Metro Vancouver Bike/Pedestrian Discussion

[officedweller]

Thanks for the info!

[officedweller]

Richards bike lane at Smithe.

Pics by me today.

[TheTerminalCity]

City of Vancouver has rolled out 12 km of 'slow streets' connecting Queen Elizabeth Park-Trout Lake-New Brighton in a rough L-shape path.



Curious to know what people here think of this. I'm a big fan of this, especially as we head into summer and better weather. It's a great opportunity for people to have access to their streets and get out while maintaining distancing. Seems absurd that its taken this long...could only imagine how fast Vision would have moved on this.

Any thoughts on where you'd want to see the next 12km of slow streets in Vancouver?

[scottN]

Originally Posted by TheTerminalCity

City of Vancouver has rolled out 12 km of 'slow streets' connecting Queen Elizabeth Park-Trout Lake-New Brighton in a rough L-shape path.

Curious to know what people here think of this. I'm a big fan of this, especially as we head into summer and better weather. It's a great opportunity for people to have access to their streets and get out while maintaining distancing. Seems absurd that its taken this long...could only imagine how fast Vision would have moved on this.

Any thoughts on where you'd want to see the next 12km of slow streets in Vancouver?

Any street where the sidewalk is less than 2m wide should be a slow street for COVID-19 physical distancing.

I often use the section of Lakewood between Central Valley Greenway and trout lake. Usually I am running with 1-2 kids riding bikes. Even before this was declared a slow street I often ran on the street so my kids didn't have to ride their bikes on the sidewalk.

IMO every bike route that is not also an arterial road should be a "slow street" for this very reason.

[aberdeen5698]

Originally Posted by scottN

IMO every bike route that is not also an arterial road should be a "slow street" for this very reason.

The city has been signing all of the residential streets with bike routes at 30 km/h for quite some time now.

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

Originally Posted by scottN

Any street where the sidewalk is less than 2m wide should be a slow street for COVID-19 physical distancing.

so, Oak St, Granville St, Knight Street, etc.

that doesn't sound like that'll work.

[scottN]

Originally Posted by aberdeen5698

The city has been signing all of the residential streets with bike routes at 30 km/h for quite some time now.

The new "slow streets" allow pedestrians to use the street to maintain physical distancing. That's a big difference from lowering the rarely enforced speed limit from 50 to 30. Many people would not feel safe walking or running in the street with cars passing at 30 km/h.

The rules for slow street prohibit motor vehicles from passing, so the speed limit is effectively about 5 km/h. In a car, that's painfully slow.

[scottN]

Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture

so, Oak St, Granville St, Knight Street, etc.

that doesn't sound like that'll work.

You're right that slow streets won't work in these cases. However many cities around the world have blocked off 1 or 2 lanes to increase the widths of sidewalks in busy areas to make room for physical distancing, especially where there are queues outside of stores. It's the same idea, just applied in a different way that is more sensitive to the context of an arterial street. Pedestrians need more room for social distancing and lane closures are another way to achieve that.

On Commercial Drive there are already 2 such queuing areas where parking has been blocked off - for Donald's grocery store and the Liquor store. IMO they should turn the curb lane into a temporary pedestrian sidewalk for the entire commercial district from 14th avenue to Hastings.

[s211]

Originally Posted by scottN

The rules for slow street prohibit motor vehicles from passing

I was not aware of that.

That sounds more like glacial streets than slow streets.

[s211]

Originally Posted by scottN

On Commercial Drive there are already 2 such queuing areas where parking has been blocked off - for Donald's grocery store and the Liquor store. IMO they should turn the curb lane into a temporary pedestrian sidewalk for the entire commercial district from 14th avenue to Hastings.

I imagine the suffering retailers and food outlets might have something to say about that.

[officedweller]

Pics by me yesterday May 28th of the northerly section of the Richards St. bike lane:

From Pender looking south:



Looks like they have 2 lanes marked southbound
(one used for parking in off-rush hours (?)):


Will these be dug up for trees?
there's a drainage cut in the curb.


At Dunsmuir:




What are these cells for (conduit? or tree roots?)?

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by officedweller

Will these be dug up for trees?
there's a drainage cut in the curb.

Thanks for the pics! I really like the bioswale design of the newer bike lane along Quebec St. Maybe this isn't the right place for it, but I'd love to see more of that.

[idunno]

North of Dunsmuir, the Richards Street project is being completed to a 'temporary' design standard with the cast in place concrete pads and bike lane that is flush to the pavement. I would compare this standard to the one-way Nelson bike lane, or even most of Dunsmuir.

South of Dunsmuir, the project is more of a full reconstruction, with the advanced green infrastructure cells and a raised, separated bike lane. I would compare this to Quebec Street, but I believe this is one of (if not the first) implementations of GI with protected bike lanes downtown.

[Aroundtheworld]

What's next after Richards downtown?

I believe there is the Drake bike lane which has already been designed. I would imagine the next priorities after that would be something along Water St. and then extending the Nelson and Smithe lanes up to Hornby.

[scottN]

Originally Posted by s211

I was not aware of that.

That sounds more like glacial streets than slow streets.

Here's the CoV poster about how to drive on slow streets:

https://vancouver.ca/files/cov/slow-streets-poster.pdf

[VancouverOfTheFuture]

avoid passing people walking? good luck with that.

when making these "policies" or whatever they are. shouldn't they have to take into consideration what is realistic, like in the real world? because, come on, that isn't going to happen; this isn't fantasy land.

[Conrad Yablonski]

Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture

avoid passing people walking? good luck with that. when making these "policies" or whatever they are. shouldn't they have to take into consideration what is realistic, like in the real world? because, come on, that isn't going to happen; this isn't fantasy land.

Remember this is CoV staff at 'work' here creating their little fantasy worlds at taxpayers expense.

Reminds of when I called 311 asking for some info on an upcoming road project the employee I talked to couldn't help me because as he proudly pointed out he didn't drive/took the bus to work and referred me to the CoV website-which itself directed me to 'call 311 for more info'.

[scottN]

Originally Posted by VancouverOfTheFuture

avoid passing people walking? good luck with that.

when making these "policies" or whatever they are. shouldn't they have to take into consideration what is realistic, like in the real world? because, come on, that isn't going to happen; this isn't fantasy land.

Not all streets are thoroughfares. Lakewood already has regular traffic diverters for must of it's length. The street I live on isn't wide enough for a car to pass a pedestrian or cyclist (without taking advantage of rare empty parking spaces so a slow street would work just fine. What's also totally unrealistic is that such streets allow 2 way motor vehicle traffic at all. Before COVID-19, about once a week there would be a major traffic jam with multiple vehicles going east trying to pass multiple vehicles going west with an insufficient number of empty parking spaces to actually make it happen and drivers screaming at eachother about who should back up.

[fredinno]

I actually don't really want these slow streets to stay permanent. Excessively wide sidewalks feel more desolate, like Broadway.

[GenWhy?]

Originally Posted by fredinno

I actually don't really want these slow streets to stay permanent. Excessively wide sidewalks feel more desolate, like Broadway.

"Slow Streets" is on local roads while widening sidewalk space to physical distance and allow outdoor patios are in pedestrian and shopping/restaurant heavy areas, unlike Broadway.