The City of Vancouver is looking to upgrade one of its busiest bike routes, Adanac/Union. Although the project hasn’t garnered the same media attention as the proposed greenway along Cornwall, this is a very exciting project for cyclists. I use the route everyday on my commute to work, and I think the changes will go a long way to making it safer.
According to the City’s numbers, the route is used for 4000 bike trips and 5000 car trips per day. The city is proposing a number of improvements to reduce traffic and physically separate bikes.
The biggest changes involve restricting car traffic along Union between Quebec and Main, creating separated bike lanes for large stretches, and improving bike signals at the traffic lights. My usual bike route takes me along Union between Quebec and Main, so I’m excited that cars will largely be removed from that stretch. West of Quebec, a two-way, separated bike lane will connect with the Carall Street Greenway. East of Main, parking will be used to shield bikes from traffic.
More information is available on the City’s website and there’s a quick survey you can fill out.
Canadian Veggie 
It’s a neat project. Interesting parameters they had to work with. Temporary (because the viaduct removal possibility), cheap (for the same reason), quick, an improvement even if not ultimately ideal, emergency vehicle access, etc.
There’s an intersection with a tradition of going contrary to what the light says. (Cycling westbound at Main.) I wonder if that tradition will be broken with this.
They seem to have done a good job at designing the whole project. There are some new things for Vancouver such as using parked cars as a bike lane protector. Good to have a chance to try them out. Also for detractors, when something is being planned elsewhere and they decide to be against it (rather, the corporate media tells them to be against it), you can point to it already having been done in town and working well.
Yeah, a lot going on in town with active transportation. It seems like a lot but we’re decades behind in what should have happened already. And motor vehicle infrastructure has dominated for far too long. It’s good to have a bit of balance and have us have more options.
What do you think of the new parkette at Hawks and Union?
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I’ve only ridden through the new parkette once. It seems like an improvement.
Regarding the traffic lights at Main and Union, the engineer I talked to indicated that there would be an advanced bike signal for cyclists travelling in both directions, thereby legalizing the behaviour you often see now where westbound cyclists proceed when the pedestrians and eastbound cyclist are allowed to go.
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