July 5, 2017

Vernon Drive Mini-Park

A section of Vancouver’s Vernon Drive looks and feels a lot better recently, with  reasoning and results similar to the venerable and highly-successful West End mini-parks.  What was a nasty and very busy block is now ped-and-bike-friendly to a major degree. And it includes new and nifty street furniture (see photos).
The Union/Adanac bike route at Vernon Drive carries over 2,000 people on bikes per day on average. Peaks approach 5,000 per day. The yearly bike count at nearby Union & Hawks was 900,000 in 2015/2016. It’s Vancouver’s third-busiest bike route, in an area with around 17% mode share for travel by bike.  But at Vernon Drive, where Union jogs into Adanac, confusing traffic patterns made this block highly unpleasant for people on bikes and on foot.

Click any image to see a large-size slide show of them all. 

At this block, amid poor sight lines, motor vehicle operators formerly made left turns, right turns and straight-throughs from all directions. Many such trips were people in motor vehicles short-cutting nearby arterials (such as Prior and Venables).
Now, this busy Union/Adanac corridor is closer to being an All Ages and Abilities route.  On Vernon Drive, what’s not a bike lane is now a mini-park, with furniture in place and planters ready to go.

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  1. There was, however, an accident here over the weekend … it looked like bike-on-bike, and all I saw was a woman on the ground with a cluster of cyclists around her (and an ambulance and fire truck appeared soon after).
    I’d mildly hazard that the big steel bollard, relatively narrow path, and non-great sightline around the corner didn’t help matters as approaching the new corner from Union, it isn’t really clear what is happening as there aren’t any markings on the street itself.
    This is my impression from walking by the intersection – maybe someone’s biked it and can correct me?

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