Metro Vancouver Bike Routes

[deasine]

A collection of pictures on the progress of the Dunsmuir Bike Route project. As I walked down Dunsmuir (an outbreak of sunshine), I was glad to see cyclists already using the route! All photos are shot by myself today.





Some reporting done on the project.









Is it just me? Or are the dual direction arrows pointing the wrong way? From what I understood, the bike route still uses the right-hand-drive format...







Old Transit Shelter. To be decommissioned?



I'm assuming this will be the new "bus island" for boarding the 257.

[Yellow Fever]

Thanks for the pics!

I don't mind the bikes lanes and in fact I'd love to see more in the future so that more people would use bikes than cars. What I don't want to see is the city would reduce the cars lanes or the parking spaces for the sake of the new bikes routes.

[deasine]

Well you aren't going to get more none lanes without reducing the capacity of other modes of transport.

[DrT]

Originally Posted by deasine

Well you aren't going to get more none lanes without reducing the capacity of other modes of transport.

Not unless they are elevated.

http://www.thepurehands.org/cycleways/imaginary.html

[FCE]

It is my guess that the irregularity in the bike route arrows has something to do with keeping the bike lane closest to traffic flowing in the same direction as traffic to minimize impact if a vehicle crosses over.

[Yellow Fever]

More pics of the Dunsmuir bike route


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[Yellow Fever]

bike lanes in North Delta..

[Yellow Fever]

Vancouver plans for more bikeways after Hornby, Dunsmuir and Burrard Bridge

Proposal for expanded network to be put to voters next year

By Jeff Lee, Vancouver Sun October 6, 2010


VANCOUVER - With the Hornby, Dunsmuir and Burrard Bridge separated bike lanes under its belt, Vancouver is now developing a master plan for how to increase the share of bicycles on city streets over the next decade.

And if everything goes according to plan, city taxpayers will be asked to vote in 2011 on plans to expand the separated bike lane network as well as install or expand new and existing bikeways and greenways across the city.

All that comes as the city works through an ambitious $25-million bike plan for the next two years it approved in May that includes new east-west neighbourhood routes in the West End and the southwest corner, and cleaning up a number of existing bikeways.

Early Wednesday morning city engineering crews began the process of converting one lane of Hornby Street to a separated lane, mere hours after council unanimously approved the $3.2-million six-month trial.

Vancouver Coun. Geoff Meggs, who has led much of the effort to improve cycling routes in the city, said he doesn’t expect any more separated lanes to be built over the next year because this winter the city’s engineering department, in concert with planners, will begin working on a new 10-year master bike plan.

That plan is dependent upon data the city hopes to collect from the three Hornby, Dunsmuir and Burrard lanes.

Meggs said he knows the rapid push for the three separated lanes has worried and angered some people, particularly business owners and commuters.

But the lanes will give the city “on-the-ground information” about the effectiveness of bike routes that it has never before had.

“I really hope that everybody takes a deep breath and tries out this experience of the separated lanes in an open-minded way.

“I don’t see any cities going in a different direction and succeeding as strong, economically strong cities with sustainable transportation,” Meggs said. “One of the important features of the separated lane trial is that not only does it open up this route, it gives us real-life information about separated lanes and how they work in Vancouver.”

But once that master plan is developed, Meggs wants engineers to identify other key routes with separated lanes.

“I’d like to see the engineers sit down with whatever they learned from the [Vancouver 2010] Olympics and from this trial ... and tell council where the biggest gains could be from separated lanes,” he said. “If they are doing a good job of making the case I’d like to see that expenditure included in the capital plan.”

He said later he wants those projects included in the 2011 capital plan that goes to the voters in the next general election.

When council approved the two-year bike budget in May, it also asked staff to look at building separated bike lanes on one arterial street outside the downtown core, as well as a fully separated lane on part of the city’s existing local street bikeway.

Jerry Dobrovolny, the city’s director of transportation, said Wednesday the city hasn’t yet identified the arterial it would propose for a separated lane. His department is devoting the majority of its time to developing the master plan.

But he said any major road with six lanes in rush hour could be a candidate for the project once the master plan is approved by council.

Examples of arterial roads include Granville, Main, Cambie, Oak, Fraser/Knight. Dobrovolny stressed none of those roads had been identified for a separated bike lane.

“We have not stated our position on routes and we have not scheduled any route yet,” he said. “We’re just not at that point yet.”

Dobrovolny said the $25-million two-year budget may seem like a lot but it represents only 10 per cent of the city’s annual roads and streets budget. In council Tuesday he noted that a single left-turn bay for cars costs the city between $3 million and $4 million.

All of this effort has irritated businesses and lobby groups such as the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, which says the city didn’t engage in meaningful consultation.

But the plan has won high praise from groups like the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition and the city’s bicycle advisory committee, who say the city is on the right track.

“Frankly, we think they’re doing the right thing and they should do more,” said Arno Shortinghaus, the president of VACC. “I have a great deal of praise for what they are doing.”

Meggs said he wants to see better connections between Stanley Park and Spanish Banks, noting that the current bike route runs through parking lots and on park pathways.

In the meantime, the city is pressing ahead to build two east-west bikeways in south Vancouver, the 45th Avenue bikeway between Carnarvon and Ontario streets, and the North Arm Trail Greenway between Angus and Vivian streets.

Those two routes will cost $2.1 million. It is also putting more than $3.4 million into the Comox-Helmcken Greenway in the West End, which Dobrovolny said will be a series of traffic-calmed areas conducive to walking and cycling.

Dobrovolny said the city is trying to solve a dangerous transition cyclists must make over a railway linking the Canada Line bridge at Kent Street with the rest of the city’s bike network. That project is to cost $2.3 million.

One of the largest expenditures is $7.3 million for traffic signal improvements along existing bikeways. One significant trouble spot is at Fraser along the city’s most popular route, the 10th Avenue bikeway, where there is no crosswalk, light signal or pedestrian aid.

The city is also putting $1.7 million into finishing or improving a number of existing bikeways across the city that have been ignored while it focused on building the Dunsmuir, Burrard and Hornby lanes.


jefflee@vancouversun.com

[Yellow Fever]

The New Dunsmuir Viaduct Bike Lane in Vancouver
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by Rob__

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Carrall Street Greenway and Bike Lane
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West 10th designated Bike route. 9th is Broadway, a main street through Vancouver so it's easy for cyclists to get where they're going but not disrupt traffic on a main throughfare.
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by Thunderpeep