Imagine a big game of soccer or a sold-out concert at Vancouver’s B.C. Place Stadium — events that draw about 60,000 people each. Then imagine every fan travelling to the event by bicycle and returning home on two wheels. That may give a sense of how many bicycle trips take place each day on average in the city of Vancouver.
Vancouver is ranked the third most bike-friendly city in North America, according to the respected Copenhagenizer Index. This city comes after Montreal and Quebec City, which have in recent years been powering away on new bike infrastructure despite their snow-packed winters.
In Vancouver, as spring weather brings more people onto the streets and pathways, cyclists tend to be of two minds. Whether a commuter or recreational cyclist, a high-performance rider or a mid-range one like me, cyclists generally appreciate the advances that have been made in Vancouver since the 1980s. But we keep wanting more.
To be fair, Vancouver drivers have their complaints too, sometimes justified. They worry about losing parking to bike lanes, about slower speeds caused by traffic-calming measures and bicyclist-activated traffic lights, and about some cyclists’ terrible, often arrogant, behaviour.
But the wheels of cycling progress keep on turning in this city, which has a long history of activism. As a result of that activism, major cycling projects have been approved.
Cycling Growth Over the Years
Back in 1994, only one to two per cent of all trips in the city were by bicycle. Now it’s six per cent. That’s 121,000 two-wheeled journeys a day. Vancouver’s cycling network has grown by over 30 per cent in the past 15 years, said transportation designer Christopher Darwent. Designated routes have expanded in that period from 255 kilometres to 340 kilometres.
Engineers Enthusiastic but Incremental
I recently sat down with three Vancouver city transportation specialists responsible for bike infrastructure, and asked what they are excited about. It turns out they’re enthusiastic, but in a kind of incremental way. The pace of improvement can seem slow, they said, but it’s steady. Upgrades can be complex to engineer. Rights of way hard to attain. But worthy new projects are underway, or just around the corner.
Even while cyclists push for more, it’s worth celebrating some improvements to date. A few have been downright impressive. The dedicated Beach Avenue bike lane, created in 2020 during the pandemic, has been a hit, said Darwent, engineer Rosemarie-Louise Draskovic and Paul Storer, director of transportation engineering. The Beach Avenue section between Cardero and Bidwell, next to English Bay’s Inukshuk sculpture, is the city’s most popular route. In summer it averages 8,000 cyclists a day.
While Vancouver continues to roll out cycling upgrades slowly, the city remains a leader in North American bike infrastructure, with steady progress that keeps cyclists and engineers optimistic about the future.
