Vancouver plans overhaul of some bike routes, citing concerns with safety and accessibility for cyclists
Vancouver, B.C. has a raft of improvements to city bike infrastructure planned, continuing an ongoing initiative to get as many Vancouverites riding as possible.
Vancouver, B.C. has a raft of improvements to city bike infrastructure planned, continuing, in effect, an ongoing initiative to get as many Vancouverites riding as possible. It’s ambitious, but it’s an agenda that, judging from the numbers of riders on city streets officially accounted for, has a solid rationale — especially in recent months.
This latest roll-out of bike lane improvements, the Vancouver Sun reports, is also about improving safety and reducing the frequency of accidents in a city seeing a spike in cycling.
Where the Adanac bike route in Vancouver connects with Renfrew Street, the city has a new traffic signal for pedestrians and cyclists planned. It’s a necessity, reports indicate, owing to the sheer density of both bikes and vehicle traffic in the area. On any given day throughout the year, 1,000 cyclists can be counted along the Adanac bikeway, a number that shoots up to 5,000 in the summer.
Renfrew Street is also the widest unsignaled crossing, and with as many as 15,000 vehicles using the street, there’s more than just traffic lights planned to make the crossing safer and more comfortable for cyclists. Replacing an existing centre median is also part of the plan, with a new one scheduled for installation that will prevent vehicles from turning left, potentially into the paths of riders.
Elsewhere in the city, a new two-way protected bike lane next to St. Augustine’s Elementary school is on the table, opening up more space for cyclists in response to the creation of more vehicle traffic by the school’s planned expansion. The broad scope of the plan, reports say, is focused on improving safety on 7th Avenue between Arbutus Street and Yew. Central to that is making cycling more accessible in the same area.
Further details of the plan can be read here. Vancouver, meanwhile, will recommend a design for the planned improvements later this year, with construction ideally beginning in late 2015 or early 2016.
