UBC Researcher "Shocked" By Number of Accidents on Burrard Bridge

The latest installment in the Burrard Bridge saga took place today at City Hall (watch the City Hall video stream). The decision has been put back to Thursday, so that speakers who were not able to speak today can present to Council.

Virtually all the 13 public presentations from the general public were advocating for option 1, of the 3 options, that would allocate two of the existing car lanes to cyclists on the Burrard bridge.

Longtime opponent of reducing car lanes on the bridge, Charles Gauthier from the DVBIA, was resigned to the fact that a trial will probably go ahead and admitted that some of his members probably support this trial.

Perhaps one of the strongest arguments for a two-lane trial (there were no advocates for the one lane options) was from Kay Teschke, a Professor at UBC's School of Population & Public Health.

Teschke said that her research, based on admissions to the emergency rooms of Vancouver's two main hospitals, had shown that there had been 8 cyclists admitted in the five months from June 2008 to October 2008 as a result of accidents involving interactions on the narrow Burrard bridge sidewalk.
Five of the injuries involved motor vehicles.

There was only a single serious accident recorded on the Cambie Bridge and another on the Granville Bridge in the same time period.

Councillor Geoff Meggs noted that there were implications for City's liability, referring to an earlier case where cyclist Jane Lister sued the city after being knocked off the raised sidewalk and crushed by a van on the bridge. She settled out of court.

Teschke said she was "shocked" by the findings.

City staff said a two-lane trial would allow them to gather more comprehensive data on traffic flows than the other one-lane options.

One of the three options for the trial will probably go ahead from mid-June for six months, if it is approved by council on Thursday at a 2pm meeting.