Nothing like a bike lane to raise the temperature and the angst in the public conversation. But sometimes small changes occur that, because they’re modest, win-win improvements, don’t get a lot of recognition.
Like the bike lane on Richards Street, from Robson to Davie, being progressively restriped as the street is repaved.
This is what is used to be like, with an obvious problem:
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The bike lane was positioned between the parking and the travel lanes, often compromised by the need for vehicles to turn right, by the danger of dooring and at best an uncomfortable experience for those unused to sharing the road in the midst of high-speed traffic on this one-way arterial.
Now it looks like this:
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The bike lane is between the curb and the goring, providing both separation from the traffic and some protection from an open car door. Where’s the parking?
Here:
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And here’s how they handle right-hand turns:
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Plenty of capacity for vehicle traffic, no great loss of parking, a safer bike lane, clearer markings for all – what’s not to like? Which is why you probably haven’t heard about it.
The adorable part? Not on Richards, actually, but on the new Comox Greenway, where a volunteer gardener did this at the Jervis corner:
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Worthy, too, of quiet recognition.
Your picture obviously highlights the problem of floating parking: sometimes there is none. Large planters at the ends (like on that triangular bit) might help http://stroadtoboulevard.tumblr.com/post/42876900146/paint-and-planters-its-not-money-thats-holding
Very nice though, I agree.
As long as the planters are not movable. The problem with the planters on the Hornby and Dunsmuir is that they are often moved into the bike lane blocking it and causing a hazard to people cycling
The paint will do for now and maybe to test a model. The next step is obviously a bike lane between the street level and sidewalk levels, such as one sees in some European cities.
Sometimes it goes the other way — and this is an amused, not an anti-bike comment. I recently watched at Hornby and Beach as one cyclist rode south down the western sidewalk, while another one rode north in the middle of the road and no one was riding in the bike lane.
Yeah, that one section between Beach and Pacific doesn’t have a gap in the middle. I don’t know the people you saw but I’ve wanted to go South from the Urban Garden parking lot and there is no way to get to the separated bike lane mid-block. (There is one between Smithe and Nelson that is very useful for getting from the alley and from Tim Horton’s to the separated lane.)
Going North from the Urban Garden parking lot again there is no way to get to the separated bike lane mid-block. You have to cycle on the street to Pacific.
In general, separated bike lanes most of the time are preferred but sometimes they’re not the best option every time.
These changes are really nice. – using the parked cars to shield cyclists is a great idea. Instead of planters a 6 inch curb could be easily put in place eventually like in Montreal – http://tinyurl.com/l6pfo3a
I rode this section of Richards today and I have to say I really liked the difference. It felt much safer, especially biking at night. It’s only a few blocks so far but I’m looking forward to when they finish the paint on the next few blocks and have a longer section. I have to say I’m a big fan and hopefully this will be done throughout the rest of downtown.
http://www.vancouversun.com/travel/Cycling+report+card+What+Vancouver+does+r%20ight+where+falls/8831237/story.html
A really good cycling article in the Vancouver Sun. Repeats what I always have been saying. “Build it and they will come” and separated cycling facilities are best.
In our cities we need to take a serious look at what space we are allocating on our streets and review planning and developing policies and see if we can do things better. We need to ask ourselves are we serving the needs of all road users? We need to look at design practices from places like Holland and implement the bike facilities over there as clearly it works.
Do we need parking on 2 sides of the street? Can we have bike lanes instead and one lane of parking? Why have streets that have parked cars using less than 1/2 of the available parking spaces but requiring cyclist to weave back and forth from the parking lanes into traffic and either needing to share the road between driving and parked cars or having to take the lane.
Can we build curb bulges that accommodate cycling?
Can we have separated cycling lanes by shifting over parked vehicles?
Can we raise bike lanes to provide some protection from drifting drivers?
Do we need a 4 lane roads that typically carry with less than 20,000 vehicles per day that even have turn lanes? Can we remove driving lanes? – I can think of many examples in Surrey at least!!
Can we convert 4 lane roads with no turning facilities into 2 lane roads with bike lanes and centre turn lanes?
Can we reduce median widths? Do we even want medians in some places? Do they add value to the street life? What adds more value to a street? A median with trees or separated bike lanes? What if we used money spent on medians and spent it on separated bike lanes instead?
Are centre turn lanes necessary? Can’t there be a extra wide lanes that allow vehicles to pass turning vehicles and still provide a bike lane that vehicles could use if they have to?
What is more important at constricted areas like intersections where bike lanes end or narrow just because a left turn lane is “needed” Can we have separate light phases for each direction and remove turn lanes? Can we remove painted medians that increase the width of turn facilities while at the same time bike lanes/shoulders are cut off.
Can we build more off street bike/multi-use paths that connect to shopping areas.
Do we need so much parking at commercial centres. Is there minimum bike parking standards as there are vehicle parking standards.
Can stores front the streets instead of parking lots? Parking in back or underground?
Secure bike parking vs racks?
Removal of useless “safety” barriers for cycling such as baffle gates which only stop people from using facilities such as those with bike trailers and tandem bikes. (never ever used in Holland on bike paths). Hopefully the metal thieves start stealing these.
Are we maintaining the current bike facilities enough? Streets swept, broken asphalt replaced?
The goal should be comfortable cycling facilities for everyone. No one should feel the need to drive for distances less than 3 km. It should be just as easy and comfortable to cycle as it is to drive, but it is not.
So much room for improvement in our cities. We need to fix the mistakes of the past planners and engineers that designed car only cities and use best practices for current projects.
What is the technical name for this style of separated bike lane?
I’m pretty sure that it would be considered a “cycle track”, just like the ones on Dunsmuir and Hornby. The only difference is the type of buffer used to separate them from the rest of traffic (physical barriers vs. car parking).