Metro Vancouver Bike & Pedestrian Discussion

[aberdeen5698]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

I thought municipalities were tight on funds post-Covid..

My knee-jerk reaction is that of all the municipalities doing something like this North Vancouver is the worst place to bike because of the grades. But I have to keep reminding myself that electric bikes are changing all that...

[CanSpice]

Originally Posted by jollyburger

I thought municipalities were tight on funds post-Covid..

North Van District's annual expenditures are around $190m, so $135k is 0.07% of their annual expenditures.

[idunno]

Wouldn't North Vancouver be the best place to do this because of the grades? E-bikes are much more of a realistic transport option than regular bikes on the north shore for that exact reason.

[whatnext]

Not surprisingly it was gridlocked chaos in Stanley Park this weekend thanks to the majority on Parks Board who didn't realize what their bike lane would do once tourism recovered:


Penny Daflos
@PennyDaflos
May 22
Stanley Park is such a headache right now. No one knows if it’s one lane or two getting out of the park, traffic barely crawling, and two guys in a convertible are screaming at everyone they get stuck behind.
Fun times.

https://twitter.com/PennyDaflos/status/1528523053143011328

[FarmerHaight]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Not surprisingly it was gridlocked chaos in Stanley Park this weekend thanks to the majority on Parks Board who didn't realize what their bike lane would do once tourism recovered:


Penny Daflos
@PennyDaflos
May 22
Stanley Park is such a headache right now. No one knows if it’s one lane or two getting out of the park, traffic barely crawling, and two guys in a convertible are screaming at everyone they get stuck behind.
Fun times.

https://twitter.com/PennyDaflos/status/1528523053143011328

The bike lane is very popular and takes a lot of traffic off the seawall. I think drivers will adjust and find another way to get to the park. Anecdotally, I always see more bikes than cars on Stanley Park Drive when I bike through the park.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by FarmerHaight

The bike lane is very popular and takes a lot of traffic off the seawall. I think drivers will adjust and find another way to get to the park. Anecdotally, I always see more bikes than cars on Stanley Park Drive when I bike through the park.

Really? The only cyclists I saw the other day were walking their bikes up that steep section leading to Prospect Point. Hardly enjoyable except for the dedicated lycra bros.

Quiet ironically the NY Times has a travel article posted yesterday extolling the seaside virtues of biking the seawall. Oops.

On the Water’s Edge: Vancouver by Bike
Follow waterside paths around Stanley Park to the Granville Island market and, if you have the stamina, to the sandy stretches of Spanish Banks, snacking and sightseeing as you go.
By Timothy Taylor
May 23, 2022

....Meanwhile, back in 2015, the city also completed the last extension of the sea wall with separated bike and pedestrian lanes. You can now travel its length, with little elevation change, from the Vancouver Convention Center on the north side of downtown, around Stanley Park, along the north and south banks of False Creek, and finally, all the way west to the vast sandy beaches at Spanish Banks. There, in late spring and early summer — particularly on crowd-free weekdays — bald eagles can be seen wheeling in pairs in the updrafts over the anchored freighters.....

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/23/travel/vancouver-biking.html?searchResultPosition=1

[GenWhy?]

Ontario is steep at Broadway. Plenty busy. It's like a 10 min walk up that hill too. Not extreme.

[FarmerHaight]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Really? The only cyclists I saw the other day were walking their bikes up that steep section leading to Prospect Point. Hardly enjoyable except for the dedicated lycra bros.

Really. I have biked the loop a half-dozen times or so since the bike lane opened and I always see a number of riders. Granted, some move to the seawall before the steep section, but I have seen a wide variety of people using the lane including hard-core cyclists, beginners on e-bikes, or people with rentals pushing their bikes. The path is very well used and the congestion on the seawall can be almost dangerous so it's good to have an alternative.

[dreambrother808]

I'm just a casual cyclist who has biked that route through Stanley Park many times.

I have never thought of that moderately steep section as being difficult and it's certainly not a barrier for most people.

[aberdeen5698]

Originally Posted by dreambrother808

I'm just a casual cyclist who has biked that route through Stanley Park many times.

I have never thought of that moderately steep section as being difficult and it's certainly not a barrier for most people.

I agree. Most people are capable of biking up the hill, it's just that a sizeable proportion don't want to do it. Kind of like driving to the neighborhood school instead of walking.

[Klazu]

The Stanley Park bikelane is the stupidest thing ever. Completely empty most of the year, yet always there taking road space. The route is also so damn boring compared to the old seawall route where vistas where plentiful. It was a beautiful ride and they should have widened the entire seawall to cope with increasing traffic. They have truly ruined the city's best tourist sight.

I am also sure Spandex Nazis are unhappy, as the Stanley Park Drive used to be the only fast route around, but is now filled with noob cyclists. I bet a lot of aggressive encounters ensue these days.

Same thing along the Beach Avenue where the old trail along the beach is empty and one has to use the boring roadway. Does no one at Park Board have any brains?

[aberdeen5698]

Originally Posted by Klazu

The Stanley Park bikelane is the stupidest thing ever. Completely empty most of the year, yet always there taking road space.

You realize that exactly the same thing could be said for that second lane on on Stanley Park Drive with regards to cars, right? It's not as though it's a commuter bottleneck most of the year. It's really only a few months in the summer that it becomes congested with vehicle traffic, and that was true even when it was two lanes.

[Migrant_Coconut]

Still think it could be reconfigured for three lanes. Bikers get a ROW, vehicles can pass the horse carriage, everybody wins.

[FarmerHaight]

Originally Posted by Klazu

The Stanley Park bikelane is the stupidest thing ever. Completely empty most of the year, yet always there taking road space. The route is also so damn boring compared to the old seawall route where vistas where plentiful. It was a beautiful ride and they should have widened the entire seawall to cope with increasing traffic. They have truly ruined the city's best tourist sight.

I am also sure Spandex Nazis are unhappy, as the Stanley Park Drive used to be the only fast route around, but is now filled with noob cyclists. I bet a lot of aggressive encounters ensue these days.

Same thing along the Beach Avenue where the old trail along the beach is empty and one has to use the boring roadway. Does no one at Park Board have any brains?

Klazu, you have to be the most ignorant person about the downtown peninsula who feigns enlightenment. The bike lane is very busy, the seawall is also very busy, and the path along the beach is packed on every day with nice weather. Please tell us how many times you have walked by English Bay or Second Beach, or driven Stanley Park drive in the last year. If your answer isn't at least 10 or 20 times, than you likely don't have a large enough sample to draw any meaningful conclusion.

I have never seen a single aggressive encounter between a bike and a car in the park because: a) the cars and bikes are segregated and have no reason to be mad at one another, and b) most people who drive through the park do not do so because of expedience. If you want to drive somewhere fast, go somewhere where the speed limit is higher than 30 KPH and there are not speed bumps every 100 metres or so. Besides, bikes which generate no emissions and very little noise pollution are a much better fit in Vancouver's most famous park IMO.

[aberdeen5698]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

Still think it could be reconfigured for three lanes. Bikers get a ROW, vehicles can pass the horse carriage, everybody wins.

Instead of dissing the use of that lane for bikes, what I'm really wondering is why people are giving the horse-drawn carriages a pass? Why does everyone think it's fine for that business to block traffic? Those faux-tram buses could do the same job without having to plod along at walking pace between pull-outs.

If we spent the money on widening Stanley Park drive (as if that would ever happen) in order to eliminate the traffic jams caused by those carriages, it would essentially amount to a direct subsidy to allow that business to stay in operation. For the life of me I just can't fathom why we would sink money to support a private business like that.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by Migrant_Coconut

Still think it could be reconfigured for three lanes. Bikers get a ROW, vehicles can pass the horse carriage, everybody wins.

I would like to see the seawall expanded. I know it would be expensive, but I'll never bike on the roadway, I don't see the point TBH.

[GenWhy?]

Bike path along Beach was a glorified sidewalk

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

I would like to see the seawall expanded. I know it would be expensive, but I'll never bike on the roadway, I don't see the point TBH.

Yes, that would be ideal. Especially as we know the seawall will have to be reconfigured to deal with climate change. Witness its washout and closure early this year.

Unfortunately the Parks Board doesn't seem to have the will or the resources to do much long term planning (witness the recent report on the sad state of most community centres). I think those campaigning on abolishing the Parks Board and rolling it into city government are right. Having it separate doesn't seem to give it any advantage.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Yes, that would be ideal. Especially as we know the seawall will have to be reconfigured to deal with climate change. Witness its washout and closure early this year.

Unfortunately the Parks Board doesn't seem to have the will or the resources to do much long term planning (witness the recent report on the sad state of most community centres). I think those campaigning on abolishing the Parks Board and rolling it into city government are right. Having it separate doesn't seem to give it any advantage.

Yeah the PB can't handle basic things like pool maintenance and gets wrapped up in reconciliation and tent cities. Even the bike path through Kits park was a circus between the City and the PB. The public needs "one throat to choke" as my old boss used to say. Enough finger pointing.

As for Stanley Park, yeah, do an estimate of what it will cost to do it right for users and climate change, and we'll go from there. It's a landmark attraction in Vancouver, if not Canada. Senior levels of government can and should contribute.

[Changing City]

Originally Posted by WarrenC12

Yeah the PB can't handle basic things like pool maintenance and gets wrapped up in reconciliation and tent cities. Even the bike path through Kits park was a circus between the City and the PB. The public needs "one throat to choke" as my old boss used to say. Enough finger pointing.

As for Stanley Park, yeah, do an estimate of what it will cost to do it right for users and climate change, and we'll go from there. It's a landmark attraction in Vancouver, if not Canada. Senior levels of government can and should contribute.

I think it's already been scoped out. One of the problems in the past was that to widen it in several places it would need to be built out onto the foreshore, as the (unstable) cliffs are on the other side. The permits for that are much more difficult to get from Federal agencies these days - although clearly not impossible given that the City were able to build the Olympic Village (requiring the creation of Habitat Island in that case).