it has recorded the millionth cyclist since it began the bike lane trial nearly a year ago.

Almost one year after a separated bike lane pilot project started on Burrard Bridge, the millionth cyclist crossed the bridge just after 10 pm Wednesday evening.

“This is a remarkable achievement,” said Mayor Gregor Robertson. “Over one million riders in less than a year shows that when you build safe, protected bike lanes, people of all ages will come out and use them. The Burrard Bridge bike lanes have been a big success and helped make cycling and walking over the bridge safer for thousands of people every day.”

‘A 24 per cent increase in cyclists has been recorded since the Burrard Bridge bike lane was opened on July 13, 2009. An estimated 200,000 more bicycle trips have been recorded on the Burrard Bridge than without the lanes in place. This week, approximately 6,000 bicycle trips a day are being made over the bridge; during peak periods, between 500 and 800 cyclists an hour cross the bridge.’

*****

One million riders in under a year….really? I went onto the CoV website and the tracking numbers from month to month during that period of time, from when the lanes were introduced until when the one millionth rider announcement was made, were not even close to ‘one million’.

Now, if the number of cyclists was 3.5 % of the commuting population prior to the Burrard bike lane, then a 24% increase is o.84% which brings the new stats to 4.3%.

Which is interesting as recent statements made by Councillor Meggs indicated that currently the numbers are only at 3.8%.

@IanS 33… Wait what? They’re not collecting injury statistics?! That’s the whole bleeping detractor to these bleeping things. I should have expected as much. Vision knew injury stats would be higher with separation than with paint, so they conveniently didn’t ask the engineers to get statistics on it.

Well now it doesn’t matter what the usage numbers say, if we don’t have injury statistics there’s no way to prove that these lanes are ACTUALLY safer. What a bunch of horse doody.

@Max

Of course, most of the trips are longer with people turning off and on to Dunsmuir.

@ Richard, 31

To get to the West End from Hornby requires crossing two major streets Burrard and Thurlow.

If Helmcken is thought to be the route, and you want further access west, it requires a half block detour north along Burrard to Comox and then likely a traffic light installation at Thurlow where now only exists a pedestrian crossing light.

Any form of greenway or bike lane infrastructure can terminate at Burrard. To go to Thurlow along Comox with a bike lane is pushing it because of the traffic calming that is already in place. But as mentioned, something would be required to halt traffic on Thurlow for an east/west crossing.

From Thurlow west, car traffic drops off substantially with no benefit to real, or perceived safety from traffic separation. Nelson is the exception for traffic, but it’s considered a car thoroughfare to get people quickly from the West End across downtown to the Cambie bridge and all points elsewhere; and it’s narrow west of Thurlow where it becomes two way.

Just after Nelson Park, you then have the Nelson slopes to contend with on bike all the way up from Denman. It’s the same grind, albeit longer, that gives reason to the lesser bike traffic you would find as you go up Hornby from seawall to Drake.

Ironically, given how close the aquatic center is to me, my choice would be to bike there. But no matter what bike lanes are put in, I go there by car for what is a short trip because of the steep inclines. Don’t know how you fix that – at two wipe outs with bike on wet pavement, two too many for me to entertain the idea again.

Then the other question would be how Helmcken connects to Cambie bridge and the seawall.

@Max #35

“One million riders in under a year….really? I went onto the CoV website and the tracking numbers from month to month during that period of time, from when the lanes were introduced until when the one millionth rider announcement was made, were not even close to ‘one million’.”

Really? From this web site: http://vancouver.ca/projects/burrard/statistics.htm?

Are you sure you’re adding up the CYCLING numbers (near the middle of the page as you scroll down) and not the PEDESTRIAN numbers (nearer to the top of the page)? Because if I add the cyclist numbers from August 2009 to July 2010 I get over 1,000,000.

As long as we’re considering the figures for the Burrard Street Bridge, it bears repeating that the actual period of time for which we have overlapping before / after numbers for the same time of year show an increase of something between 13-14% (IIRC) for bike usage over the bridge.

@Max #44

“That link flips to the current CoV web site and does not necessarily reflect what was posted at the time. (2009/2010)”

So you’re actually accusing someone of changing numbers that were previously published? That would be an awfully stupid thing for them to do – what proof do you have?

Using the wayback machine I was able to dig up this page showing the statistics as of September 2009: http://replay.waybackmachine.org/20090927053035/http://vancouver.ca/projects/burrard/statistics.htm

From that page I was able to add up the number of cyclist trips for August 2009 as 131,906 – which matches the statistic given on the current page of the web site. I realize that it’s only one month, but I’m sure not seeing any evidence of data tampering.

I’m sorry, but unless you can show me something more solid then I just have to assume that you’re mistakenly or deliberately trying to mislead in order to deflect the argument.

This is whole point of Frances’ other post – people are accusing Engineering Services of fudging numbers. When they’re called on it, they deflect. It feels to me exactly like a sign of those whose argument lacks any real substance.

@Max

I’ve seen people sitting on the sidewalks doing manual counts from time to time. That is how they come up with the gender stats.