Lots of good coverage on the upcoming launch of the Canada Line, here in the Sun and the Globe and Mail. But you didn’t have to wait until Monday to experience a piece of the line: the new bike bridge on the Fraser River crossing gots its grand opening yesterday.
Don Buchanan was there, and passed along a few pics:
Some familiar faces showed up. For one: aggregator of all things cycling, Ron Richings:
Nice shirt, Ron.
And Marian Town, ex of BEST and now with the Fraser Basin Council, along with ex-Councillor Peter Ladner:
We’ll be scoping out the Line on Monday afternoon. But I’d appreciate readers who also experience this $2-billion transit investment to send along their first impressions. Email me at pricetags@shaw.ca, or comment to some of the blog posts I put up later in the day. Pics welcome.
UPDATE: Pics from Ron Richings on Flickr
I love this…I bike all the time. Even if I’m not outside. I have an exercise by now as well…for when it rains or it’s too hot.
quick question: I understand Richmond opened a new bike lane along No. 3 road, the idea being that it connects to this? What about the Vancouver side? How are the connections?
It’s almost the millennium line of bridges, nowhere to nowhere.
The Vancouver end connects to the ontario and heather bikes routes via kent, which isn’t traffic calmed, and cambie between marine and kent is closed to bicycles at the moment. There is also the issue of having to cross a rail line, although not a problem at the moment.
The richmond is much a work in progress, as river road and van horne from the ramp are narrow 2 lane roads with high speeds. But then Richmond has a way to go before it can start advertising it’s bike infrastructure. The no. 3 lane is under construction and for northbound only. Southbound might appear with after redevelopment of the lots along no. 3.
I’m not sure about the routes leading to the bridge yet, as JP points out Kent Avenue is a scary ride for cyclists (and drivers) thanks to speeders.
One concern about the bridge itself is that it is hidden from view of the Canada Line cars. Possible security risks for solo cyclists or cart/wheelchair riders during off-peak times. I hope not of course, but I dread that they’ll have to set up cameras on it for safety.
Even if it weren’t hidden from skytrain cars I doubt that would make any difference, as it’s not like anyone could intervene or do anything really when they’re whisking past at 80kph, and I doubt it would act as a deterrent. JP basically confirms what I had heard, that while it’s a nice bridge, it’s not connected in the way it needs to be.
Well, clearly I should have read the comments here before trying to cycle from the west side of Vancouver to Richmond via the new Canada Line bridge. I heard that I had to go to Kent street, so I just rode down Cambie until I got there… and then found I was on the wrong side of the train tracks. No signage anywhere on Marine Drive to tell me to go down Ash or anything. There was a family with children milling around after having come off the bridge, looking confused and wondering where to go next.
Anyway it’s 2 kilometres longer that way than my regular route over the Oak Street bridge, so I’m going to stick to Oak Street. Likewise it will be interesting to see if the Canada Line increases my travel time to work by bus, like the introduction of the Richmond B-Line did.