bicycle

Vancouver notched up its second reported homicide of 2010, on the busy 10th Avenue bike path between Clarke and Commercial Drive. The CBC is reporting that an Asian male in his early 20s was shot in the torso shortly after 1pm and then crashed into a white commercial van. He was rushed to hospital, where he died a short time later.

The Burrard Bridge bike lane trial looks set to become permanent after the Olympics in February - a Vancouver City survey found bike traffic was up, accidents were down, and there was general support (45% supported the bridge changes versus 21% against) for the single-lane compromise.

It's official: Critical Mass has reached Critical Mass. At least, so say the VPD.

Darah Hansen of the Vancouver Sun quotes Vancouver police Insp. Rick McKenna:

“The fact of the matter is that Critical Mass has reached a critical mass of civil disobedience."

As a post-script to my previous post about the Burrard Bridge, I was at CBC Radio 1's mayoral candidates meeting last night and it was interesting to hear both Gregor Robertson and Peter Ladner say they would look at building a new bridge. Robertson seemed much more emphatic about it. Ladner mentioned it as a possible solution in a non-committal way.

It’s a balmy June evening and a river of colour is flowing South up the three lanes of the Burrard bridge. Bicycles, hundreds of them, are jingling and swaying. They ride on mountain bikes, racers, tandems, cruisers, crazy choppers, kiddie bikes with their training wheels, bike-powered music machines, a bicycle-shopping cart hybrid, in-line skates, and skateboards. It’s bike month and this is the biggest of the year’s Critical Mass rides that start off from outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on the last Friday of every month.