WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 2010 THE VANCOUVER COURIER
EW05
news
12th & Cambie
with Mike Howell
Sack launch
In case you didn’t get a “tweet” from the mayor or an email from the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition, your faithful scribe just wanted to let you know the controversial Hornby Street separated bike lane is open. Apparently, the first cyclists zipped down the lane a couple of weeks ago. Now, tell me if this, dear reader, strikes you as odd. When the ruling Vision Vancouver council agreed to separated bike lanes on the Burrard Bridge last June, Mayor Gregor Robertson was there to officially kick off the trial. It was media madness, with even a news chopper clattering overhead. Then council decided it wanted to add a separated bike lane to the Dunsmuir viaduct. There was the mayor again in March on his trusty mountain bike leading a pack of happy cyclists over the viaduct for the waiting television cameras. Then in June, Robertson showed up again on Dunsmuir
Despite a lack of fanfare on the city’s part, the Hornby Street separated bike lane has already photo Dan Toulgoet been open for a couple weeks. Street to officially open the separated bike lane along Dunsmuir, linking it to the viaduct. Again, lots of media and lots of talk about making Vancouver a more bike-friendly city. Now here’s the odd part. The $3.2 million Hornby Street link was arguably more controversial and expensive than implementing the Burrard Bridge separated bike lanes. The Vancouver Board of Trade, the Downtown
Vancouver Business Improvement Association and Canadian Federation of Independent Business all lined up against the lane. Council’s decision, which came shortly before midnight after listening to several speakers for and against the proposal, effectively put the last link in a chain that allows a cyclist to ride in a separated lane from Chinatown to Kitsilano. Pretty exciting stuff for cyclists.
So where’s the mayor this time? Is it the weather? Busy with the budget? Doesn’t want to rile up Hornby businesses aching for Christmas shoppers? Gangland shootings in his neighbourhood keeping him off the streets? Bike doesn’t work properly since Courier shutterbug Dan Toulgoet carried it up on the roof of city hall to use it for our Newsmaker of the Year cover photograph? What the heck is it?
I caught up with the mayor the other day at a groundbreaking ceremony for a social housing project. This is what he told me. “We wanted to get the lane open as quickly as possible, and we’ve been busy with a lot of other things this month,” Robertson said. “So far, the launch piece is not a priority.” But, the mayor added, “We’re probably going to have a launch in the new year when we get everything together for that.” He didn’t give a date or month but predicted ridership will be up when the weather improves. As for whether implementing separated bike lanes is hurting or helping his popularity, he said he wasn’t worried about that. “This is really important infrastructure for downtown Vancouver. We build streets, we build sidewalks—building good bike lanes is important for our future.” For the record, the Hornby lane is a six-month trial. So is the Dunsmuir Street experiment. The Burrard lanes will be there indefinitely until upgrades are decided upon by either this council or the new one to be elected in November 2011. Robertson plans to seek a second term… and continue riding his bike. mhowell@vancourier.com Twitter: @Howellings
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