Construction work on Hornby Street has required that vehicle traffic be limited to one lane – notably the 700-block between Robson and Georgia. The separated bike lane has also been closed.
To allow for a bike detour, Engineering took what they learned from Beach Avenue, similarly repositioned during the first year of the pandemic, to create a bypass. And here’s the thing: it’s a three-laner, not just the width of the two-lane bikeway. There’s a passing lane in the middle – and that makes a huge difference.
As discussed before. there’s already a problem with the separated two-laners as the amount of micro-mobility use increases – those e-bikes, skate- and hover-boards, scooters, monocycles and anything else you can attach a small electric motor to. Because of the differential in speed, there’s a need to allow for passing, and often that’s not possible on a crowded bikeway. At least not safely.
Beach Avenue is such a success, with an extraordinary increase in two- and one-wheeled traffic, because it has the needed width for users to sort themselves out. Same now on this block of Hornby. They have effectively created a new standard: Mobility Lanes 3.0. It’s not just for bikes anymore.
