Motorists and cyclists neck in neck in Vancouver commuter challenge

To kick off Vancouver’s Bike to Work Week from October 28 to November 3, Wednesday’s annual commuting challenge between drivers, cyclists and public transit users ended with bikes and cars splitting the Share the Road honours.

Four teams of three – one cyclist, one motorist and one public transit user – made their way from starting points around the downtown area to the Coliseum-like Vancouver Public Library. On the shortest route of 2.2-km the cyclist negotiated the foggy streets in five minutes while the driver took seven minutes. The transit user lagged behind at 12 minutes.

The order of bike, car and bus/Skytrain also prevailed on a 5.1-km course starting from Commercial Drive and 6th Avenue, with the cyclist clocking in at an impressive 11 minutes. However, on the two other 5 to 6 km routes, the bikes came in two minutes in arrears of the cars. The longest transit commute in the challenge was 35 minutes to travel six kilometres.