Out walking on the Comox / Helmcken greenway in Vancouver’s West End.
Here are two mini-parks with seats and greenery that replace two car parking places. Space converted to use by people on foot. I love’em, and think they look great .
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Plus your regular commuter-type navigating the roundabout:
What??? You actually found someone on a bike on Comox? Usually the bikers are on Nelson or on the sidewalks on Comox or Nelson.
Yes, I found lots of people on bikes. It was easy. Lots of people walking, lots of people running. Lots of people.
I live on this block of Comox, and I can confirm that there are plenty of bikes here all of the time. But that does not mean that the bike lane was strictly necessary. Aside from the hill, the West End is already very bike friendly. I don’t know that the bike lane adds much. The Helmcken side is more in need of improvement, and actually when we were looking at the information sessions on the Comox-Helmcken Greenway, I think most people were focused on the Helmcken side.
Echoing a comment above, I have a friend you says “we built you a bike route on Comox, so get off Nelson”. The bike lane on Comox doesn’t make any of the other streets car-only. I could just as easily say “we built you a car route on Pacific, so get off Nelson”.
That’s not a roundabout – it’s a traffic circle
But they work like roundabouts:
http://vancouver.ca/streets-transportation/traffic-circles.aspx
Rode the Comox Helmcken route again yesterday, actually. The hill still drives me nuts. Beach Ave is a much nicer and level route. The hill isn’t even bad… it’s just kind of irritatingly gradual. I wish it were steeper and shorter.
And someone else up there in comment land nailed it – what work was really necessary west of Thurlow-ish? The part where work was most needed, connecting across busy streets back toward Yaletown, was left to a future phase.
Seems like Comox and Bute or thereabouts is the highest point on the Downtown peninsula outside Stanley Park. I can’t complain because I live there, but it is a raw deal for others.
I just wish it would end up connecting with the Cambie St Bridge. 🙁