Computer modelling done at the time indicated that the reallocation of one or two lanes would interfere with transit service, slowing bus operations in both northbound and southbound directions, as well as adding to traffic congestion in Kitsilano and West End neighbourhoods. – Vancouver City report
The Vancouver’s Sun’s Miro Cernetig nails the upcoming Burrard Bridge experiment in today’s issue. Here are the highlights:
This $1.45-million experiment is doomed to failure. The introduction of bicycles to the busy bridge has been tried before, in 1996. It was deeply unpopular and a traffic disaster.
The reality is the Burrard Bridge experiment will have almost no impact on the city’s carbon footprint. His own staff have told me that in private. This is because reducing car lanes on the bridge will cause gridlock, forcing automobiles and buses to idle, creating more, not less, greenhouse-gas emissions. Rerouting cars to other roads in and out of downtown Vancouver will also add kilometres to a trip — which means more gas burned.
The other inescapable fact worth noting is there’s also no cycling crisis that needs solving. In fact, bicycling traffic on the Burrard Bridge has actually plateaued, as the city’s own report notes: “Growth of cycling and walking on the Burrard Bridge, which increased 30-40 per cent between 1996 and 2001, appears to have plateaued in recent years.”
If the mayor votes on closing lanes of the Burrard Bridge to cars he will in essence be telling us the desires of a few hundred cyclists — and that vociferous bicycling lobby that helped put him in office — are worthy of a $1.45-million expenditure the city’s own planners know is unlikely to be good value.
Until then, put fences up on the curbs to keep cyclists from falling into traffic. And tell them, please, to pedal a little slower on the sidewalks until they get the bridge of their dreams.
