VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – While many major routes were impassable for drivers during yesterday’s snow storm, Vancouver bike lanes seemed to be bare and clear.
One city councillor admits he is frustrated by what was considered a priority during the madness. George Affleck is now calling for a report to be completed in January to pinpoint what happened.
“I saw a lot of craziness on Broadway yesterday with buses… and I saw a snow plow go by on Ontario [Street] to clear a bike lane,” he tells us, saying that’s totally unacceptable.
“When I see the kind of weather we had yesterday and I see buses skidding with many commuters and many people on it… and I see snow plows going down bike lanes, yeah it concerns me.”
Affleck also points out that many businesses did not keep their sidewalks clear, thinking the rain would wash away the ice, which it didn’t; many people slipped their way up and down hills, at times with the help of total strangers.
“I didn’t see Broadway cleared until about 5 p.m. yesterday,” he says.
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@Arno Whatever
Where do you get these facts from,I work for the city and this is definitely not the way things work.We were instructed by the mayors office to plow the bike lanes first and worry about the rest later.We heard one biker complained that he couldn’t ride his bike to work,probably the mayor!!!
The things that go together with bike lanes are sledgehammers. The next administration should do everything to RIP those car idling and injury causing bike lanes off the roads
Actually, sidewalks, which are used more, should come before bike lanes.
I live in Fairview. I drive 11km to my work, mostly on Oak Street, which is a major route and turns into a major highway. Yesterday it was a sheet of ice and it took me one hour and 20 mins to travel 11km. at 5pm when i had to travel the same 11km, Oak St was still a sheet of ice. the day before i told my co-workers i was not worried about the snow because i live on transit routes and it always is clear, not so much. i was actually scared at points on my commute. no sand, no salt trucks where seen on the roads when the snow was coming down heavy. i thought at least the major routes would have been taken care of by the end of the work day. nope. too much money spent on bike lanes that nobody uses. shame on city hall for only thinking of the cyclists! and all the cyclists were probably on the buses that couldn’t go anywhere. only in vancouver.
Bike routes do not get priority over major roads. CoV snow removal priorities are:
Bus routes
Arterial roadways
Collector roadways
Bridges
Major collector streets
Emergency access routes (and five major hospitals)
Bike lanes
All this means is that some bike routes get snow clearing, whereas other residential streets do not. This makes a lot of sense, since by encouraging year-round bike use, congestion congestion on roadways and transit gets.