FACE TO FACE: Are bike lanes a scourge on city streets or a useful investment?
Why the ongoing brouhaha over Vancouver's bike lanes? It has to be a tempest in a teapot. So why is it becoming a hot-button issue - again - in Vancouver?
In last fall's civic election, Van-couver Mayor Gregor Robertson campaigned in part on "establishing a safer network for cyclists in all parts of the city." He won easily, defeating his closest opponent by almost 19,000 votes (57% to 43% of votes cast). Surely this can only be construed as a mandate to continue the bike lane program. Again, I ask, why the big controversy?
When I finally saw the Burrard Bridge bike lane after hearing all the hysterical opposition to it, I expected it to be horrendous - jamming traffic and ruining the bridge for pedestrians. Instead, the lane seemed sensible and liberating, as if it should have always been there.
So why should bike lanes, which should be a no brainer for any cosmopolitan city, be resisted with such fervour?
Because Vancouver's mayor is a bit too progressive for the chronically right-wing, like my colleague over there. Mayor Robertson is a lefty, transplanted from the provincial NDP and this is enough for some to oppose anything he does - even making Vancouver bike-friendly.
The only city council voice left to champion this resistance last year was lone NPA councillor Suzanne Anton, who by default, became the spokesperson for the anti-Gregor crowd.
But here's the problem. Ms. Anton is apparently an avid cyclist. And she voted in favour of both the Burrard and Hornby bike lanes (she missed the Dunsmuir vote) and for allotting $250,000 for bike lane infrastructure.
But as the right's only city government champion, the mayoral candidate Anton had to adopt her ridiculous stance against bike lanes. She was in favour of bike lanes but only proper, NPA bike lanes, not those awful lefty Vision Vancouver bike lanes, put in without proper consultation or analysis.
It's a simple case of "If you don't like the party, criticize the process."
Bike lanes seem to work fine. Bike traffic is up 40%. More bikes are helping both people's health and the environment. It should be a non-partisan issue (pun intended).
The resistance is more to Mayor Robertson than to bike lanes.
I'm not much of a cyclist but I know when someone is peddling something.
Face to Face columnist Jim Nelson is a retired Tri-City teacher and principal who lives in Port Moody. He has contributed a number of columns on education-related issues to The Tri-City News.
