Vancouver pushes $25-million plan for more bike lanes Council to consider 55 km of new routes in 10-year master cycling plan By Kelly Sinoski, Vancouver Sun May 6, 2010

http://www.vancouversun.com/travel/Vancouver+pushes+million+plan+more+bike+l... Vancouver is proposing to invest $25 million in additional bike paths over the next two years as part of the city's ambitious goal to become the world's greenest city by 2020.

A city report on a proposed 10-year Cycling Master Plan, which will go to council Thursday, calls for another 55 kilometres of bike lanes and routes around Vancouver.

This includes the long-awaited Comox Helmcken Greenway project to connect the seawall, the West End and downtown Vancouver to the Central Valley Greenway, which stretches all the way to New Westminster.

The additional bike paths and routes would give Vancouver a 415-kilometre bike-route network and help the city reach its target of having 10 per cent of all urban trips in Vancouver made by bicycle by 2020, Mayor Gregor Robertson said. Right now, only 3.7 per cent of trips, or 60,000 trips a day, in Vancouver are made by bike on average, although some neighbourhoods boast up to 12 per cent.

"This will definitely get more people on bikes," Robertson said. "Most data shows that cities don't go much beyond five per cent until they create separated bike lanes. That's about the percentage of people that will take their chances in traffic."

The report, which will initiate the planning process for the new plan, recommends that council on Thursday approve an immediate $1.25-million investment in the city's bike network for 2010 and 2011.

This money would be used to draft a new 10-Year Cycling Program Master Plan, develop a comprehensive cycling monitoring program, add on-street bicycle parking and do spot improvements - such as more traffic lights - on existing bikeways to address safety concerns.

It also recommends council approve plans in principle to develop a new cross-town bikeway along 45th Avenue from Balaclava to Nanaimo, the North Arm Trail Greenway, generally along 59th Avenue from West Boulevard to Vivian, and create better cycling connections to the Canada Line Bridge and the Cambie Street bike lanes, which carry traffic over the Fraser River to Richmond.

The proposals are in addition to plans underway to complete separated bike lanes from the Burrard Bridge to the Dunsmuir Viaduct across the downtown core.

The total investment would be $25 million, which is roughly 30 per cent of the city's $90 million streets-and-roads budget for the same period, city engineer Jerry Dobrovolny said. The new cycling plan will form a component of a new transportation plan, to be initiated later this year.

The money for the cycling paths and improvements has already been set aside in various budgets, including $3.7 million in the city's developer "greenlink" fund, which is for pedestrian and cycling infrastructure. Another $3 million earmarked for major arterial roads will also go toward projects that benefit cyclists, while the city has another $8.3 million that isn't allocated to any specific projects.

Vancouver Coun. Geoff Meggs said about 12 per cent of the funding would be used for new infrastructure, while the rest would maintain or upgrade cycling paths. He noted many of the projects have been waiting for years to be built.

Vancouver's bicycle network comprises five primary types of facility: off-street paths, local street bikeways, painted bike lanes, painted shared-use lanes and separated bike lanes.

Robertson said one of the considerations would be to look at separated-bike-lane trials on major arterial routes such as Main or Commercial and on residential-street bike lanes.

"We have a really good bike infrastructure but it really needs a catch-up in investment," he said. "For many years all city investment went into roads and sidewalks and the city ignored safe bike options."

Margaret Mahan, executive director of Better Environmentally Sound Transportation (BEST), welcomed the city's report. "It marks the first time we've seen that kind of significant commitment to a future that is going to be greener," she said. "The single thing most people say keeps them from riding is the perceived safety issue.

"[They'll get on their bikes] when they're not afraid of being hit by two tonnes of moving vehicle."

If approved by council, a public consultation process would probably start immediately and take about a year.

ksinoski@vancouversun.com