One of those travel fluff pieces that have only nice things to say – but still, a signal to the Vancouver business community in case they had any doubts (how could they!) about the economic value of cycling to tourism:
By Jim Dalrymple from the Salt Lake City Tribune:
Vancouver, B.C., a relaxed getaway built for walking and cycling
More than any other North American city I’ve visited, Vancouver was filled with people young and old cruising around on two wheels. After several hours on foot exploring parks and gardens, I was sure of one thing: The bicyclists were seeing more and having the most fun.
The next day I returned to beaches with a bike of my own and before long was gliding, barely pedaling, around the Seaside Greenway. The greenway forms a large loop around much of downtown Vancouver and Stanley Park, the 1,000-plus-acre forest that from the air looks like a floppy cap at the tip of the city’s core. It’s a cyclist’s and walker’s paradise — with dedicated lanes for each — that is fast becoming a kind of futuristic riff on bike havens like Amsterdam and Copenhagen..
Unlike bike lanes in most cities, Vancouvers are separated from car traffic by planters and medians
.
Two things make Vancouver an ideal cycling destination for travelers. First, since the late 1990s the city has invested heavily in “active transit,” mainly bike and pedestrian paths. The result is not just the scenic Seaside Greenway, but a network of connected bicycle paths that crisscross downtown. If you’ve never biked in a dense urban setting, Vancouver is the place to try. It’s safe, easy and a good way to get to places such as the historic Gastown neighborhood. Even the drivers seemed good-natured and accommodating about sharing the road.
The abundance of bike rental shops is another reason Vancouver is a biking destination. In most of the city I was never far from a rental bike and there were several shops within a two-minute walk of my hotel in the West End. A four-hour bike rental will cost less than $20. …
The path eventually ended on Hornby Street, in the middle of downtown. I stopped, looked both ways, then pedaled into the heart of the skyscraper forest. As several other cyclists passed me, I quickly realized riding in Vancouver is a breeze.
Good piece. I am surprised that some businesses and the Kits Chamber were opposed to the Seaside Greenway improvements when it is pretty obvious that it will be great for many businesses. I notice tourists on Hornby and Dunsmuir all the time.
The City, however needs to a much better job too on planning for and communicating the current importance and the potential of cycling tourism in the City. The planning process for Pt Grey/Cornwall did not seem to consider visitors at all nor did the materials mention tourism. If they did, there would have been an obvious connection between Burrard Bridge and Kits Beach both recogning the Beach and Pool as a destination and the place where many will want to start using the Seaside Greenway after coming off the Bridge. York is certainly not an obvious route to get to the Beach nor has any connection been provided from York to the Beach. The result likely will be visitors standing at Burrard and Cornwall with their hotel maps open. I expect many will just use Cornwall either on the sidewalk or on the street. Not a great or a safe experience.
Also surprisingly absent during the debate were most of the bike rental shops. They should have been out there supporting the Seaside Greenway as it will be great for their business. Instead, all they managed to do was send a hired gun to complain about bike share. Talk about short sighted.
when ” A four-hour bike rental will cost less than $20″ will be replaced by a “full day of bike share for less than $10”, you can’t really blame the shops which will be driven out of business by a tax subsidized PBS in the tune of $4000/bike +$1000/bike per year for the maintenance….
And axing the private rental buisness seems to be key to the success Vancouver PBS business plan, otherwise why plan bike stations in Stanly park ?
…For the record, neither NYC and Paris have PBS station in the middle of thier major parks.
Admittely, there is something like 3 stations at “bois de Vincennes”, but they have been added only very lately, (1400 stations have been implemented before) at no taxpayer cost
Great, so Vancouver ratepayers will now be subsidizing tourists’ bike rentals. That’s progress.
Except the reporter got his numbers completely wrong.
See Appendix B:
http://former.vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/20130723/documents/rr2.pdf
A 4 hour rental would cost $53 for a tourist. Plus the helmet fee.
Crisis averted!
I have read that document, as well as this one:
http://vancouver.ca/files/cov/public-bike-share-staff-presentation-to-council-07232013.pdf
which do a completly disingenous presentation of the PBS vs private bike share.
Do you really think tourists rent a bike 4hrs , to bike 4 hours non stop, or to “see more’ as stated in the article?
Below is an example of what the tourist will do, nstead to look for a rental shop, he will waste no time to notice the bike station at the foot of his hotel,
-that will bring him in less than 30mn to the Aquarium/Totem park.where he will find a conveniently located bike station, resetting the time counter to Zero.(that is each time you lock the bike in a bike station).
Cross the stanly park conveninetly dotted by other bike stations (resetting counter to zero) , to arrive to English bay, another conveniently located station, will allow to ditch the bike just before boarding the ferry for Kitsilano, where other conveniently bike station, will allow a visit of the MoV, Granville Island,.. Science WOrld, Gastow all each other not farther apart than 30mn bike ride from each other….
…and no worry to return the bike before the shop close, so no need to keep the eye on the watch and you will use the bike for the evening dinner too…
You will have enjoy the bike the whole, day used it many time, but no more than 30mn continuously each time…and you will have spend not much more than $10 + the ferry fee.
How the private business can compete with that?
Fair enough; I guess that’s possible, although I’m not sure how much this will end up happening in practice. I wonder to what degree this has been problematic in other cities?
In any case though, if it does prove to be happening way too much, presumably they could just have the day-pass registrations require “cool-down” times between uses? I.e. after you return the bike, you need to wait at least an hour before you can take out another one kind of thing? Yeah, that impacts local day-only users too, but I’m not sure how many people that ends up being, and plus they may tend to use the bikes more as intended anyways.
I think wait-and-see approach is probably best here.
If the Frances Bula’s Account of her vacation in Europe is an indicator, tourists are much smarter than some want to believe.
Barcelona is a city with a susbisdized PBS and a sizeable bike rental business community geraed at tourists…Tourist can’t use the Barcelona’s PBS.
I guess the reason for that is the “undistorted compeition” clause (embedded in the EU treaties), making not possible for the subsidized PBS to compete with the bike rental shops, for the tourist business. (the former being sibsidized could distort the competition, what is against the EU treaties).
I don’t believe Car2Go, Modo or Zipcar have put Hertz or Avis rent-a-car companies out of business. The parallels are the same – bike share is mostly for locals and quick trips, bike rental is for tourists and sightseeing. Of course there will be overlap, but it’s not financially sound to take a bike share bike for a full day and it’s not meant to be. It’s an extension of the transit system.