Bike Lanes on Burrard Bridge
Saturday saw yet another public meeting on the Burrard Bridge bike lanes, but this time things seem to be moving forward. City Hall, now under the guiding hand of mayor Gregor Robertson and Vision, is moving head with a lane reallocation trial promised in his election campaign.
David Rawsthorne, the city engineer who has been working on the Burrard Bridge project for many years, revealed that not one, but three trials will be undertaken to see how best to reallocate traffic lanes on the six lane Burrard Bridge for cyclists.
At the moment there are three lanes of motorized traffic in each direction on the bridge. Most of the traffic is single occupancy vehicles, although there's also transit, and goods movement to consider.
The trials will see:
(1) One cycle lane westbound
(2) One cycle lane eastbound
(3) One cycle lane in both directions
The trials will start in Spring 2009, data will be collected and analyzed, and a final plan for the bridge will be made by the 2010 Olympics.
The new bicycle lane or lanes will have protective barriers separating them from motorized traffic, construction of which will come out of $33 million earmarked for a safety upgrade for the bridge.
Now why couldn't we do that before?