Category Archives for Uncategorized

Eastbound Cycling Access on Pacific Across Burrard Needed

The intersection of Burrard and Pacific is currently pretty bad for everyone walking, cycling and driving. It has one of the highest number of motor vehicle crashes in Vancouver due mainly to the right turn lane from Pacific to the Bridge. It is pretty dicey for cycling as well. Drivers often block the bike crossing while they are waiting to merge onto the bridge forcing cyclists to either wait or dodge them.
Assuming the proposed changes are approved by Council, Burrard and Pacific will join Burrard and Cornwall as one of the best intersections in North America for cycling. People cycling and walking will be protected from turning vehicles by separate signal phases greatly reducing the chances of crashes. It will also be great to be allowed to walk on the East Side of the Bridge again!
burrard-detail
However, the proposed plan is missing an all ages and abilities cycling connection eastbound along Pacific across Burrard. This connection is needed to provide basic access to businesses and residences in the area. With two right turn lanes heading onto the Bridge from Pacific, riding on the road with traffic will be even a dicier proposition than it is today.

As well, the grade on Beach and Pacific is much less than the grades on Thurlow (14%) and Hornby (10%) thus Beach and Pacific is naturally a better cycling route than the other options to access downtown via Burrard and Hornby. This is likely why it was included in the City’s 1999 Bicycle Plan.

Without eastbound access across Burrard, there is really no reasonable bicycle access to downtown from residences and business in the area bounded by Harwood, the west side of Burrard, Thurlow, and the north side of Pacific. Without this access across Burrard, the only options for all but the bravest are to cycle to Bute then up to the alley that connects to Drake or to cycle to Thurlow then down to Beach or the Seaside Greenway then back up Hornby. As confusing as it sounds. Either option is several hundred metres long and requires crossing more intersections taking more time and exposing people to greater risk of a collision. Even worse, should a visitor or wayward local find their way to the southeast side of the intersection, as all the bike lanes are one-way leading to that side of the intersection, with no eastbound access across Pacific, the only allowed option is to cycle over the Bridge then cycle back across the Bridge.

As this is pretty unreasonable, the result will be people not cycling, riding on the sidewalk, cycling in crosswalks or riding the wrong way in one-way bike lanes. Not safe for people cycling or walking.

Cycling Routes Should be Direct and Obvious

With Burrard Bridge and cycling in general proving popular with visitors to Vancouver, bike routes need to be obvious. I have witnessed many a tourist, some with maps open, at the north and south ends of the bridge wondering how to get anywhere.

In the following photos, four people, likely visitors, making their way across Pacific to get to the bicycle rental shop on Burrard. A sure sign that better access across Burrard is needed.

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As well, the goal is to attract new people to cycling. These people will be used to navigating around the city by car, foot and transit. If cycling connections are providing along the roads that they are used to, it will be much easier for them to find their way around the city by bike.

Overloading Weak Network Links

The only other eastbound all ages cycling route across Burrard south of Comox is the Seaside Greenway. The section of the Greenway between Burrard Bridge and Hornby is rather problematic with the current levels of bicycle traffic. Providing people with a route to avoid the problem areas is a good idea that will likely reduce cycling and walking conflicts and injuries.

Possible Solutions

There are a couple of possible solutions that would provide people with good bicycle access across Pacific. Sadly, one involves removing the large tree at the intersection. The other really worth considering is removing the eastbound traffic lane on Pacific across Burrard which could allow for enough space for the bike lane while sparing the tree. Unlike for people cycling, where there are two bicycle rental shops, there are no destinations where the eastbound lane Pacific from Thurlow to Hornby provides needed motor vehicle access.  Traffic on eastbound Pacific is pretty low and so is eastbound traffic on Beach. Beach also doesn’t have the long traffic light at Burrard so at most times of the day, Beach might even be faster than using Pacific. Traffic from Thurlow would just cross Pacific and head to Beach. The hill up from Beach  isn’t a problem for motor vehicles either.

Please email Mayor and Council at Mayor Gregor Robertson and Council mayorandcouncil@vancouver.ca and copy the project team at BurrardBridgeNorth@vancouver.ca to encourage the City to provide this badly needing cycling access.

More info on the improvements and a questionnaire at:  http://vancouver.ca/burrardbridgenorth

Car Free Streets in Vancouver Bike Cafe – April 14

Please join us for the next Bike Café where we will be discussing Car Free Streets in Vancouver.

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

6 p.m

Musette Caffè Chinatown, 75 E. Pender St., Vancouver | Map

Many cities around the world have car-free streets or even whole areas with limited motor vehicle access. What streets in Vancouver are good candidates? What measures are needed to ensure that car-free streets are successful?

My gallery of great car free streets here.

More here.

More info on the upcoming SFU Bike Cafés here.

Car free streets are popular even in the rain!

Batemyth Busters: 40 Centuries to Fund Mayors Transportation Plan with CTF Waste

Brad Cavanagh has done a great job of shredding a key premise of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation’s slick expensive looking new website notranslinktax.ca He did the math and found that all the “waste” that they found totalled $1.9 million or 1.3% of TransLinks annual budget.

To put this into perspective, it would take 3,947 years, almost 40 centuries to fund the Mayors $7.5 billion Transportation Plan with this $1.9 million assuming that a similar matching waste could be found rattling around in Provincial and Federal budgets. The Millennium Line extension to UBC would take
525 years and LRT in Surrey would take over 370 to complete with Federal and Provincial matching funds. Even the 2700km of bicycle routes would take almost 70 years. Cycling routes should be built for people 8-80 years old. We can’t wait until an 8 year old is 80 to finish the regional cycling network.

This is also a small amount relative to real B.C. boondoggles like the BC Place Stadium roof, the Fast Ferries and the Golden Ears Bridge. Taxpayers would be better served by watchdogs resisting the temptation of $30,000 poodles and instead focusing on upcoming projects like the $8 billion Site C dam and the $3 billion Massey Bridge.

It looks like it is the Canadian Taxpayers Federation that not using their money very wisely. First, they used an American calendar (maybe to please their funders) to try and make fun of TransLink, then this. They would be well advised to spend more on accountants, fact checkers and proofreaders and less on slick websites.

For more information on the Referendum or to help out with the Yes campaign, please goto: http://www.bccc.bc.ca/yes

Form and Development: What’s happening in Richmond? – 1

Price also notes that the preservation of single­family neighbourhoods is “classist. He says it’s the lower income families who are relegated to the townhouses on the main arterials, buffering the elitists residing behind them from noise and air pollution.

Price Tags

Megahouses, vacant homes, speculation and affordability aren’t just issues for Vancouver.  Reporter Graeme Wood in the Richmond News has been writing about the transformation of Richmond.  Here’s an excerpt.

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Mega Homes: Absent homeowners, foreign speculation, overdevelopment and skyrocketing land value has reached a boiling point

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New homes in single­-family home neighbourhoods are pushing the boundaries of floor space ratio, by uprooting lawns, and height restrictions, by adding a third level. It’s a result of increased land values and housing demand that has seen this resurgence of the megahome in Richmond. …

On Spires Road, one of the last bastions of “Old Richmond” is about to get a major makeover; Yamamoto Architecture Inc. has applied to develop seven market rental homes into 60 townhomes for purchase. The densification of the City Centre neighbourhood (one quarter of a major city block) is planned under the city’s Official Community Plan.  But with a rental crunch…

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Parking Study: There is an Abundance of Parking Surrounding Commercial Drive

Car parking that is. More bike parking needed.

SLOW STREETS

Parking Study: There is an Abundance of Parking Surrounding Commercial Drive
By Slow Streets

Parking is certainly important for providing delivery and customer access to businesses. However concerns about losing parking spaces on Commercial Drive if a Complete Street is implemented are unwarranted. Slow Streets conducted a parking inventory finding that there are over 700 public parking stalls surrounding Commercial Drive (between Grandview Highway and 1st Avenue). 87% of parking stalls are located off Commercial Drive and are available to the public for free, with the remaining 13% being paid meters. Implementing a Complete Street on Commercial Drive would have no impact on the total parking both on and off Commercial Drive.  What does this mean for Commercial Drive? Slow Streets will be releasing a report on January 19th with full details.

Parking Utilization Study

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All Weather Cycling Bike Café – January 13

I’m very pleased to be moderating the first Bike Café! Please join us.

All Weather Cycling

Currently, cycling levels fall significantly when in it rains. What measures, policies and infrastructure will encourage more all weather cycling?

Tuesday, January 13, 2015
6pm
Musette Caffè Chinatown, 75 E. Pender St., Vancouver | Map

The new Bike Cafés take place along major commuter cycling routes at cyclist friendly coffee bars. This new series engages with Vancouver’s cycling community and others interested in discussions regarding the sustainable evolution of our cityscape.

In collaboration with the SFU City Program.

More info on other Bike Cafés here.

Stanley Park Causeway Safety Improvements

The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure just revealed its proposed plan to improve the safety of people cycling and walking along the Stanley Park Causeway.

The plan looks good in general and will be a big improvement over the current narrow sidewalks. While a wider path on the west side would be better, it would have impacted more trees.

Still, there are only two passing areas in the stretch south of the Park Drive exist. Another passing zone would improve safety and impact relatively few trees. As well, the proposed fence does have poles that are exposed. If a person cycling hits those at 50kph, the average downhill speed, a serious injury or fatality is likely. While there is a rub rail at the top, it will not prevent children or shorter adults from hitting the poles. As well, if someone sides on ice or leaves, they also could hit the poles at high speeds. At a minimum, the cables should be installed on the inside providing some protection from the poles. Also worth considering at fabrics designed to protect motorcyclists from hitting fence poles that would also protect cyclists.

As these changes involve Stanley Park, please email Vancouver Park Board PBcommissioners
@vancouver.ca supporting these badly needed safety improvements.

More information and a feedback form here.

Use Lights, Wear Whites at Night

First of all, even with whites and lights, don’t assume drivers see you at night. They may, they may not for any number of reasons. Night lighting conditions are very challenging for the eyes of drivers and cyclists. One moment, the road can be pretty dark. The next, one can be blinded by headlights. It is not surprising that crash rates rise significantly at night. Its a good idea for both cyclists and drivers to slow down and travel defensively at night.

Studies have shown that while they are not perfect, lights do reduce the risk of cycling crashes both at night and during the day. The main issue with bike lights is that as they tend to be small, drivers may think the bike is further away than it actually is leading to slow reaction times. Several lights or larger lights with many LEDs are probably a good idea. But please, don’t use really bright lights that blind other people. There are even some lights designed to be pointed at the rider. I suspect this is a good idea.

White is the New Yellow

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Women with white jackets and black pants standout on car-free street in Copenhagen

Like many of you, I have some dirty yellow cycling jackets lying around. I haven’t worn them in years as they are rather ugly. Turns out that yellow and other bright colours, while being highly noticeable during the day, don’t fare as well at night. In darker conditions, our eyes perceive only in levels of black and white thus yellow and other bright colours appear as grey tones that can be similar to asphalt.

Yellow can particularly poor choice, especially in the rain. Yellowish orange street lights reflect off the wet streets resulting in yellow clothes being rather more effective at camouflage than letting drivers know you are there.

One article on cycling safety started off by with the experience of a running coach saying that she happened to notice a jogger only by the whites of her shoes. For some unknown reason the article proceeded to talk about lights, reflectors and bright clothing without even mentioning white.

White bikes, white fenders, whitewall tires, a white helmet, white shoes. The more white the better. Some other colours including black, red or green can also be helpful to provide contrast to the white helping to improve visibility in the daylight. A white top with dark pants would be a fine choice.

Reflecting on Reflective

Reflectors and reflective strips are either really effective or practically useless depend on the situation. As they reflect light directly back to its source, they are well suited for cycling on long straight flat country roads enabling drivers to see cyclists from several hundred metres away.

They are not of much help at all when cycling across intersections. By the time a driver can see the reflected light, it is likely too late to prevent a collision. Reflectors are also less effective with trucks as driver’s eyes are further away from the headlight than is the case with a car. People walking don’t have headlights so reflectors will not help them see you.

Reflectors bounce the light from the street lamp straight back to the street lamp and the light from the buildings straight back to the buildings. Definitely not helpful. White clothing or gear, on the other hand, will reflect some of that light from you to the driver’s eyes where it may do some good. Unfortunately, there are too many black, grey and blue cycling jackets with a couple of reflective stripes giving the illusion that they are useful for night riding.

So, while reflective clothing and reflectors can help, they are definitely no substitute for lights and white clothing.

The Paths to Peace

Reducing Conflicts Between People Walking and Cycling

Our cities are quieter, healthier and more livable when we travel under our own power by walking or cycling. And, in general, are safer places for everyone as well. Still, with more people doing both, conflicts occur that can lead to injuries and in rare circumstances, death.Burrard Bridge

Sidewalk cycling is not allowed in most cases and can be dangerous for both those walking and cycling. Riding on the sidewalk opposite the flow of traffic is particularly unsafe due to left turning traffic. In Vancouver last year, it proved to be more dangerous for cyclists than pedestrians with both cycling fatalities last year involving sidewalk cycling. In the case of the tragedy on the Lions Gate Causeway, cyclists are required to use the sidewalk as cycling on the road is prohibited.

The two cycling related fatalities in the last decade have occurred when the pedestrian was crossing a road. In both cases, the causality was an older man. As is the case with motor vehicle crashes, we fare worse as we age. In the one on Main Street a few years ago, there was no indication that the cyclist was at fault. Still, a tragic incident reminding us all we need to slow down a bit and be careful on the road.

Unlike collisions involving motor vehicles, injuries crashes between cyclists and pedestrians and cyclists with other cyclists are not tracked in a systematic way making it difficult to know the extent of the problem. The Bicyclists’ Injuries and the Cycling Environment study which examined hundreds of injuries to cyclists in Vancouver and Toronto found that around 4% of cycling collisions involved pedestrians. By comparison, almost 70% involved motor vehicles.

The Provincial Government, TransLink and municipalities continue to make improvements that governments that reduce conflicts and make cycling and walking safer. Still, its a big province. There is a lot of work still to be done.

Many of the older bridges in the region have sidewalks and approaches that are simply too narrow for cyclists and pedestrians to share without conflicts happening. Fortunately, the Province is widening the sidewalks on Ironworkers Memorial Bridge as we speak. Improvements are still needed on the south approaches. The City of Vancouver is planning on improve Granville Bridge. One option is to build cycling and walking paths in the middle of the Bridge by reallocating a couple of lanes of traffic.

Separated bike lanes significantly reduce sidewalk cycling. On Dunsmuir and Hornby, they decreased by 80% following the completion of the bike lanes. Similar reductions have occurred in other cities following the introduction of separated bike lane. The Burrard Bridge separated bike lanes and the Burrard Cornwall intersection improvements make cycling and walking much nicer.

Shared paths have higher injury rates than separated paths. However, they can work fine when there are not that many people using them. When volumes are higher, over 200 people hour or so, conflicts increase due to cyclists passing pedestrians and slower cyclists. The best solution is to create separate walking and biking paths like those along newer sections of the Seaside Greenway in Vancouver. Unfortunately, the badly needed separated bike path in Kits Beach Park, which would have greatly reduced conflicts, was rejected.

Smooth paths are best for heels and wheels. Walking paths should be surfaced with smooth asphalt, saw-cut concrete or machine cut granite. People don’t like walking on bumpy surfaces and often will use the paved bike path next door. People also like to walk side by side. If the walking path is narrow or interrupted with obstacles like poles or benches, people will walk in the bike path. A perfect example of this is the path by the new convention centre where many people stroll in the bike path.

Paths should have clear sightlines giving cyclists plenty of time to react to people walking or cycling across the path. A parallel street with bike lanes or low levels of traffic can provide faster cyclists with another option.

There is an election coming up. A good idea to support candidates that campaign positive solutions that reduce conflicts and make our communities safer for everyone. Check out HUB’s Vote to Bike initiative!

Fact Checking Vancouver Housing Growth Claims

A press release by the new Coalition of Vancouver Neighbourhoods including in a post on Frances Bula’ s blog claims that housing growth rates are five times greater than those committed to in the Regional Growth Strategy.

Specifically, they state that:

However, since 2011, the city has already proposed or approved sufficient new housing to accommodate 43,000 people. In just two years, this planned housing satisfies 28% of the growth the city projects being required over the next 35 years.

Unfortunately, they didn’t say how they arrived at 43,000 or exactly what the number represents. As it seems rather high, I thought I’d some research.

The Regional Growth Strategy Population, Dwelling Unit and Employment Projections states that in the City of Vancouver, the number of dwellings in 2006 was 264,500 while the target for 2021 is 306,700 representing an average increase of 2,813 units per year.

2010 2011 2012 Average
Housing Starts 4,075 3,830 5,498 4467
Demolitions 874 999 1,082 985
Net New Dwellings 3,201 2,831 4,416 3,483

As shown in the table above, the average net new dwellings a year for the last three years is 3,483 units, a whole 24% above the target of 2,813. As some of the demolitions may be multi-family housing, the number of net new units might even be smaller. No where even close to five times as claimed by Coalition of Vancouver Neighbourhoods. Kind of too bad though. The city would become much more affordable.

Urban Futures using the 2011 Census data, found that the number of dwellings increased by 11,195 between 2006 and 2011, an average of 2,239 units per year, 574 per year less than the RGS target. That would bring the amount below the target to 2,871 over those five years. Assuming these numbers are even comparable, even with being 24% over the target for 2010-2012, we would still 2,008 under the RGS target by the end of 2012. Maybe more as I’m really starting to suspect that the demolition numbers do not include the number of units in multi family housing torn down.

jakking explains how they arrived at the 43,000 in the comments below. At this point, I’m still really not convinced that it is valid evidence that development of new homes is proceeding too fast. Now, since there are many neighbourhoods where little or no development is taking places, some neighbourhoods are likely experiencing more than their fair share of growth. It is only fair that low growth neighbourhoods adopt new plans so new homes accommodating people with a diversity of income levels are built across the city.

Updated to correct 2010 housing starts to 4,075 and average to 3,483; added reference to jakking comments; and added Urban Futures Census.