[Ebbc-Talk] Vancouver’s bike lanes have made i t a city to watch - The Globe and Mail

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Vancouver=92s bike lanes have made it a city to watch

To many cities, building bike lanes isn=92t about serving a small slice of =
the hipster set. It=92s about showing that the city is planning for a diffe=
rent, more sustainable transportation future and serving an increasingly im=
portant demographic.

City cycling is no fad, say municipal officials and cycling experts around =
the continent: It=92s here to stay and should be embraced.

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=93All of us, in every city around North America, because of demographic fo=
rces, are really seeing an increase in cycling,=94 says Andrew Stober, chie=
f of staff for the mayor=92s office on transportation in Philadelphia. =93T=
his is not a case of =91Build it and they will come.=92 We are seeing that =
we need to build something because they=92re already here.=92=94

As cities get more dense, more people are coming to the conclusion that a b=
icycle is often the most efficient and cheapest way to travel within the fi=
ve-kilometre radius where they increasingly spend most of their time.

And businesses, looking around the globe at where to locate, factor in the =
effort that cities are making to provide for their potential bike-riding em=
ployees. Philadelphia recently got shortlisted as a new location for a majo=
r brewery=92s East Coast base because of its robust bike-route network.

As a result, Mr. Stober and many other city officials say they are constant=
ly scanning the horizon to see what other cities are doing.

One of the places they always look: Vancouver.

Vancouver doesn=92t have the biggest cycling network. Montreal has far more=
 concrete barrier-protected lanes; New York has more miles of bike routes o=
verall. It doesn=92t have the highest percentage of cycle trips (as opposed=
 to walking, driving and taking transit). Copenhagen, with 40 per cent, and=
 even Berlin, with 15 per cent of trips by bicycle, far outstrip Vancouver,=
 which is currently closing in on 5 per cent.

It doesn=92t have a bike-share program yet, like other cities aggressively =
pushing cycling.

But Vancouver was one of the first cities in North America to create a low-=
cost, low-impact network by creating bikeways along residential streets wit=
h relatively light traffic volumes =96 a system that Portland, Ore., copied=
. That system has helped push cycling trips in some parts of the city =96 C=
ommercial Drive, Kitsilano =96 to the 12- to 15-per-cent range.

=93It really has led the way in North American in local-street bikeways,=94=
 says John Pucher, a Rutgers University urban planning professor and author=
 of City Cycling.

But in the last five years, the city has moved into a tougher phase: increa=
sing barrier-separated lanes and other route improvements that visibly take=
 space away from cars. It=92s the kind of cycling infrastructure that Mr. P=
ucher and other researchers say is the safest and the type most likely to e=
ncourage regular people, especially women, to try cycling.

Vancouver=92s efforts have meant fights with residents, downtown businesses=
, and political opponents who accuse Mayor Gregor Robertson and his Vision =
Vancouver councillors of catering to the city=92s tiny minority of cyclists.

This week, city council=92s decision to approve a new section of bikeway al=
ongside some of the city=92s most expensive properties =96 and some of its =
most vehemently opposed residents =96 was watched carefully across the cont=
inent.

=93They=92re one of the leaders,=94 says Laura Spanjian, sustainability dir=
ector for the City of Houston, which has built 300 miles of bikeways recent=
ly and introduced a small but enthusiastically welcomed bike-share program =
this spring.

=93That huge controversy they had =85 it=92s kind of fantastic for the coun=
try. It shows that even when there=92s opposition, if you have strong leade=
rship, you can move ahead and show the success later. It helps other cities=
 when you have wins like this.=94

Vancouver is one of the models for smaller or more car-oriented cities that=
 have decided unilaterally to create a cycling culture.

Amsterdam and Copenhagen, the current superstars among cycling cities, are =
admired, but not always seen as examples that can be emulated. Amsterdam, w=
here 57 per cent of all trips are done by bicycle, has had a strong cycling=
 culture since the bicycle was invented. Its city governments over the year=
s have mostly strengthened that.

Copenhagen, which has reached the 40-per-cent mark for cycling trips, made =
more of a leap, but it had a long history of building separated bike lanes =
=96 called =93cycle tracks=94 by the experts =96 in its central city. As we=
ll, like many European cities, its public spaces were never taken over by t=
he car to the extent that North America=92s were when cars began fighting f=
or and winning dominance on the roads over pedestrians and streetcars in th=
e 1920s and =9230s.

But Vancouver, and other cities like New York, Chicago, Berlin, Seville, Ba=
rcelona, Montreal, and Portland that have had to fight to create a cycling =
culture, are the ones showing the way to cities anxious to transform transp=
ortation in their metropolises.

Paris and London mayors may have embraced the bicycle, but they didn=92t ha=
ve the problems of New York =96 taxi drivers, truckers and rich people who =
fought against bike lanes.

With the fierce Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan leading the =
way since 2007, New York has added nearly 350 miles of on-street bike lanes=
 to its city, including 25 miles of protected lanes, for a total of about 8=
50 miles. It has shut down some streets entirely for car-free days on occas=
ion.

But not without some serious skirmishing. Wealthy residents in the Park Slo=
pe area of Brooklyn sued over one section of proposed bike lane =96 a case =
the city won. Complaints were also in full flood for the bike-share system,=
 introduced this spring, from worries that the docking stations were taking=
 up too much sidewalk space to griping about the technical problems with th=
e stations.

But something is working. Statistics show the number of bike riders crossin=
g into Manhattan during a average 12-hour period doubled from 16,000 to 32,=
000 between 2005 and 2012, a number that is likely to be up again once the =
2013 numbers are counted.

=93New York City=92s streets are now the safest they=92ve been, with the la=
st five years recording the fewest traffic fatalities since records were fi=
rst kept in 1910,=94 adds Department of Transportation spokesman Scott Gast=
el.

As Vancouverites were lining up pro and con to argue about the city=92s new=
 Seaside Greenway last week, a University of B.C. researcher pointed out th=
at Vancouver =96 contrary to public opinion =96 has been rather timid in it=
s push for separated bike lanes.

=93Since 2009, Vancouver has added six kilometres of separated bike lanes,=
=94 Kay Teschk says. =93Seville has built 120 kilometres of separated bike =
lanes in the same five-year period.=94

Mr. Pucher, of Rutgers University, calls Seville the most dramatic example =
of a complete turnaround: Before the city started its cycling improvements,=
 only about 0.5 per cent of all trips were made by bicycle. Now, about 6.5 =
per cent of trips are bike trips, about 85,000 a day.

=93Seville is the most interesting because it started with zero tradition o=
f daily, utilitarian cycling,=94 Mr. Pucher says.

That was in keeping with elsewhere in Spain, especially cities like Madrid,=
 where a cyclist on a regular street is a rare sight.

Some German cities, like Hamburg and Munich, have been good cycling cities =
for decades. Hamburg had separated bike lanes, complete with little traffic=
 lights that showed green and red bicycles, back in the 1970s. Not Berlin.

=93Berlin has turned to it partially because of financial issues,=94 says R=
alph Buehler, an urban affairs professor at Virginia Tech and co-author of =
City Cycling.

The city was struggling economically after re-unification. =93It found out =
that building bike infrastructure is much cheaper than highway interchanges=
 or even subways.=94 Mr. Buehler says.

Between 1990 and 2008, the number of cycling trips doubled, accounting by t=
he end of that period for 13 per cent of all trips. The figure is now up to=
 15 per cent (and as high as 25 in some neighbourhoods), as cyclists now ha=
ve access to about 620 kilometres of bike lanes.

Cycling experts gripe about some aspects of the Berlin system =96 that it=
=92s inconsistent, with riders sometimes in protected bike lanes, sometimes=
 on the sidewalk, and sometimes on roads with arrows.

The group Copenhagenize Design, which rates cities on the cycling facilitie=
s, also notes that Berlin is still doing contradictory things, like pouring=
 money into projects for cars.


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