Frances Bula header image 2

Vancouver bike report: Bike-share okayed, bigger battle over bike lane ongoing

July 25th, 2013 · 8 Comments

Speakers (starting at #18, with a list currently going to 204) resume tonight at 6 p.m. to discuss the pros and cons of the “Seaside Greenway,” known to many as the Point Grey/Kits bike lane.

A quick recap here of the doings at council on Tuesday.

Published Tuesday, Jul. 23, 2013 09:58PM EDT

Last updated Wednesday, Jul. 24, 2013 01:36PM EDT

Vancouver has approved a public bike-share system at last. Now comes the hard part: a heated debate over a new section of bike route through the city’s expensive seaside neighbourhoods.

In a week dominated by Vancouver’s efforts to boost local cycling aggressively, there was relatively little debate Tuesday – a mere four hours – over a bike-share system that will get $6-million as a start-up subsidy from the city.

That was the prelude to what promises to be a much more contentious discussion about extending the bike network to Vancouver’s Kitsilano and Point Grey neighbourhoods on the west side. That issue has attracted nearly 200 vehement supporters and opponents to the council meeting, only a few of whom got to speak Tuesday evening.

Poll: Will you use the new bike-sharing program?

Dozens of them sat patiently through the decision about the bike-share system. The new system, to be operated by Alta Bicycle Share Inc. from Oregon with Montreal’s Bixi bikes, is due to launch a test phase in the fall and be fully operational with 1,500 bikes by the spring. The company has to come up with $7.5-million as its share for the system launch. That is likely to be partly covered by sponsorships, which have not yet been announced.

Some speakers and a couple of councillors raised questions – about the cost to the city, the legality of giving a private company city money, the impact on existing bike-rental companies, and the way the province’s helmet law may limit chances for success – but most were positive.

The motion was supported by Green Party Councillor Adriane Carr, as well as all of the city’s ruling Vision party councillors.

“I have a lot of confidence in our city to make this the best public bike-share system it can be,” Mayor Gregor Robertson said. “I believe this is a very good investment of our public dollars. It has every chance to succeed and provide a new way for people to get around affordably.”

The two Non-Partisan Association council members voted against it.

“I do think it will put us at risk financially,” Councillor George Affleck said. “It’s likely to fail or cost us even more than what it says here.”

He said there is so much information missing from the city’s report about the future contract with Alta that it’s difficult to know how it will work financially.

Most of the 10 speakers at council were enthusiastic about Vancouver finally getting a system, five years after it was first proposed for the city.

“This is a unique opportunity for Vancouver to be one of the last green cities to implement bike share,” said Tanya Paz, who is on the city’s active transportation policy council. She said Vancouver could also show the way for others with its unique system for distributing helmets along with the bikes.

A University of British Columbia transportation researcher, Kay Teschke, supported the council move, saying that cycling produces noticeable health benefits. She also noted that Vancouver, far from being a leader, is far behind others in its cycling infrastructure.

“Since 2009, Vancouver has added six kilometres of separated bike lanes,” she said. By contrast, Seville in Spain has built 120 kilometres of separated bike lanes in the last five years to complement its recently started bike-share system.

Those comments set the stage for what promises to be one of the most contentious council issues of the last decade: the Kitsilano-Point Grey bike route, which includes closing one part of the road for seven blocks to all cars except for local traffic.

The debate is likely to extend into what is normally down time next week for Vancouver City Council, with some speakers preparing to argue that the road closure is a traffic disaster, a favour to the wealthy residents of Point Grey Road, and an unreasonable expense. Others will make the case that the narrow road is unworkable as both a car-commuter route and a safe place to cycle and walk.

Categories: Uncategorized

  • Bill Lee

    From B.C. Assessment office, I scraped the Point Grey Road addresses from this PDF.

    There are many more houses that didn’t make the 500 Expensive properties cut. (perhaps add 200 $6 million homes?)

    But these forty are worth a half-billion dollars.

    http://preview.tinyurl.com/l6j8fml
    [ Previously at overlong : francesbula.com/uncategorized/vancouver-bike-news-day-bike-share-contract-reached-plan-for-point-grey-road-laid-out/#comments ]

    PROVINCIAL TOP 500 VALUED RESIDENTIAL PROPERTIES (2013)

    Value Rank Property Address Total Taxable Value ($)

    2 3085 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 35,168,000
    7 2815 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 24,413,000
    17 2999 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 19,329,000
    29 3425 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 17,154,000
    30 2781 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 17,124,000
    31 2715 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 17,070,000
    35 3003 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 16,492,000
    36 2875 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 16,446,000
    39 2531 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 16,060,000
    45 3019 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 15,413,000
    61 2925 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 14,452,000
    62 3005 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 14,349,000
    70 3287 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 13,941,000
    89 2897 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 13,104,000
    95 3467 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 12,910,000
    115 3119 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 12,147,800
    151 3479 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 11,168,000
    173 2633 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 10,602,000
    175 3109 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 10,594,000
    176 3241 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 10,590,000
    182 2505 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 10,462,000
    194 3011 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 10,279,000
    205 3371 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 10,111,000
    211 2495 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 9,898,000
    216 2707 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 9,834,000
    238 2529 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 9,591,500
    271 2465 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 9,167,000
    274 3513 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 9,116,000
    294 3585 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 8,868,000
    315 3325 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 8,671,000
    331 2487 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 8,551,000
    341 3525 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 8,483,000
    348 2893 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 8,381,000
    352 2891 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 8,357,000
    361 2711 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 8,306,000
    375 2475 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 8,219,600
    380 2515 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 8,189,000
    391 3257 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 8,141,000
    394 3383 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 8,115,800
    485 3415 Point Grey Rd Vancouver 7,552,000
    sum 496,819,700

    So how many were Vision supporters, or gave money to the Bike Groups like HUB, etc?

  • Dan Cooper

    Random thought vaguely related to bicycles and more directly to transit (and with tongue somewhat in cheek): It looks to me like The City could cover most or all of its budget if it just sent out someone every morning to ticket all the doofuses who park on the east side of Main between 13th and 14th blocking the time-limited bus lane there, presumably to get their fancy foody fix at the yuppiehippie bread store (assuming Vera’s isn’t open yet?) since it’s always just that one block affected. It’s not a real problem for me on a bike, ‘cuz I can go around the parked cars in the same lane, but it does appear to block up the buses…

  • Agustin

    Dan, on Main between 13th and 14th, I would stop for a coffee and a doughnut at 49th. Mmmmmm doughnuts……

  • Bill Lee

    I hesitated to refer to the Vancouver Observer online “magazine”, (but that is where Mme Bula’s Twitter photo comes from) but they have a “live-blog” of the City Council and presenters for Tuesday’s long meeting for a bit more ‘colour’

    http://www.vancouverobserver.com/politics/bicycle-battle-city-hall-continues-kits-bike-lane-proposal-live-blog

  • craig

    Here’s an idea that would be a lot less disruptive.
    1) Expropriate 8 feet of land from the North side properties (I’ve never seen ANYONE other than a garderner in there front yards).
    2) get rid of all the street parking on both sides of the street (I realise there is only parking on one side for a large section of the proposed private road).
    3) Make it a one lane, one way road west to east as getting to work usually involves more time constraints than getting home.
    This would allow for a nice wide bike lane and walking path.
    just a thought 🙂

  • craig

    I also agree with Bill Lee that something smells here. Isn’t Gregor moving there as well?

  • Dan Cooper

    @Agustin:

    Ahah! that may be it. The cars do cluster at the 13th Ave end of the block. Maybe I’ll drop in and get a donut some day (making sure, of course, to park legally if I’m getting there by car!) Something creme filled, I’m thinking.

    As for the bike route question, I’ll give my two cents on one limited part: A private access road is simply a non-starter. It should be open to all cars or closed to all cars. The only exception I could see would be if this pattern was going to be applied to similar routes/situations throughout the city (as there are plenty of stretches on official bicycle routes around Vancouver that are frankly not wide enough for a bike and car to pass safely what with all the parked cars on both sides) and not just – in effect – for the benefit of a bunch of incredibly rich people.

  • Bill Lee

    26 Sep 2013
    BikeEurope News
    Vélib Vandalism; JCDecaux is Fed Up

    429 0
    http://www.bike-eu.com/Home/General/2013/9/Velib-Vandalism-JCDecaux-is-Fed-Up-1375207W/?cmpid=NLC|bike_eu|2013-09-26|V%E9lib_Vandalism;_JCDecaux_is_Fed_Up
    PARIS, France – The much applauded Paris’ bike-share system, Vélib is facing a serious setback due to rampant theft and vandalism. In 2012 alone 9,000 bikes were reported mangled or missing.

    According to JCDecaux the replacement of these bikes costs around 5.4 million euro. Vandalism and theft have been a major headache for Vélib since the system was launched in 2007. JCDecaux, the France-based multinational that operates Vélib, has fought back over the years by temporarily closing docking stations in neighborhoods where bikes are stolen or vandalized.
    Peak during school holidays

    “Seasonality is an important aspect of the problem,” says Stéphane Thiébaut, manager of the self-service travel systems (Velib and Autolib) in Paris. “The number of offenses increases during school holidays. Arrests made by police show that the young people are the main perpetrators. This also complicates the prosecution.”

    Stéphane Thiébaut states that vandalism is currently concentrated in the north-east of Paris. In some parts of the 18th and 19th districts several stations are currently closed.

    Scaling down

    It now seems that JCDecaux is finally fed up with the problem. Instead of expanding the number of bikes in the streets of Paris as originally planned, the company has reportedly decided to scale back. While Vélib started out with a fleet of 20,600 bicycles there will now only be 14,000 vehicles available in the Paris region, according to French daily Le Monde.

    The newspaper cited information gathered from JCDecaux and tracking statistics on the Velib website. JCDecaux did not respond to queries to confirm Le Monde’s assertion.

    With 14,000 Vélibs spread around Paris and its surrounding suburbs, it looks as though bikes could soon become harder to find in many neighbourhoods.
    by Jan Willem van Schaik 26 Sep 2013

    see also
    Vandalism Not Stopping Paris Cycle Hire Scheme Shows & Events 30 Jun 2009
    146 0
    Vandalism Not Stopping Paris Cycle Hire Scheme Shows & Events 2 Jul 2009
    154 0
    The Bicycle Goes to War! (Again…..) Home 23 Sep 2003
    110 0
    More ‘Sparkle’ in Holland Home 21 Sep 2004
    123 0
    London Wants 80,000 Rental Bikes Home 28 Nov 2007
    332 0