Metro Vancouver Bike/Pedestrian Discussion

[jlousa]

Okay I decided to create a new thread as I can't find the old one. If one of the mods wants to move some of the misc posts in other threads into here that would be great.

City of Vancouver has a page up for the proposed North Arm Trail Greenway that will run along 59th Ave. There are a few open houses coming up shortly.

http://vancouver.ca/engsvcs/streets/...y/northarm.htm

[wrenegade]

Is the debate about closing a lane on the Burrard St Bridge going to be re-opened now with Roberston and Vision running the show?

[b5baxter]

it looks like the debate will be whether it should be one lane or two.....

[The_Henry_Man]

Wasn't there a study on somehow expanding the sides of the bridge to accommodate more bike traffic instead of the retarded idea to close existing car traffic lanes?

[fever]

Originally Posted by The_Henry_Man

Wasn't there a study on somehow expanding the sides of the bridge to accommodate more bike traffic instead of the retarded idea to close existing car traffic lanes?

It was going to cost more than $60 million. Many people who consider themselves fiscal conservatives were supporting this concept, anyway. I can't figure it out.

I think it will come down to a debate between the fifth vehicle lane being northbound-only or switchable. I think it will be northbound-only because I can't see how they'd reconfigure the north end of the bridge, and because it's cheaper, and because it doesn't really need to be switchable.

I think the calls for removing two lanes are a little bit off the deep end. I assume the Burrard bridge has 10-foot lanes. Five feet is enough for a bike lane. They really need to fix the north end northbound Burrard Bridge-Hornby bike connection. These cycling advocates should be pointing out these little gaps in the system that non-cyclists don't know about.

[deasine]

I personally don't think closing one lane is enough enough. Essentially, you are only adding 1/3 capacity to each side of the bridge (for pedestrians and cyclists). It's good, but it's not good enough, and I thought the sidewalk expansion was a much better idea.

Burrard Bridge gets pretty busy during rush hour... and I know 'cuz I worked on Burrard St. before. I can imagine the back log of traffic once that lane gets closed.

[jlousa]

The $~60Million pricetag was due to years of delays, but even then most of that cost wasn't really the expanded sidewalks as it was bringing the bridge up to date, I beleive we are looking at just north of $30Million without any sidewalk expansion.

[officedweller]

I think Vision's Burrard Bridge bike lane solution (closing one lane, redistributing the car lanes and creating 1.5m bike lanes on each side) is fiscally prudent - it's a "least drastic means" approach to solving the problem.

You don't need a 3m wide bike lane (as was pushed by City staff) when it feeds to and from 1.5m bike lanes on Hornby Street and Burrard Street. If there's a perceived safety issue with proximity, bollards could be installed - as has been done along the Canada Line construction (or used to be along the Massey Tunnel) or was done to demarcate the temporary sidewalk under BC Place when the curb lane was closed (and eventually converted to a sidewalk and bike lane).
I think I recall City staff wanting the 3m bike lane width to accommodate roller bladers as an extension of the seawall path - but I think that roller bladers can share the sidewalk on the bridge.

Traffic will redistribute - look at what happened when Cambie Bridge was shut down to one lane each way during Canada Line construction - and Granville Bridge is closeby to provide a ready alternative.

With a separate pedestrian/bike bridge the price tag would be huge and you would have late night safety issues - I'd prefer not to force people to take a secluded path at night.

Originally Posted by fever

They really need to fix the north end northbound Burrard Bridge-Hornby bike connection. These cycling advocates should be pointing out these little gaps in the system that non-cyclists don't know about.

I could see the Pacific St. roadway shifted north by reducing the sidewalk on the north side on the block between Hornby and Burrard to create a bike lane on the south side on that one block to link up with Hornby. The problem with that is that the car lane shift on Pacific (westbound) would have to occur in the Hornby intersection unless a wedge of land is expropriated from Il Giardino.

[jlousa]

Burnaby's turn to work on the Central Greenway Path

CONTRACT 2008-32, CENTRAL VALLEY GREENWAY - SECTION 1, PHASE II
Tenders are invited for the complete reconstruction of 405m of asphalt trail under skytrain between Boundary Road and Gilmore Avenue. The work includes construction of retaining wall and paving 400m of 6.5m wide asphalt pathway with a 2.0m wide strip of stamped/colored asphalt. Approximate quantities are 100 cu.m of common excavation, removal of 2,650 sq.m
of existing asphalt, supply of 250 tonnes of base gravels, 220 sq.m of 450mm thick topsoil with irrigation, 2,050 sq.m of 50mm thick asphalt, 880 sq.m of 50mm thick stamped/colored asphalt, 12 sq.m of Allan Block retaining wall and relocation of 11 existing pathway lights.

[Jared]

Excellent. Vancouver's sections (Clark to Commercial; Slocan to Boundary) appear to be making decent progress.

I'm just wondering what is going on with the route near the new Costco. Last time I biked through there, there was a massive mud patch, and you actually had to get of your bike, and walk through, it was impossible to ride.

[worldwide]

that section has been made rideable in the past month or so, maybe even longer. the only real shite section left is the section between renfrew and boundary... also the section east of sperling doesnt exist yet.. but there is the burnaby lake trail for sunday riders

[officedweller]

Originally Posted by Jared

Excellent. Vancouver's sections (Clark to Commercial; Slocan to Boundary) appear to be making decent progress.

I noticed the other day that now you can't turn left from southbound Clark into eastbound Grandview Highway North. I think it has been changed to a right-in right-out configuration, forcing southeast-bound traffic to Broadway.

[twoNeurons]

Originally Posted by worldwide

that section has been made rideable in the past month or so, maybe even longer. the only real shite section left is the section between renfrew and boundary... also the section east of sperling doesnt exist yet.. but there is the burnaby lake trail for sunday riders

There's a cool looking pedestrian bridge being built at Sperling station over the tracks.

[b5baxter]

Recent photo of construction of Central Valley Greenway along Great Northern Way:


Recent photo of construction at the intersection of CVG (First Ave) and Main (looks like they are making it easier for cyclists to cross Main):


Older photo of ped/cycling bridge:


all photos by myself

[officedweller]

Nice, thanks.
That Sperling Kensington area will have the most number of roadway, SkyTrain, bikeway overpasses of any area in the region!

[SpongeG]

that overpass looked about the same when I passed saturday - the other side of it might be getting the concetration of work at the moment though

looks good

[worldwide]

thanks for the update. anyone know how far along they are in the renfrew to boundary stretch? i may have to ride over to superstore and check it out on the way.

[jlousa]

The path near Superstore is getting pretty close, I was there a week ago and most of the prep work had been done. Shouldn't be much longer.

Burnaby is progessing with yet another phase of the Central Valley Greenway

Tenders are invited for grade construction and electrical works for the Burnaby Central Valley Greenway sections 9 and 10 along the south side of Government Street from Brighton Avenue to Burnaby Mountain Urban Trail as a 3m wide x 730m long asphalt trail and along Cariboo Road from Government Street to Cariboo Place as a 4m x 140m asphalt trail. One piece of section 9 will require a cantilevered bridge to cross Silver Creek, while the remaining portions of section 10 will involve removal of existing vegetation and cutting/filling to accommodate the new trail.

[SpongeG]

the winston exit (near sperling/burnaby lake) has been closed yesterday and today and there are pieces of the overpass there - looks close to be put up - i imagine this week - a few white pieces were already up today

[jlousa]

This is by the COV, I had never heard of it till just now, it's an RFQ for something called Oneday OneSchool. Sounds interesting.

The One Day One School program is aimed at teaching Grade three (3) through five (5) children the essentials of bicycle road and traffic safety. It includes a three (3) day course; one (1) day of classroom instruction and two (2) days of hands-on training.
REQUIREMENTS
The cycling education and skill training shall include education, skill training, and neighbourhood rides. The Education shall be a minimum of forty (40) minutes of cycling education presentation and take home materials. The cycling skill training should be a minimum of one hundred and twenty (120) minutes of interactive cycling skill training. The neighbourhood ride shall be a minimum of thirty (30) minutes of cycling in the school neighbourhood streets. The three components do not need to be continuous.

For the cycling skill training, The student per staff ratio shall be no greater than ten (10) students per one (1) staff per session. Staff includes instructors, riding assistants, and supervising assistants. Instructors shall have a minimum of two (2) years of children cycling skill training experience and a CAN Bike 2 certification or equivalents. Riding assistants shall have a CAN Bike 1 certification or equivalent. Cycling experience is not required for supervising assistants. For the neighborhood ride, no more than six (6) children would be allowed to ride on the road in any one group, with a lead and tail adult rider at all times.
Example of expected program content:
Day 1 – Instruction will involve classroom presentations to separate Grade three (3), four (4) and five (5) classes of approximately thirty (30) students. These classes shall take place in the gym or common area, and do not require the students to bring their own bikes. Duration time per class is forty (40) minutes.
Day 2 – Instruction requires that students bring bikes and helmets to school, locked in a position accessible to the course area (the contractor is expected to provide at least 20% of the bikes for students without a bike that passes the internal safety check). This session shall run for eighty (80) minutes to include time for set-up and a cursory check of bike condition. The instruction shall include an interactive bike and helmet check that would include students to go through a course set up of safety stations. This shall all be contained within a traffic-free environment (playground or empty parking space).
Day 3 – Instruction includes children completing a small road circuit (up to 2km). Stations within the school grounds are used for additional instruction and to minimize the number of children riding on the road at one time.