Price Tags Vancouver really had to check the date to ensure April 1 had not crept around…but no, it’s still August. The good folks at Kitsilano.ca have posted a petition to get rid of the bike lanes on the Burrard Bridge. But petitioner Steffan Illeman is not calling it that-rather it’s called wanting “the City of Vancouver to restore the Burrard Bridge to its pre-bike lane condition.”
Surprisingly the petition which requires 2,500 signatures before going to City hall has 2,300 folks signed up so far. “In an interview with the CBC, the 40-year West End resident reiterated “we’d like the construction to be stopped forthwith, and secondly, tear down all those concrete obstructions.”
Apparently the bike lanes are a “travesty” and don’t earn enough riders to justify their placement, even though over 7,000 bike trips occur daily in summer, with over 157,000 trips by bike across Burrard Bridge in June. But never mind that. Mr. Illeman observes “They should have built just reasonable curb lanes instead with reasonable width and that would have satisfied everybody.”
Price Tags Vancouver could say more, but no, leave it to you. If you want to take a look at the “Banning bike lanes on the Burrard Bridge” petition, you can find it here.
Wow. This touches the ame nerve as when we all thought Trump wouldn’t get in.
I understand traffic congestion frustration but 2 things need to be considered,…
1 – Cycling willeventually releif congestion downtown if it doesn’t already
2 – they are opposed to the traffic caused by the CONSTRUCTION, not the end product. To reverse it now is silly, things are an on the verge of improving once it is done and that is probably why people are trying to ram this through now.
Wow. Crazy stuff. I’m glad the city is more evidence based than someone glancing out their car window and making up stuff.
I wonder what he means by reasonable width. The one on the west side is standard width. It can’t be any narrower or people wouldn’t be able to pass each other.
Remember when it was Chinese drivers that congestion was blamed on? Before that it was women drivers. Now it’s cycling infrastructure. Always something else and never admitting that they themselves are part of causing it.
No sense letting facts get in the way of good argument or in this case a dumb petition. Here is the on that really jumped out at me, but there are other lies too.
It has been established by statistics that at least 85-percent of residents commute by car, while cyclists make up a fraction of commuters.
Hmm, don’t the stats in Vancouver show that 50% travel by non-automobile?
The guy is using the same tactic that the Commercial Drive Business Association is using. Start off by stating a bunch of lies and then ask the question.
Pretty classic really.
Yes, motor vehicle trips are less than 50%.
Even better, the City recorded 187,000 bike trips over the Burrard Bridge in July. Up 6% for July, year over year. And this during construction with a narrow and temporary bike lane northbound.
2200 signatures?
And they want it returned to pre construction, meaning one right turn lane onto and off of the bridge at Pacific, instead of two? Not at all logical.
I’m sure the lovely beach weather had nothing to do with it Jeff. Let’s be honest amongst ourselves, a huge portion of the Burrard/Point Grey Road bike count is leisure cycling, which is fine, but it has nothing to do with commuting.
The petition is likely driven by anger over the glacial pace of the city in completing the Burrard Bridge work.
Nope, because it was sunny last July too.
Please tell us what proportion of cyclists on those routes are leisure. And while you’re at it, tell us what proportion of leisure riders might do something involving driving if they weren’t having a great day on a bicycle.
Even a small percentage of commuter cyclists add up to a lot less MV traffic to clog the bridge.
Certainly, let’s be honest. The data is reported monthly, and also includes the midweek daily figures, obtained by averaging Tues-Wed-Thur. The midweek daily number exceeds the monthly volume divided by 31 days. Do you have a hypothesis on the midweek riders being predominantly leisure riders? Seems counterintuitive.
Also, the neighbourhood at the west end of the bridge has one of the highest census tract reports for bike to work mode share in Vancouver. Could any of them be working downtown?
You would think that the creator of the petition would have looked some of this up. Maybe he will read it here.
Bully motordom raises its ugly head.