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More fuel for the Vancouver bike debate: Dunsmuir bike traffic up; consultation on lanes coming

July 28th, 2010 · 82 Comments

I regret having to post another piece of bicycle news, but the other things I’m working on are not ready yet. So here’s the latest from Cycle Hall.

City launches consultation on downtown bike lane;

Ridership on Dunsmuir sets new record


The City of Vancouver invites public input on the development of a separated bike lane in the Downtown core to connect existing lanes and provide greater separation between cyclists and vehicles.

Under the proposed plan, a separated bike lane on Hornby Street would connect the existing Burrard Bridge and Dunsmuir Street separated bike lanes and also connect with the seawalls in Coal Harbour and off Beach Ave. on the English Bay end.


An information session will be held on Wednesday, Aug. 11 between 11 am and 7 pm in the rotunda of the Pacific Centre Mall at Howe and Georgia streets. City of Vancouver staff will be on site to provide information, offer survey cards and receive feedback from the public.

Surveys will also be mailed to businesses and residents along Hornby to solicit feedback.  For more information on the proposed plan, visit Cycling – City of Vancouver. To fill out a survey on the proposed bike route visit Vancouver.ca/hornbysurvey

The consultation runs from now until mid-September.

When considering which street to implement a north-south separated bike lane, City staff evaluated factors like safety, truck and transit use, existing bike routes and use, traffic flows as well as the presence of on-street parking and loading zones. Staff evaluated Burrard, Thurlow, and Hornby streets.

Hornby Street is the preferred option for a cross-town separated bike lane because:

  • it already has a one-way bike lane;
  • there is high bicycle and medium vehicle use of Hornby;
  • it has no transit routes; and,
  • It is not a designated truck route.

The consultation for the route comes amidst significant growth in the use of the new separated bike lane on Dunsmuir and the Burrard Bridge milestone of one million cyclists across the bridge on July 7, just six days short of the bike lane’s one-year anniversary.

Counters also show 2000 cyclists are using the Dunsmuir lane each day, up from 500 a few months ago, a 250 per cent increase.


About 30,000 bike trips a week are being made across the Burrard Bridge this summer.

The City is committed to becoming the greenest city in the world by 2020 and bike lanes are an important way to help reach that goal. The increased use of separated bike lanes shows cyclists prefer a protective barrier between vehicles and cycling traffic.

As more people get out of their cars and onto a bike or walk, the city will enjoy improved air quality, less traffic congestion and reduced greenhouse gases.

Categories: Uncategorized

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  • Agustin

    rf: As a cyclist, I believe that Critical Mass in Vancouver (I have not seen it first hand anywhere else) is a bad idea.

    Please realise that just like all drivers aren’t like-minded, neither are all cyclists.

    We are all just people trying to get from one place to another.

  • rf

    Agustin;
    Like almost all things social and political in Vancouver, we are just copying another city and deluding ourselves to think it’s our own.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Mass

    And If you say, “Mr. Newsom!” to Gregor Robertson, he will turn around and think you are talking to him. Gregor spends so much time looking at his political history and initiatives, he actually thinks they are his own.

  • Chris Keam

    “And you do not have a clue as to how many other knowledgeable people have pointed out the silliness of the City of Vancouver’s “numbers” regarding bike riders.”

    The statistics are in line with other cities initiating similar programs. Perhaps the conspiracy is far vaster than we realize, or perhaps it’s pretty hard to gerrymander a mechanical counter and the numbers are accurate but displeasing to anti-cycling critics?

    I have yet to see a reasonable deconstruction of the current numbers that’s backed up by anything other than somebody’s personal opinion that they simply can’t be true, because they don’t jive with that person’s expectations and prejudices.

  • Chris Keam

    Joe:

    my mistake on Clark/Clarke. I used to live near there so I have no excuse. Oops.

  • Terrence

    Chris Keam on Jul 29, 2010 at 2:58 pm – perhaps you could do something to educate yourself, rather then mindlessly repeating your own expectations and prejudices.

    But, by all means lets have more separated bike lanes- as Metro Vancouver said – they always result in MORE cyclist – vehicle accidents – guess who wins and who gets hurt…

  • Chris Keam

    It’s not about me Terrence. You don’t believe the numbers. Tell us why they don’t add up.

    cheers,
    CK

  • Richard

    @Terrence
    How about actually furthering the debate and understanding by sticking to facts instead of attacks.

  • Terrence

    Chris Keam on Jul 29, 2010 at 4:17 pm – do your own research, if you know how to.

    Richard on Jul 29, 2010 at 4:33 pm
    Right back at you – How about actually furthering the debate and understanding by sticking to facts instead of attacks.

  • Chris Keam

    “do your own research, if you know how to. ”

    I’m comfortable with the current statistics. You’re not. You’ve provided no reasons, zero facts, and little rationale for your skepticism. You need to do more than throw around vague accusations and expect other people to disprove your allegations.

    As I’ve already noted, Vancouver’s cycling figures are consistent with other jurisdictions embarking on similar programs. So, for me, at present, I don’t take issue with the statistics as presented, nor do I feel compelled to do your research for you.

  • spartikus

    You’ve provided no reasons, zero facts, and little rationale for your skepticism

    Indeed. It’s far past put up or shut up time. If Terrence can’t provide links to the arguments of these alleged “knowledgeable people” then I personally would feel comfortable in dismissing him as a troll.

    He, like Alex Tsakumis, has accused the Engineering Dept. of the the City of Vancouver of professional misconduct.

    It’s a serious charge. It demands serious evidence.

    @rf

    Like almost all things social and political in Vancouver, we are just copying another city and deluding ourselves to think it’s our own.

    As a long time fencing partner, I have developed a certain amount of affection for you, rf, but you simply have got to stop making stuff up. Agustin never said Critical Mass was a Vancouver original….and funnily enough neither does the Vancouver version of Critical Mass.

    Personally I would have no problem with CM….if they admitted they had achieved their original aim and are now just a moveable street party. Which is a good thing. One of the loudest criticisms over time we’ve heard about this city is it’s “no fun” reputation.

    Which is to say, plan your route. Let the cops know. Let the public know.

    I certainly think it’s counterproductive in its current form.

  • Richard

    @Terrence

    I do stick to the facts and avoid attacking the messenger. I do reserve the right though to call people out when they do resort to attacks.

  • rf

    I did read Agustin’s email a little too fast and kinda missed what it was saying.

    But I still think Gregor Robertson has a Gavin Newsom political career history in his desk(kinda like the guy who ran the “McDowell’s” restaurant in the movie Coming to America.).

    The question then is, which political aide/reporter/operative is Gregor going to have a sordid affair with?

  • Agustin

    spartikus: Thanks for mentioning that.

    rf: Thanks for re-reading my post.

  • Westender1

    The ad in yesterday’s Westender paper that requests input on the bike lane options indicates that Hornby is the selected route. Not sure there’s much left for “input.” Somewhat similar to the construction starting on Dunsmuir prior to Council voting on the project…it would seem the designs have been finalized already at 12th and Cambie.

  • Bill McCreery

    @ Westend. Agreed. As I’ve said above, that is my info also. The detailed design is done.

    One wonders how Umberto’s customers are going to get dropped off & how the valet service is going to work.

    I’m sure there is a way to accomplish bike traffic downtown but, this is not it.

    If they’re spending $25M to do this, has anyone though about how much it’s going to cost to deal with the screwup things that don’t work, lawsuits, etc.?

    Is the proposed design available to be seen anywhere?

  • Tessa

    @McCreery: This particular lane does not cost $25 million, but much, much less. That’s the number for the city as a whole, if I remember correctly. Just wanted to clarify that point – no worries.

    @Terrence: Did you read my post? You said you don’t believe the numbers because you walk and drive across the bridge and you don’t see that many cyclists. I pointed out that even if you assume bicyclists only bike during the daylight hours, there’s only 2.2 cyclists coming on the bridge every minute each direction, and so of course you wouldn’t see many. And yet you can’t offer any other evidence or any link or anything else to back up your post other than saying it doesn’t look that busy to you.

    That is a flawed way of gathering information about a subject. Extremely flawed. If you have better methods of statistics gathering, why don’t you share them with us? Why don’t you share it with the city? Why are you just commenting on a blog and insulting other commentors then?

    Why don’t you share with us your grand plan for how to move people through the region as Agustin requested? Why don’t you provide some actual backing to your ideas rather than just claiming something is obviously true and anyone else who believes or finds otherwise is completely delusional?

    @rf please, I was trying to pretend the movie Coming to America never existed and doing a pretty good job of it until you wrote that comment. Sooooo cheesy 😉

  • IanS

    I’d be curious to see the design too, though I doubt the City will release it until after finishing the consultation process.

    Even though it will no doubt cause a good deal of harm (as discussed above), I still think Hornby was the least damaging of the options under consideration, particularly if the lane is on the east side.

  • Richard

    @Bill McCreery
    I suspect the bike lane might be on the west side of Hornby. That makes it easier for cyclist to get from the Burrard Bridge to Hornby and it would not conflict with Umberto’s

    Anyway, there are separated bike lanes in cities all over the world on streets with restaurants and other businesses. If they can make it work there, surely the people of Vancouver are resourceful enough to make them work here. After all, we just pulled off the biggest event in Vancouver’s history without any major problems.

    Surely we can make a separated bike lane work on Hornby if we put our creativity to finding solutions instead of inventing excuses why it won’t work.

  • Richard

    Or we could become Toronto.

    http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/841929–hume-cycling-in-toronto-is-a-joke?bn=1

  • IanS

    @Richard,

    The difficulty with the west side is that it will not only block access to more businesses (I think), but it will make it very difficult to access the West End coming over the Burrard Street bridge. Turning left off Burrard Street is a challenge at the best of times and not allowed for much of the day. With the right turn on Hornby already prohibited because of the bike lane, I think it would make the West End very difficult to access.

    The east side would block fewer businesses, I think, and still allow for left turns off Hornby heading into the West End. Drivers wanting to go east could either turn right off Burrard or head east on Pacific.

  • mezzanine

    @ Richard,

    Great post, germaine to the debate here in vancouver. A choice quote for those who can’t get to the link:

    “As civic expenses go, bike lanes rank among the cheapest but would provide the biggest bang for the buck. Compared to Montreal and New York, let alone cities in Holland and Sweden, Toronto has fallen well behind.

    If our fear of bikes is any indication, Toronto has become a city terrified of change. Certainly our leaders are; politicians and bureaucrats treat two-wheelers as if they represented a threat to peace, order and good government. According to them, bikes — and pedestrians — are always in the way; they slow traffic, create congestion, make drivers nervous, and take up space in roads meant for cars.”

  • Terrence

    thanks for the laughs, Richard – you gave me a real belly laugh when I read your twaddle at / Jul 29, 2010 at 9:32 pm

    Tessa on Jul 30, 2010 at 2:52 pm – can you actually read, do you bother to read what I said? You clearly did not understand it. But, then you have real difficulty dealing with people who do not parrot your twaddle.

  • Dave 2

    Joe Just Joe // Jul 29, 2010 at 11:34 am

    Why do people keep spelling it Clarke, it’s Clark no e on the end.

    Here here Joe, and if I see The Sun or Province refer to “Smythe” Street again I swear I’ll lose it 🙂

  • Richard

    @Terrence
    Thanks. Always glad to spread some cheer. Your one man campaign to keep the word twaddle alive is most admirable.

  • Bill McCreery

    @ Tessa.
    I was referring to the entire undertaking @ that point. sorry for not being clearer.

  • Bill McCreery

    I have just been advised that the setting out work on the Hornby lane on the east side of the street is starting this weekend. Engineering staff are working overtime on a holiday weekend @ double time to do this.

    I’m going to personally review the situation to confirm this.

    If so, SO MUCH FOR THE CONSULTATION ending in September.

  • Terrance

    I have to apologize to the site. I’ve been on a multi-day bender and I’m sorry that I equated my own misguided opinions with hard data. From now on I won’t mix meth and the keyboard. My sincere apologies again.

  • Bobbie

    I can sense a lot of fear in here.
    Car drivers afraid of change, afraid of looking down the road to see what’s coming.
    All through the ’80s and ’90s they were told that only welfare losers rode bicycles and that if they put themselves into massive debt by purchasing a car, they would be ahead of the game.
    Car drivers are the King of the Road, or so they were told.
    But no matter how much they paid for their car, no matter the total cost of gas, parking , insurance, maintenance and so on, they just weren’t getting ahead. Even when the average car driver screams and rants that their gas taxes entitle them to sole usage of the road it drives them further around the bend when they’re reminded of all of the costs of motoring that they always seem to want to externalize.

    Nope, like it or not, the day of the subsidized automobile are quickly drawing to an end. Sure, the automobile lobbyists aren’t going to go down without a good scream and a fight. And yes, it may get a little nasty out there on the public roads as cagers vent their disillusionment of not attaining the “American Dream(tm)”. But as India and especially China thirst for the same limited resources that North American car drivers thirst for, we are going to have to make a decision.
    Do we start embracing a more sensible affair with the private automobile, or do we aim for the status quo and doom ourselves to war after war after war when we start fighting for limited resources.

    George Carlin said ” The thing about the American Dream is you have to be asleep to believe it”

  • Michael

    Terrence’s comment about how few cyclists he sees on the Burrard Bridge lanes reminds me of our friend who, having driven across the bridge, angrily complained about seeing only 10 riders on the new separated lane shortly after it opened. I waited a few weeks until she’d cooled down, then noted that it took her about one minute to cross the bridge, which meant that 10 riders a minute equals 600 an hour, just in one direction. She looked surprised, then agreed.

    I prefer to believe the city’s counts, which are done by electronic meters. Some others commenting here, when the facts don’t square with their casual observations and their beliefs, seem to prefer a conspiracy.

  • Bill Smolick

    Oh GMGW, my old friend where have you been? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you…

    > Even now drivers who are too timid to perform the Indy-style standing
    > start now necessary to get onto the Burrard bridge southbound from Pacific
    > use the Hornby/Granville bridge route as an alternate

    The “Indy-style standing start” you describe was a problem before the bike lane was installed. I’ve never been fond of that double merge onto that particular bridge.

  • Bill McCreery

    Apparently my ‘setting out’ prediction last weekend didn’t happen but perhaps some was lost in translation. I understand there were City survey crews on Hornby last week. What were they doing? In fact, what is the City doing with this whole process? All we know is they’re having a public info session next Wednesday & the public consultation process is 6 weeks [+/-15 Sep].

    That 6 weeks, by the way, is just another insult to Vancouver voters. 6 weeks is a joke. It is not long enough to allow individual, businesses & condos consisting of 100s of owners & renters to assess & come to reasonable conclusions much less for those various interest groups to develop any sense of their shared conclusions. It seems obvious that is precisely the intent. So, we’re just going thru the motions, ONCE AGAIN.

    As well, even before we are allowed to comment on whether the already decided Hornby route is going to bankrupt my business or reduce my condo value shouldn’t we be allowed to discuss alternative routes? WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT? Why isn’t Granville Street on the table? Why isn’t Granville Bridge rather than Burrard, given all the problems, on the table?

    Message to Vision:: If you’re going to do something, do it right.

  • Bill Lee

    ” At the start of the 20th century, weekly bicycling columns in Seattle newspapers reported that ten thousand cyclists, in a city of 80,000, crowded Seattle paths and roadways. So next time you’re out on your bike avoiding texting motorists, be grateful that car traffic is all you have to worry about.”

    The tale of Seattle and bicycles – a love story
    http://blog.seattlepi.com/thebigblog/archives/217460.asp

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