Separated bike lanes along Broadway rejected by Vancouver city council

The redesign of a stretch of Broadwaywill not include separated bike lanes.

Vancouver citycouncil voted in favour of a plan to revampa segment of Broadway affected by subway construction toprioritizecurb space to parking, public space, and wider sidewalks.

The redesign does not include protected bike lanes, but the city says the door is open for thembeing added in the future.

Coun. Mike Klassenof ABC Vancouver, which holds a majority on council,said the redesign willmake the street morepedestrian-friendly.

"Right now Broadway is not an attractive street, it will be a more attractive street if we follow thisplan," saidKlassen.

Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim, also with ABC Vancouver,said he isin favour of bike lanes, but there are more pressing infrastructure needs.

"In a perfect world with unlimited resources, we would literally do everything, unfortunately we do not live in la-la land where we have unlimited resources and sowe do have to prioritize," Sim said.

He said the area iswell served by a bikewayon10th Avenue, which runs parallel to Broadway. There areadditional parallel routes on 7th, 8th, and 14th avenues.

A 'failure for road safety': councillor

OneCity Coun. Christine Boyle called the result a "failure for road safety in Vancouver."

When council approved the Broadway Plan last June, they also approved more than two dozen amendments, including one about a bike lane along Broadway, which asked staff to look at additions or modifications thatwill be debatedby a new council following municipal elections in October.

Staff came back with a report thatrecommended not including bike lanes.

Boyle acknowledged issuesoutlined by staff, such asnot havingfunds set aside specifically for the lanes,but said they don't compare to"the significant challenges that we have around transportation and climate andaneighbourhood of the city where thousands more people will be be calling home and be coming to work."

She noted the parallel routes require cyclists to mix with cars andnavigate a steep hill to get to Broadway.

"If we want more people to choose to leave their car at home, to reduce congestion, to allow more people to get around safely, we need to be building safe, separated infrastructure," she said.

She added thatdeferring the construction of lanesposes challenges andbuilding cycling infrastructure now is morefiscally responsible.

"It's going to be significantly more expensive and significantly more disruptive to be adding lanes in at some point down the road after we've already done the resurfacing of Broadway, which is the project we have in front of us," Boyle said.

"Now isthe time to do it."