Further to the post on the increase in North Shore bike commuting, Antje Wahl reminds PT of this:
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… new sidewalks and suicide barrier fencing on the Ironworkers Memorial Bridge. The old sidewalk was less than half the width, barely fitting one bike.
The west sidewalk is closed now for widening and fence construction. It is scheduled to re-open, widened, by fall 2015.
It will be interesting to see how the number of people biking between North Vancouver, Vancouver and Burnaby changes with the new sidewalks. The new sidewalk has a bike counter, although the numbers are not publicly displayed like on Burrard Bridge.
Is a million time better.
My congrats to everyone who pushed for years upon years to get this done.
I think it’s great that they were able to tag on some walking and cycling improvements on what was originally intended to be purely something to prevent suicides. This way it only cost a bit more for something that was going to happen anyway.
We need to do more of this kind of thing. If there’s something like bridge upgrades or resurfacing for maintenance reasons, just throw in a little more money and make it better for a few more modes of travel.
It’s more than just the bridge crossing that’s making cycling to and from the North Shore more feasible – a big part of the equation is the huge improvement that comes with the newly overhauled Low Level Road. I used to commute along there from Vancouver a couple of decades ago but stopped when I saw another cyclist almost get creamed by an inattentive driver. Retired now, I cycled there again for the first time in many years just a couple of days ago, and the difference from those days is remarkable. But the stretch along Main Street from Phibbs Exchange to Lynn Creek still needs work.
Here’s a tip for 2nd Narrows-bound cyclists coming from Vancouver – a good way to minimize the worst of the hills prior to the bridge itself is to follow the Central Valley Greenway to Boundary Road, then go north on Boundary past 1st Avenue to Gravely and follow it to the Cassiar bike route.
You can suss out this and other ways to avoid hills by going to the City of Vancouver’s “VanMap” web site and showing the “contour lines” layer – it’s a terrific way to see exactly where the inclines are.
Instead of Low Level Road you can also continue straight ahead on 3rd St to the new Spirit Trail pedestrian/cyclist overpass and follow the Spirit Trail or 2nd St for the least elevation loss. I hope there will be more signage for the various routes.
Just getting another idea here. Since it’s such a high bridge, wouldn’t it be nice to include plexiglass panels on the West side fence to block the wind. That way driving, walking and cycling across it would be nicer when it’s windy.
The main reason the BC Gov’t added the sidewalks was because the suicide fencing was necessary (and highly recommended by the BC Coroners). We get one bridge suicide throughout the region every 3 weeks, and many more attempts. It’s the road closures from attempts that can cause chaos. Sometimes, it has even held large ship movement, which can play havoc with tide timing.