Vancouver and North Vancouver Bike Tour
Come for a ride along some AAA bike infrastructure in Vancouver and North Vancouver as we take in a few of our ISL Engineering projects as well as many others along the way… Sharing some knowledge and a few insights as we go…
Firstly, thanks to Sustainable Transportation Planner, Scott MacDonald for organizing the tour, and our Manager of Transportation Planning, Matt Taylor for signing off on the time out of the office and dinner afterwards for everyone that attended! We begin in the Shipyards in North Vancouver as it’s easy to get to by transit, has a bike rental shop for those without bikes, and is just a great example of placemaking... All the good stuff is out of shot, so you’ll just have to pay it a visit…
Not everyone at ISL has work that’s as focused on active transportation as myself and Scott, but these days, so many projects of all types have some AT components, so providing more people with an understanding of design needs and nuances, as well as experiencing different facility types first hand was an important part of the tour… I’ll try to capture some of those considerations along with photos from the tour below for those that couldn’t make or anyone that happens to read this…
Our first destination is 10th Avenue in Vancouver, so we all hopped on the SeaBus as a quick way to get across the inlet, but also show how easy multi-modal trips can be…
Even with our group plus another group that looked like they were on rental bikes, we were up at street level in Vancouver in no time. We stop by the edge of the Water Street pedestrian zone pilot project. Not all streets need cars…
We head up the hill on the Richards Street protected bike lane, revealing to those new to ebikes just how awesome they are as we head up to Dunsmuir…
The first part takes a quick build form of sorts… Maintaining curb and gutter, and using curbs, planters, and parking to separate people biking from traffic…
The protected intersection manages turns between Richards and Dunsmuir… More on those later…
The bike lane meanders where needed… Making space for this patio that presumably is a permanent feature…
Not all protected corners need be expensive or require significant infrastructure. It can be as simple as a small cast-in-place or even pre-cast island… No one is actually making a turn here, but the island just helps to protect anyone waiting on a bike as they make their turn…
The group stopped off at Rainbow Park at the intersection of Richards and Smithe… To quote the City’s website “This 0.8 acre site has been transformed into a park of the future, with innovative design, dynamic play areas, art installations, and multi-dimensional walkways that go far beyond the traditional concept of a park.” You can read more about the park here.
Moving on, perhaps worth explaining the conflicts that can occur at intersection with bi-directional protected bike lanes… As bikes can be coming from multiple directions, often at speed with electric variants today, it can be difficult for drivers to judge gaps and the conflicts easily. Wherever possible, it’s best to eliminate the conflicts with No-Right-Turn-On-Red (NRTOR), or where there are multiple vehicle lanes on approach, separating vehicle through and turn movements and allowing through vehicles and bikes to go at the same time while providing separate turn phases. This intersection at Richards and Smithe has the benefit of intersecting one-way streets, so for example, there isn’t a right-turn from Smithe to Richards… And this car below doesn’t have the option of turning left over the crossride…
Drainage inlets to the street trees are a neat feature and there’s a bunch of soil cells underneath for soil volume…
Maybe those trees are doing to well… Our group was sticking closely to the centre line in this section as the trees need a trim… Note these trees take storm water from the roadside…
Transitions between facilities types can be awkward… I think the City took the less is more approach here and it works pretty well… They could have put a stop sign, but sign it instead as it will be used…
Most collisions are preventable… But while eliminating collisions is the goal, the more realistic target is to prevent serious injury and fatalities… Vision Zero as it’s otherwise known… And it works by slowing people down… Just as applicable on the Sea Wall as it is on the street…
At this busy conflict point by Science World, which was such a wide open area previously, there was a lot of scope to weave around pedestrians rather than yield to them. The addition of the upturned canoes narrow the approach promoting single file traffic and the lean rails focused the conflict point and made the desirable yielding behaviour the easier choice…
Be like Borg Chan, our Road Safety Specialist… Use the lean rails and stop for pedestrians…
We carry on towards one of the best examples of a true Dutch style protected intersection in the city with uni-directional bike lanes on all approaches and corner protection islands. If you didn’t know, the purpose of the protected intersection is primarily to accommodate two-stage left turns. Previously with just painted bike lanes, it was assumed that you’d simply merge across to the vehicle left turn lane, a movement that’s not comfortable for many and one more reason painted bike lanes aren’t good. It’s also not possible to make the unsafe manoeuvre when the bike lane is protected without jumping the curb. The two-stage left turn is the preferred solution… Crossing one leg during one signal stage, and the perpendicular crossing during the next… and providing you a space to wait for that second stage without blocking people cycling through.
The next progression we need are more bicycle signals at these intersections as I find people get confused between following the pedestrian or vehicle signal. A bicycle signal would make things more intuitive, and can even provide efficiencies if it avoids calling the longer walk signal… In this regard, keep an eye on another ISL project at Guildford Way and Pinetree Way in Coquitlam which is just beginning construction… I’ll post more on that when it’s complete…
We stop around the corner at Pullman Porter Street, a local street that feels like a laneway largely because it doesn’t feature traditional curb returns and crosswalks. The sidewalk - albeit with different texture - and bike path - with green surface treatment - remain continuous though the intersection conveying the priority that people walking and rolling have over turning vehicles through design. Here’s the TAC Synthesis of Emerging Practice on Continuous Sidewalks and Bike Paths inspired by our work on Metral Drive in Nanaimo. They’re starting to become more common in Canada with many more cities pursuing this design technique. It’s really just applying a laneway design on a municipal street, not new design, but new in the context of a municipal street…
We turn onto the Ontario Bikeway, a local street with many modal filters to reduce traffic volumes and make it safer for people on bicycles. We’ve had responses to engagement from people on past projects thinking that a shared street isn’t suitable for all ages and abilities and asking for protected bike lanes on streets that don’t need it, but a local street can be safe and comfortable if vehicle volumes and speeds are low enough.
We understand that Vancouver prefers volume reduction over speed reduction typically, with modal filters being used more than say speed humps. Guidance needs to catch up with regard to volume thresholds, with TAC suggesting less than 2,500 vehicles per day (vpd) and the BC AT Design Guide less than 1,000 vpd. However the City of Vancouver target less than 500 vpd, meaning the chances of even encountering a vehicle are much less… Modal filters can also create great little plaza spaces like this one below or pocket parks like some we’ve helped work on in Victoria…
Not a feature on this tour, but in Burnaby, we’ve been working to make on neighbourhood bikeway even safer for people cycling, pursing a Canadian interpretation of Dutch Bicycle Street techniques. That still has to go through detailed design, but these have included different pavement markings to send a stronger message to drivers that people on bicycles have priority, and that they should be in the centre of the roadway. To slow down vehicles as they enter and exit the bicycle street, raised crossings prevent people rolling and blowing through two-way stop controls. We’ve also been pursuing speed cushions rather than humps that reduce the speed for vehicles only, and therefore the speed differential between people rolling and driving, while also reducing discomfort for those using cargo bikes, pulling trailers, etc.
Crossings at major streets are also an important consideration, as crossing in gaps in busy traffic is not fun for most. To be safe for everyone, they need to be controlled with at least a pedestrian signal with bicycle push button… Also often called a half signal…
We turn onto 10th Avenue in the bikeway section… Just a reminder that in addition to low volumes, neighbourhood bikeways, local street bikeways, greenways, whatever you want to call them - I like bicycle street personally - need to be 30 km/h or less at all times…
The first ISL project on the tour is the detailed design and implementation for Phase 2 of the Hospital Precinct complete street section. Unfortunately Grant and Tanveer couldn’t attend the ride to get into the details, but some interesting points of note include the addition of the bike path next to established trees… A challenge… But it can be overcome…
This section is a good demonstrator of bike facility widths. Needing to accommodate the shelter, the bike lane squeezes to 1.2m with mountable curb on either side. This is a great way to see that you can ride side-by-side in a 1.2m bike lane if the edge conditions are favourable, but if there was barrier curb at either side it wouldn’t be so easy and you’d risk catching your pedals not he side. However, as people will tend to ride in the centre when on their own, passing would be difficult even with the favourable edge conditions, not an issue in this short section where we want to encourage people to ride single file through a conflict area, or for short distances where there is a constraint, but not recommended in general for longer distances…
We pass through a 4-way stop controlled intersection where the bike lane bends back in. I think we could use more guidance on stop controlled intersections on protected bike lanes. I feel the stop bar for bicycles sends conflicting messages with the green crossride in terms of who has priority. My preference these days is to treat it like any other protected intersection, bend bikes out rather than in, and have vehicles treat people rolling more like a pedestrian than a vehicle… But there is some debate that some more guidance could address… Next ATIC emerging practice report… or maybe even the BC AT Design Guide Update…
We stop briefly at Laurel Street just to note that while not all streets are bike routes, all streets can have people biking on them, and we should provided access to and from any street to any bike facilities on the opposite side…
We turn down Cypress Street and take the Burrard Bridge back into Downtown… Why are you stopping so far back Scott…
Ahhh… Never noticed that sign up in the trees before…
Then Beach Avenue, one of the busiest bike lanes in North America, and despite some headlines, isn’t being removed, just being modified near the Stanley Park entrance…
We ride through Stanley Park and over the Lions Gate Bridge, making sure our less experienced bike riders take care on the expansion joints!
We follow the Spirit Trail along to 1st Avenue, the next ISL project that was built a few years ago. This corridor was part of the City’s bike masterplan, and at the time had painted bike lanes in the door zone of the parking lane with trucks frequently using the corridor making it a little hair raising. ISL worked on a planning study to consider options for the corridor, with the preferred design removing one lane of parking to make space for the protective buffers and wide bike lanes with space to pass.
ISL later took the project through detailed design and construction in the space of a few months. It’s important to note that rapid implementation projects such as this aren’t always a case of just adding concrete curbs. They typically require lanes to be realigned, that is eradicating and repainting lines if not repaving entirely. Stop lines, especially left turn stop lines often have to be pulled back to accommodate adjusted turning paths into narrower and relocated receiving lanes, and as a result, detection loops also have to be moved. Depending on the design and conflicts, signal phasing and NRTOR’s may need to be considered. What seems like a simple project just adding curbs can have less obvious costs….
Note in the image above, you can still see the old bike lane line that’s been eradicated in the centre of this one. Here’s an old side-by-side video riding the corridor back and forth…
Another interesting point on this industrial corridor is that we used these truck parking stops for protection, I think the first project to do so. They’ve been appearing on many bike projects since, so much so that they’re no longer sold as truck parking stops but rather bike lane dividers. Just think about snow clearing, sweeping, and clearing out the silt build-up from the drainage channels…
We take a ride back through Mosquito Creek where the slow roll signage helps to encourage the desired behaviour in this constrained corridor that can get busy at times without resorting to making people walk…
Then we finish our tour back on the Esplanade Complete Street where ISL helped with concept refinement and later detailed design and construction, where the street that was rebuilt from property line to property line to improve safety for people rolling. Unfortunately the project was spurred by the death of a person cycling in the painted door zone bike lane who swerved to avoid an opening car door and fell under an adjacent truck. We have so many legacy door zone bike lanes that need to be removed over time - Even The Netherlands have them, but as most people ride a bike there, drivers are much more aware of the need to check behind them before opening their car door - google the Dutch reach for a better way to open your car door…
The new design features wide protected bike lanes in most sections with either a small grade change from the sidewalk or landscaping to separate people walking and rolling. Floating bus stops are provided with railings to again focus conflict points and encourage the desired yielding behaviour, street trees are provided in soil cells that capture drainage run-off into them…
Protected intersection designs enable safer bicycle turns…
I have a previous blog post on Esplanade here with many more photos, and again, an old video of the before and after side-by-side below…
We ended at Tap and Barrel, hopefully with everyone a little more familiar with bike infrastructure facility types and design considerations… Hopefully this recap helps increase your familiarity with bicycle facilities types and design needs…