Kitsilano Residents Protest Bike Lane Set to Run through Kits Beach Picnic Area

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If you thought the Kitsilano bike lane controversy was over, think again. Kitsilano residents, particularly those who live in Kits Point, are protesting a bike lane that will run through the family picnic area next to Kits Beach. Protestors spray painted the route onto the grass to demonstrate the future disruption. What was once a grassy knoll will become a thoroughfare.

The $2.2-million bike lane, approved a little over a week ago by the Vancouver park board, is part of a Seaside Greenway plan to build a bike lane from Canada Place to Stanley Park, then along False Creek and out to Jericho Beach. What Kits residents want to know is: Why can’t the path follow the park boundary?

There’s a meeting at noon Sunday, October 20 at Kitsilano Boathouse to protest. Residents say they weren’t properly consulted. The path will result in removal of at least one memorial bench and a few trees.

In addition to the ruckus over yay or nay, there’s a social media frenzy protesting the protest. Many are outraged that Vancouverites are outraged at city hall over something so seemingly benign as a bike lane. Even for cyclists, however, some of the city’s bike lane tweaks are more flourish than help. The proposed “improvements” to the Adanac bike route around Union and Main were dismissed as unnecessary both by cyclists and local owners who felt there already was enough room for everybody.

What are your thoughts on the Kits Beach park bike lane? Weigh in below.

Photo credit: Paul Hughes

Last modified: October 18, 2013

7 Responses to " Kitsilano Residents Protest Bike Lane Set to Run through Kits Beach Picnic Area "

  1. Chris bath says:

    Don’t run through the park , build it around the boundary

  2. Jen says:

    Okay, this is the first I’ve heard that the bike lane was going to go straight through the picnic area in the park. I had to check the date to be sure it wasn’t April Fools Day. Now that I’m sure the story isn’t some kind of joke, I’m really angry. Are the people who decided this out of their minds? Have they been to any park where the cyclists are allowed to roam off their leashes? The dogs are better behaved. I’ve been nearly run down by cyclists so many times, and the idea of it happening in the park at Kits Beach does not fill me with joy.

  3. Full background on the issues related to Seaside Greenway, and the October 7th approval by the Vancouver Park Board of a 12-foot-wide asphalt “bike freeway” through Hadden and Kits Beach parks may be found by clicking on this link, a Kitsilano-based blog that has linked to all of the social media, radio, TV and print media coverage of the issue.

  4. jaylin.mcauley@hotmail.com says:

    It almost looks as if the path is set to run right through the table that was put there in memorial of my Uncle 🙁 who loved Kits point like it was his home, wich sometimes in the beautiful warm days of summer, it was. I’m just dissapionted. It seems like nothing is sacred in the world of progression. People have been asked to get off their bikes and walk them down there for as long as I can remember, if you dont want to take time to stop and enjoy the scenery is there not an alternate route you could use? Do we really have to destroy this park for you convience? Sad.

  5. Jeremy Braude says:

    Consultation with local residents would have been appreciated.

  6. Parent to Kids says:

    Think of it, first you get to ride past what was once a lovely garden around the Totem poles, then enjoy the swath of asphalt over what was once lovely grassy field, then cut through what was once a bustling picnic area, then you can dodge ball players, Frisbee throwers, knock over a kid or two next to the playground, dodge a garbage truck behind the restaurant and then run a guantlet of blissed out crowds enjoying the sunset while they wander back and forth over a bike path routed through the part of the park where the path from Yew meets the beach.

    As written in the Sun this AM, this is a path designed by a psychopath.

    I’ll stay on the roads, they’re quiet in the Point and a very pleasant ride.

  7. Van3456 says:

    A silly bike path. Why do they need to remove trees? Can’t they go around them?