Separated bike lanes along Broadway rejected by Vancouver city council
CBC
The redesign of a stretch of Broadway will not include separated bike lanes.
Vancouver city council voted in favour of a plan to revamp a segment of Broadway affected by subway construction to prioritize curb 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 them being added in the future.
Coun. Mike Klassen of ABC Vancouver, which holds a majority on council, said the redesign will make the street more pedestrian-friendly.
"Right now Broadway is not an attractive street, it will be a more attractive street if we follow this plan," said Klassen.
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim, also with ABC Vancouver, said he is in 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 so we do have to prioritize," Sim said.
He said the area is well served by a bikeway on 10th Avenue, which runs parallel to Broadway. There are additional parallel routes on 7th, 8th, and 14th avenues.
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 that will be debated by a new council following municipal elections in October.
Staff came back with a report that recommended not including bike lanes.
Boyle acknowledged issues outlined by staff, such as not having funds set aside specifically for the lanes, but said they don't compare to "the significant challenges that we have around transportation and climate and a neighbourhood 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 and navigate 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.
The soccer world may be coming to Toronto this summer, but right now the city is just waiting for the province to show up.
With less than six weeks to go, preparations are ramping up for the 2026 Montana's Brier in St. John's — including the release of one last full batch of tickets on Tuesday at 12 p.m. NT.
Within weeks of Robinson Huron Treaty settlement money landing in people’s bank accounts, police in several northern Ontario First Nations say something else arrived too: drug traffickers, financial scammers and a surge in violent crime.
Some people who work in recycling and waste diversion say more sharps — medical needles used for injections — are ending up in Nova Scotia's waste streams and they think it's time for provincial regulations.
As Doreen Paul scrolls through photos on her phone, Bronson Paul's life flashes by.
Quebec City police have confirmed that the remains recovered from the St. Lawrence River last week are those of Susana Rocha Cruz, who had been missing since mid-January.
The Winnipeg Airports Authority wants to develop land west of Richardson International Airport to make way for a proposed WestJet maintenance facility, sources at city hall said.
Bob Behari is planning his dream project on a prime piece of land overlooking the South Saskatchewan River in Saskatoon’s Nutana neighbourhood.
Saskatchewan’s Notre Dame Hounds made an unexpected stop in Rathwell, Man., Friday night after their bus went off the road into a snowbank.
Herb Dickieson is no longer in the running to be leader of the New Democratic Party of Prince Edward Island.
A commission reviewing Alberta’s electoral boundaries suggests Edmonton should have 21 ridings — up from its current 20 — but some Edmontonians say the city should have more than that, based on the growing population.
A worsening problem with human feces in and around East Vancouver's Grandview Park became one of the reasons for B.C. resident Zoe Raffard to move out of the city permanently.
In a first step toward modernizing residential care facilities, the City of Hamilton will change the way it funds privately run, subsidized homes.