steve mercier
Well-Known Member
The story on the front page of my local paper this morning says that when the first bike lane was put in 10 years ago on a local bridge there was much controversy about giving up one lane of car traffic to a separated bike path. There were claims of doom and chaos and gridlock and loss of local store revenues. I will admit at the time I listened to the naysayers and that I had my doubts about it working out well. Today I am happy to say the article reports that there have been 10.4 million bike trips over that bridge and auto traffic is declining. Merchants admit the loss of parking has not hurt. The city proper now has 174 km of bike lanes including 41 km of protected ,278 painted and 14 shared. It is estimated that in the past 5 years cycling has increased from 4.4 to 7.3 percent of all trips in the city and has acounted for about one fatality per year. What I see is the change in auto drivers who have gained a general acceptance and awareness if not respect for bikes. The more bikes there are in a given area the more this will happen, like a snowball effect. Sadly this is not true all over the Metro region yet. The further I ride away from this urban infrastructure the more scary the trip gets ,so I start using sidewalks and searching high and low for any bits of trail I can cobble together on my trips. I would encourage all of you to email or write to your local politicians and let them know you want more bike infrastructure. https://vancouversun.com/news/local...lanes-in-vancouver-life-goes-on-chaos-averted
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