[Locked] Burrard Street Bridge Cycling Improvements | Completed

[EastVanMark]

Originally Posted by s211

Stupid. Criminally stupid. How many times do we have to drive a stake into the heart of this pathetic plan?

Well said. But hey, they've never tried this before......oh wait....

[fever]

The right turn loop from the Burrard Bridge to Pacific to Hornby to Beach is the UBC - North Shore shortcut. I think it usually takes longer than Hornby/Georgia, anyway, because the lights are all timed on Hornby. People will have to drive another block to Howe to go that way, but it might get rid of some of the commuter traffic on Beach and Denman.

That sounds pretty reasonable to me, ffk. I think they're trying to direct most of the northbound bikes onto Hornby, but the left turn still looks a little confusing. I hope the city puts up signage there that makes sense and tells bikers what they're supposed to do.

[racc]

Originally Posted by s211

Stupid. Criminally stupid. How many times do we have to drive a stake into the heart of this pathetic plan?

Just a bit over dramatic. There are only 19 other lanes over False Creek that drivers can use. A month ago, 14 east west lanes were closed due to construction in downtown and pretty much no one complained at all.

Lastly, if you think this is such a bit problem, we might as well just cancel the Olympics now. Compared the the street closures during the Olympics, the Burrard Bridge Trial is really minor.

Oh yeah, one more thing. The railings on the bridge need repairing. That will require one or two lanes of traffic to be closed for several months.

So get used to it already. Granville Bridge is really close.

[officedweller]

In the past there has been talk of "normalizing" the north end intersection. That would be a separate project though (i.e. I think this trial just involves repainting lines and adding barriers - not removing any islands)

[Maersk]

Originally Posted by racc

Just a bit over dramatic. There are only 19 other lanes over False Creek that drivers can use. A month ago, 14 east west lanes were closed due to construction in downtown and pretty much no one complained at all.

Lastly, if you think this is such a bit problem, we might as well just cancel the Olympics now. Compared the the street closures during the Olympics, the Burrard Bridge Trial is really minor.

Oh yeah, one more thing. The railings on the bridge need repairing. That will require one or two lanes of traffic to be closed for several months.

So get used to it already. Granville Bridge is really close.

No matter how you slice it, its still not a good idea....

[johnjimbc]

I have read all the reasons why (cost, bridge height, etc), but I still can't understand why the most obvious of all choices is not made - either make real plans to expand the sidewalks on either side to make a true pedestrian / bike crossing at Burrard - or bite the bullet and plan a separate and impressive bike and pedestrian bridge across false creek to downtown.

In a city with so many bike riders (and there are a lot here . . . I've lived in several cities and none has come close in the western world at least) that wants to be a leader in green living, consider it a major long-term expense to further that goal and announce it to the world with a definitive statement.

A world class bike / pedestrian bridge leading to the urban core . . . I can see the postcards now, morning or evening light glittering along the bridge surrounded with the backdrop of picturesque urban paradise along false creek.

If the money isn't in the cards now, fine. But start the plan, get some concepts going. If we can build massive bridges across the Fraser, add subway lines, street-car demo lines, and massive airport infrastructure, there has to be some political will and public support for long-term pedestrian and bike needs.

[twoNeurons]

The city seems to pander to the "cars are evil" crowd, which wants to save the world, but unfortunately doesn't seem to make any constructive suggestions as to how to do it.

[s211]

Originally Posted by twoNeurons

The city seems to pander to the "cars are evil" crowd, which wants to save the world, but unfortunately doesn't seem to make any constructive suggestions as to how to do it.

Seems? SEEMS? This city is ugly with pathetic fools whose only answer to problems is to take from one and give to the other.

[racc]

Originally Posted by twoNeurons

The city seems to pander to the "cars are evil" crowd, which wants to save the world, but unfortunately doesn't seem to make any constructive suggestions as to how to do it.

Please people, actually do a bit of research before posting.

Here are some places to start:
http://www.vancouversun.com/pdf/bridgepresentation06232009.pdf
http://vancouver.ca/projects/burrard/technicaldetails.htm
http://vancouver.ca/projects/burrard/pdf/Burrard%20Bridgebackgrounder.pdf
http://vancouver.ca/projects/burrard/index.htm

Here is some actually research on similar such reallocations and road closures:
http://www2.cege.ucl.ac.uk/cts/tsu/disapp.pdf

Disappearing traffic? The story so far
S. Cairns, S. Atkins and P. Goodwin

Reallocating roadspace from general traffic, to improve
conditions for pedestrians or cyclists or buses or on-street
light rail or other high-occupancy vehicles, is often pre-
dicted to cause major traffic problems on neighbouring
streets. This paper reports on two phases of research,
resulting in the examination of over 70 case studies of
roadspace reallocation from eleven countries, and the
collation of opinions from over 200 transport professionals
worldwide. The findings suggest that predictions of traffic
problems are often unnecessarily alarmist, and that, given
appropriate local circumstances, significant reductions in
overall traffic levels can occur, with people making a far
wider range of behavioural responses than has tradition-
ally been assumed. Follow-up work has also highlighted
the importance of managing how schemes are perceived
by the public and reported in the media, with various
lessons for avoiding problems. Finally, the findings high-
light that well-designed schemes to reallocate roadspace
can often contribute to a multiplicity of different policy
aims and objectives.

[The_Henry_Man]

^The biggest problem is that most people in Vancouver would ride their bikes during the warm season, which is barely around 3 months out of the whole year. However, during most of autumn, winter and spring, it's pretty much either too cold or too wet for people to go out with their bikes. As others have said, the best way is to utilize that lower platform that was originally designed for bikes!!

Therefore, this plan is immediately doomed to fail, because you'll most likely see empty bike lanes for the majority of the year. And what a huge waste!!!

COV is very infamous and notorious for bowing down to extremist special interest groups (for example, in this case, biking/environment left-wing nuts).

[racc]

Originally Posted by The_Henry_Man

^The biggest problem is that most people in Vancouver would ride their bikes during the warm season, which is barely around 3 months out of the whole year. However, during most of autumn, winter and spring, it's pretty much either too cold or too wet for people to go out with their bikes. As others have said, the best way is to utilize that lower platform that was originally designed for bikes!!

Therefore, this plan is immediately doomed to fail, because you'll most likely see empty bike lanes for the majority of the year. And what a huge waste!!!

COV is very infamous and notorious for bowing down to extremist special interest groups (for example, in this case, biking/environment left-wing nuts).

More and more people are riding all year long. The only thing that really gets most people off their bikes is snow and ice. Fortunately we don't get much of that here. During January and February, there were a lot of people walking and cycling over Burrard Bridge, especially on nice days. It is actually more important to have cyclists and pedestrians separated in the winter when it is dark and rainy and visibility is poor. The barriers and the separation from the traffic will also protect people walking over the bridge from being splashed by a***le drivers speeding over the bridge.

People also tend to drive less in the winter and miserable weather so the congestion won't be as much of a problem then.

[LeftCoaster]

Originally Posted by The_Henry_Man

^The biggest problem is that most people in Vancouver would ride their bikes during the warm season, which is barely around 3 months out of the whole year. However, during most of autumn, winter and spring, it's pretty much either too cold or too wet for people to go out with their bikes. As others have said, the best way is to utilize that lower platform that was originally designed for bikes!!

Therefore, this plan is immediately doomed to fail, because you'll most likely see empty bike lanes for the majority of the year. And what a huge waste!!!

COV is very infamous and notorious for bowing down to extremist special interest groups (for example, in this case, biking/environment left-wing nuts).

So people who bike to work or care about the environment are nuts?

You are a real treat eh?

As much as I think this experiment will fail it is just that, an experiment. the COV is hardly bowing down to anyone, nuts or not.

[Maersk]

Originally Posted by racc

More and more people are riding all year long. The only thing that really gets most people off their bikes is snow and ice. Fortunately we don't get much of that here. During January and February, there were a lot of people walking and cycling over Burrard Bridge, especially on nice days. It is actually more important to have cyclists and pedestrians separated in the winter when it is dark and rainy and visibility is poor. The barriers and the separation from the traffic will also protect people walking over the bridge from being splashed by a***le drivers speeding over the bridge.

People also tend to drive less in the winter and miserable weather so the congestion won't be as much of a problem then.

"More and more people are riding all year long" means nothing, dude. Theres still a huge drop off in bike ridership during the autumn, winter, and spring. Please understand that. The bike lane will be a waste.

And winter is the busiest time of year for traffic. Thats when the most cars are on the road since school is in full effect, as well as everyone going to work.

I agree with the above people. Vancouver's pandering to environmental nuts is ridiculous.

[jlousa]

Put me down in the do it right build a dedicated bridge camp.

I always bike/transit to work, the last couple of weeks we've had about 15 bikes at my building, and this is a building with shower facilities/lockers and ~900 workers. Today we had rain, my bike was the only one there if you don't count the bike couriers that came and went throughout the day.

[Stingray2004]

I still reckon that during Vancouver's "monsoon season", commencing this fall, the sidewalks on the Burrard Street Bridge will resemble something akin to this :



Source: BC Business

And with vehicular/transit travellers (representing over 90% of bridge traffic) seeing such a desolate sight, with 5 traffic lanes merging into 2, they will perhaps resemble something akin to this:





Source: theaa.com, rentatoll.com

But I digress.

[racc]

Originally Posted by Stingray2004

I still reckon that during Vancouver's "monsoon season", commencing this fall, the sidewalks on the Burrard Street Bridge will resemble something akin to this :



Source: BC Business

Well, thanks for proving my point that fewer people driving in the rain. The traffic seems to be moving just fine.

[flight_from_kamakura]

mmm, it wouldn't be too hard to set it up so that it would be possible to rededicate the separated road-level bike lanes (the southbound ones) to cars from november to april as they do in other towns (brooklyn and montreal come to mind), while two-waying the northbound lanes.

it would be pretty neat to build an entirely new bridge, but losing a single lane of traffic hardly justifies the tens of millions of dollars that would run.

[David]

yeah, the "left-wing environment nuts" have it all wrong

[racc]

Originally Posted by David

yeah, the "left-wing environment nuts" have it all wrong

The surest sign that you don't have any logical arguments is when you start calling names.

[sacrifice333]

I thought if anything cities tried to have a greater volume of outflow lanes than inflow lanes.

The diagrams for the new lane arrangement shows greater volume of inflow lanes?

Anyone care to explain... maybe it has to do with the fact that Vancouver doesn't have any sort of actual freeway through it and the third inflow lane directs traffic toward Hornby?