MakeVictoriaBetter

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

New physically-separated bike lane in Vancouver

Vancouver is aiming to be the 'Greenest City in the World' by 2020. I don't think they have a hope in Heck of convincing anyone of this, without exponentially increasing their 'modal share' of cycling.

That said, the new two-way, physically-separated bike lane on Dunsmuir Street is a great start.

I hope Victoria can follow suit, soon -- perhaps on Shelbourne or the Johnson Street Bridge, to start.




A look at the Dunsmuir Street two-way bike lane separating cyclists and motorists. 

From Vancouver.ca:
The experience of other cities suggests that perception of safety is essential to attracting more people to cycling and that separated bike lanes are perceived to be safer and more satisfying to cyclists than cycling next to traffic. The City of Vancouver is moving forward with separated bike lanes on existing bike routes in the downtown to connect key destinations, such as the central business district.
Cross-section of the road diet:


Walking the walk. Well done, Vancouver.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

When it comes to bike infrastructure, it is a step in the right direction at least.

I saw a CTV news report about the new lane and for the most part it was positive. Then you had a motorist saying it slows him considerably. Ironically any video I've seen, traffic moves smoothly.

Then a business owner was saying it's bad for business. This is funny because in the Ottawa Citizen there was an article about how NYC is booming for cyclists. It indicated that cyclists & pedestrians spend more money than motorists.
Same thing was recently found in Toronto.
Bill Bean from Take the Lane (Kitchener) wrote something about this as well.

When are these small business owners going to realize this?

Evan said...

Yes, exactly. This is something that has been promoted -- and proven -- in Europe for quite awhile, now.

Cyclists make more trips -- providing a livelier street and busier shops (good for business -- because they can carry less and, as a result, end up spending more, per person.

I hope that this lane will show the doubters that they have nothing to worry about, and we will begin to see more and more projects like this.

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