Metro Vancouver Bike & Pedestrian Discussion

[aberdeen5698]

Originally Posted by Large Cat

A few BC Parkway updates (pictures to come soon I hope):

-the path between Joyce and Rupert should be finished within days. Honestly I don't know why the fences are still up.

Thanks for this update, it's not far from me so I'll have to go check it out.

I've never used the BC Parkway between Renfrew and Boundary because IMHO the Vanness routing was really awful. Vanness is a narrow street and very hilly with poor sight lines, all of which serve to make it a daunting ride. I live south of Kingsway so when I travel that way I've always used Euclid street instead. Euclid is only 1 block south of Vanness but is almost completely flat and much wider, so I've found it to be a much more pleasant experience.

I'll have to take a look at what they've done to see if it changes my opinion.

[Large Cat]

Okay, here are some photos.



Nice smooth asphalt, quite beautiful actually.



They seem to have repainted half of the crosswalk lines while leaving the rest to rot. I'm not sure what the squares indicate (cyclists crossing?) but I like them lol. The only thing I don't like about the crossing work here is the cement ramp leading onto the west side of Patterson has quite a bump going onto it from the roadway. Hurts your bum on a bike and you have to go backwards with a wheelchair. But the ramp on the east side is quite smooth.



The beginning of the new path between Joyce-Collingwood and Rupert. It's quite wide and looks very smooth. I'm not sure what's keeping them from taking down the fences. If you zoom in close on the centre of the photo you can see how they leveled the grade for the trail next to Vanness.



From the highest point on Vanness. You can see the trail is quite a bit lower.



They seem to be doing a bit more landscaping here, but the buttons are already installed.



Here is the new asphalt slope connecting to Slocan. Excellent work. Going up 29th and down Penticton was quite a pain and a little dangerous. They are doing more landscaping here also it seems. Hopefully the crossing treatment soon also.



At Nanaimo Station. You can see the new protected cycle track section, and paint lines indicating where white stripes will soon be put down. I love the whole concept here for crossing Nanaimo. It must have taken some thinking on their part.



Closer to the cycle track. I do wonder if they will be adding a bit more curb, since at the moment they seem to need to indicate to cars with the pylons that this is not a car lane.



However, today a truck was blocking me in the cycle track! Upon closer inspection I discovered...



That a technician is installing the new bike button as we speak!

All in all great work so far this spring!

[officedweller]

Thanks for the pics!

They may be waiting for the landscaping to be finished before opening it - so they can work without worrying about endangering cyclists safety.

[deasine]

Was hoping for a separate cycle track from the parkway via Slocan to the Park but that is definitely better than nothing! Thanks for the updates!

[Large Cat]

Originally Posted by deasine

Was hoping for a separate cycle track from the parkway via Slocan to the Park but that is definitely better than nothing! Thanks for the updates!

No prob! Yarr, I think they are still planning to do that on the east side of slocan, so that you would cross at the light and then once more with the new crossing right at where I took the picture. But probably not till at least next summer...lol

[red-paladin]

Good photos, I don't bike these days, but that section was very well needed.

[WBC]

Very, very nice...I did not even know they were doing these improvements between Joyce and Rupert and separating the bike path.

[Large Cat]

Btw everyone, does anyone know how to resize images in bbcode or otherwise on this forum? Obviously the ones I posted are far too big.

[officedweller]

I resize them on my computer (and save them in reduced size) before uploading.

[Xrayal]

I stumbled on this line inside the summery sheet for the Northeast sector of the mayor plan. Emphasis added by me.

http://mayorscouncil.ca/wp-content/uploa...C_Infosheets-Tri-Cities_v27_20150219.pdf

TransLink and the municipal partners have identified the alignment of a parallel multi-use path and on-street bike facilities to the Evergreen Line from Lougheed Station in Burnaby into the region’s northeast sector to Lafarge Lake and Douglas College in Coquitlam

[tybuilding]

New wayfinding signs are going to be installed on the BC Parkway from Vancouver to Surrey this spring.

http://www.translink.ca/en/Getting-Around/Cycling/Bicycle-Wayfinding-Guidelines.aspx





The New Westminster section of the BC Parkway from Fourteenth St to Third Ave will be repaved/shifted over this spring/summer.

[gillty]

Originally Posted by tybuilding

New wayfinding signs are going to be installed on the BC Parkway from Vancouver to Surrey this spring.

http://www.translink.ca/en/Getting-Around/Cycling/Bicycle-Wayfinding-Guidelines.aspx





The New Westminster section of the BC Parkway from Fourteenth St to Third Ave will be repaved/shifted over this spring/summer.

Looks great, one of the disadvantages of the Central Vally Greenway is the discontinuity of signage. The Burnaby section is particularly not great about way-finding, as the pathway east of Gilmore is pretty confusing in the experience of my friends and family.

[Large Cat]

Originally Posted by tybuilding

New wayfinding signs are going to be installed on the BC Parkway from Vancouver to Surrey this spring.

http://www.translink.ca/en/Getting-Around/Cycling/Bicycle-Wayfinding-Guidelines.aspx





The New Westminster section of the BC Parkway from Fourteenth St to Third Ave will be repaved/shifted over this spring/summer.

That's great! but where did you get this information? I've read the guidelines on translink.ca before, but how did you find out they are adding new wayfinding signs this summer specifically?

[tybuilding]

Originally Posted by Large Cat

That's great! but where did you get this information? I've read the guidelines on translink.ca before, but how did you find out they are adding new wayfinding signs this summer specifically?

I met someone from Translink as I was riding home from work. She was reviewing the placement of the signs (by bike).

[Large Cat]

Originally Posted by tybuilding

I met someone from Translink as I was riding home from work. She was reviewing the placement of the signs (by bike).

Cool!

[204]

From the Province:

A New Zealand man has penned what appears to be a ‘breakup’ letter to Vancouver, saying the city is not what he had hoped, due to the antagonistic nature between cyclists and drivers.

Written by a user under the name ‘drspangle’, the Reddit post was submitted Monday afternoon and details an on-road interaction between the author, who was cycling, and a driver.

On Monday evening, the author says he was riding in the middle of a curbside lane along Robson Street, toward Beatty, to avoid being squeezed dangerously by passing vehicles or hit by car doors swinging open.

“On the final block between Cambie and Beatty, about half way, a gentleman behind me decided that I was going too slowly (towards a red light) and that taking the lane was unacceptable, so he revved and roared and passed me far too close, while glaring at me,” the author writes.

“I was upset. I should have left it, but I gave him the finger. The light turned green at this point.”

Read the whole thing here:
http://www.theprovince.com/news/vancouve...Vancouver+what+hoped/10952412/story.html

[dreambrother808]

I would never take up an entire lane on my bike... This guy is ridiculous.

[aberdeen5698]

Originally Posted by dreambrother808

I would never take up an entire lane on my bike... This guy is ridiculous.

I'm not going to comment on the specifics of what he did because it pretty much boils down to "he said, she said". But I do want to comment on the concept of "taking the lane".

"Dooring" is one of the most dangerous risks facing cyclists. Anyone who has taught cycling will tell you that you should not ride within a door-width of parked vehicles because of the danger of a car door opening suddenly in front of you. Cyclists who hit these doors are thrown from their bikes, often into the traffic lane, and they often die after getting hit by traffic.

There are a lot of streets in Vancouver where there simply isn't enough room for a motorist to safely pass a cyclist who is keeping a safe distance from parked cars, particularly if there's oncoming traffic. The motorist has no inherent right to pass a cyclist under these circumstances. When you drive, you sometimes get stuck behind slow moving traffic, be it a cyclist or a backhoe. Those are the breaks. Motorists often seem to think that the cyclist is "hogging the road" because they're not riding within a foot or so of parked cars, but that's an entirely unreasonable and uneducated belief.

A courteous and safe cyclist will have a rear view mirror and be aware of the traffic ahead and behind him, and will pull over to let traffic pass when there's an opportunity, usually at the next intersection. But being delayed by traffic for one block is not a reason for a driver to get apoplectic, even if the cause is a cyclist.

I like to think of myself as a courteous and safe cyclist, and I don't believe that I've ever delayed anyone for more than a block. Yet I still encounter the odd driver who gets very irate because I happen to be in their way for that brief period of time.

Drivers aren't the only bad apples out there, there are plenty of bad cyclists and bad pedestrians too. The issue isn't the mode of transport - it's the temperament of the people themselves. The problems start with a lack of appreciation of what the other person is having to deal with.

[Sheba]

That's the problem with riding a bike - it's a 'vehicle' and you're supposed to treat it like one and ride on the road. But you get a lot of drivers who either don't see you, or if they do they're pissed at you for riding on the road. But if you ride on the sidewalk pedestrians get pissed at you too, so where are you supposed to ride? Bike paths - pedestrians walk all over them too. No matter what you do, you're treated like a second class citizen.

[GlassCity]

Originally Posted by Sheba

That's the problem with riding a bike - it's a 'vehicle' and you're supposed to treat it like one and ride on the road. But you get a lot of drivers who either don't see you, or if they do they're pissed at you for riding on the road. But if you ride on the sidewalk pedestrians get pissed at you too, so where are you supposed to ride? Bike paths - pedestrians walk all over them too. No matter what you do, you're treated like a second class citizen.

I've never had any problem riding in bike lanes, but I agree with you. Bikes are caught in this middle ground, and the only real answer is exclusive lanes, which are as we all know not received very well here. The transit plebiscite says it will build 2,700 kilometres of bikeways if it passes, including 300 kilometres of separated lanes, so I assume the other 2,400 kilometres would just be shoulder lanes or even just pavement markings, though still much better than nothing. It would be interesting to see where exactly this would be rolled out.