CTV News Vancouver had a feature last night on the City of Vancouver’s proposal to test a separated bike lane on the west side of the Cambie Bridge using a temporary barrier. As well as a collection of Yea or Nay opinions from the street, the report features NPA councillor George Affleck providing his two cents on the city’s bike lane proposal.
Check out the video link here
There is a parallel here with the recent Burrard Bridge improvements. There, the east sidewalk was returned to pedestrians. On Cambie Bridge, there are dangerous situations daily with the high volume of people walking and cycling, in both directions, sharing a narrow multi use path. The proposal is to provide a south bound protected bike lane, taking a significant number of bikes off the MUP, leaving more space for pedestrians.
Like Burrard, the capacity for motor vehicles here has more to do with the intersections at the ends than with the number of lanes mid-span.
The project also isnt just the bike lane on the bridge itself. There are connections at the north end to Nelson and Beatty, and at the south end to near the Olympic station.
The Nelson bike lane resulted in much longer tie-ups getting out of downtown. Ergo higher emissions, not really the intended consequence but as long as you can put on a political show, right?
It would be nice if the city could provide real time bike lane data, so we could all see how the numbers plummet when the bad weather truly sets in. A decision on this trial should be put on hold until after the next civic election.
Note for the headline: it is Bike Lane (singular, not plural)
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Thanks Jeff, updated!
The engineers are correct in that the 3rd lane on the Cambie bridge really just serves the cloverleaf 2nd Ave ramp (eastbound) and the westbound ramp.
The problem that I can see is if traffic backs up on the westbound 2nd Ave off ramp.
If the outside lane is removed for the bike lane, then back-ups of waiting cars on the 2nd Ave ramp will potentially block one of the 2 travel lanes on the bridge (whereas now an unusually long queue would remain in the 3rd lane, out of the way).
The bottom of that 2nd Ave. ramp has a stop sign and the throughput of right turning cars is limited to breaks in pedestrian foot traffic to and from the Canada Line Station coordinated with breaks in car traffic on 2nd Ave.
It may be that a right turn traffic light will have to be installed at the bottom of the ramp to stop 2nd Ave. traffic (and pedestrian traffic) to allow cars to turn right from the ramp onto 2nd Ave. (much in the same way that the Burrard Bridge intersections now have right turn traffic lights).
Way to go Vancouver!!! Now let’s connect that bike lane to Bicycle City.
See https://pricetags.wordpress.com/2017/11/06/welcome-to-bicycle-city-an-essay-by-jeff-olson/
Why does Vancouver need bike lanes when it has priced out the very class of resident who bikes to work?
I think you are mistaken about the “class” of residents who bike to work. I own a house on the west side of Vancouver (and so I’m upper class, right?) and I rode my bike to work for 20 years. I’ve seen my neighbour biking to work as well. Stereotypes aren’t helpful for the planning process.
Well, it’s about time.
I remember about twenty years ago wanting to cycle south on the Cambie Bridge. I first tried the travel lane and was honked at and revved at by drivers and it was really scary. The next time I did that I went on the sidewalk and people walking yelled at me for doing that. There was nowhere to go.
I applaud the city for acknowledging that there is a middle speed type of transportation, faster than walking, slower than driving, that needs a place to happen. They also seem to realize that it isn’t going away by trying to engineer it out of existence either.
Uh, you could have just used the east sidewalk which has always been designated for bike use (no direction specified).
Thank goodness the bike lane (if it goes ahead haha) will go along the offramp onto 6th. The last thing busses and other commuters need is to crawl along Cambie stuck behind some lycra clad warrior slogging up the hill towards 12th!
That’s what I ended up doing and it worked okay for many years. Now though there are more people walking and cycling over the bridge than back then so it’s not so good anymore.
The confident racing type could probably pass the motor vehicle traffic so it would be the cars slowing him/her down. The less daring would not use Cambie in this section, so nothing to worry about.
I use the Cambie Bridge going south about once a week and am always very cautious by the two off ramps. Even though I’m assertive when I ride and try to give motorists room to take the ramp on my right, I still have far too many motorists cut far too close merging across my path from the left often leaving inches. It is not for the faint of heart.
I’m looking forward to the improvements.
Bob, try walking or riding across the east sidewalk when it is busy with people. It is too narrow to designate either bike and walk lanes, and the city doesn’t post arrows, so people are walking in both directions on both sides of the multi use path, and people on bikes are slaloming through them. It isn’t safe. One result is that when it is too busy, people on bikes switch to the roadway, which is legal, but not marked or protected for people on bikes. We can do better.
As to Cambie, knowing that Cambie is on the list for protected bike lanes to be installed from 25th (King Edward) to SW Marine, we will need to figure out connections from the bridge to 25th.
Fortunately I suspect Gregor will be gone by this time next year and the Cambie Street bike lane issue will be moot.
Regardless of the outcome of next year’s election, the east sidewalk will still be too narrow for the numbers of people walking and cycling on it.
I think a connection from the bridge to the Heather Bike route is better than funnelling bikes from the bridge onto the already congested (and dangerous) commercial stretch of Cambie St., and the proposed bike lane taking the westbound 2nd Ave. ramp would promote that routing (i.e. maybe via Ash then up to 10th Ave. to Heather).
Ash has painted lanes up to 7th, and works for those heading west. The problem with then jogging over to Heather is that it gets further away from destinations at Cambie and Broadway. I use the alley west of Cambie up to 8th and then rejoin Cambie.
Yukon is also a decent alternative for those whose destination isn’t somewhere south of 25th.