Council votes today on the fate of downtown bike lanes

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VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – You either love them or you hate them; we’re talking about those separated bike lanes in Downtown Vancouver.

Council is voting today to determine whether those lanes are staying or getting removed.

Although the lanes on Hornby, Dunsmuir, and the Dunsmuir Street Viaduct don’t seem like they were built to be temporary road infrastructure in Vancouver’s downtown core, they were implemented on a “trial basis.”

But that term is over, and a “yes” vote today could mean those lanes could become permanent. Erin O’Melinn with HUB Your Cycling Connection hopes that happens.

“This isn’t something that just benefits people that decide to ride their bike. It actually makes pedestrians feel a lot more comfortable. It’s reduced collisions along the Hornby and Dunsmuir lanes overall,” explains O’Melinn.

No matter your mode of transportation, she argues the lanes are the safest and most cost-effective way to move a lot of people in and out of downtown quickly.

O’Melinn adds lanes encourage people to take up cycling; live a green, healthier lifestyle; and can ease downtown traffic in the future. “The more people that we get on bikes, the more space there is on those travel lanes for cars and for transit and I think that’s really an important piece of this.”

For now, she says there are no plans to advocate for more separated lanes.

“We’re looking at other places in the city, but it really depends on the context  and what type of other traffic is happening there. We need to look more in-depth before we recommend separation elsewhere,” notes O’Melinn.

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