Commercial Drive business group angry with city hall over bike lane consultation process
Posted December 15, 2015 12:04 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The business group for Commercial Drive says it’s angry with Vancouver City Hall over what it describes as an abysmal consultation process around newly approved bike lanes.
It feels the plan was rammed through.
Nick Pogor with the Commercial Drive Business Society says he’s been working on the bike lane issue with the BIA for a year and a half, and has always been promised a thorough consultation process with city hall and the transportation committee.
“In that time, we have met potentially one, maybe two, times. But those particular talks were not in-depth enough and did not allow us a large enough voice,” he claims.
In fact, there was a call earlier this year for all the groups to work together, but Pogor says when they said they were onboard, “unfortunately, the response from the city and the transportation group was no response.”
Pogor says there is concern about parking and accessibility.
“Our membership… could potentially see a very negative effect.”
He believes nearly 750 business and property owners along Commercial Drive have been failed by city hall, calling it disturbing to see the process go ahead with little input.
He also questions the city’s motive, again pointing to the traffic-calmed, designated bike routes running on parallel streets each side of the corridor.
