FACE TO FACE: Are bike lanes a scourge on city streets or a useful investment?
Vancouver's indomitable mayor is at it again. Good old Gregor Robertson and his cadre of Vision Vancouver greenies are proposing to further congest downtown streets with bike lanes on Point Grey Road and Commercial Drive.
Unfortunately, this guy just doesn't get it. Vancouver is never going to be the bike haven the mayor fantasizes about.
The European city model that city council wants to emulate is only successful because those cities, in almost all instances, have shorter commute times and flatter terrain, making bike travel more tenable.
Moreover, those cities don't have the eight-month rainy season Metro Vancouver does. If you travel downtown on a wet morning, you'll notice that cyclists in the bike lane are a rarity.
But Vision Vancouver, like all good socialist groups, doesn't let reality get in the way of his ideology.
It has already spent millions of dollars of taxpayers' money for separated bike lanes on the Dunsmuir and Hornby corridors.
These lanes have resulted in traffic jams for cars and buses, which wastes valuable time and, ironically, creates more pollution; loss of access to businesses; dangerous cycling conditions; serious safety concerns; and the loss of at least $1 million of annual parking meter revenue for the city.
And the worst part of it is there's no evidence that bike lanes are making Vancouver into a greener city.
City hall's assertions that bike ridership has increased dramatically were refuted last year when a Vancouver newspaper set up its own cameras and found the city's results were wildly overstated.
But even if bike ridership has increased, I would be willing to bet that the majority of new bikers are ex-transit users and not ex-drivers. So, does that really do much to decrease emissions?
To be clear, I'm all for trying to get people out of their cars. But for most people, cycling to work is simply not an option. The priority should be on fast-moving transit and making daily life more convenient.
Let's use the money more wisely. Let's invest in transit and in green technologies. How are those flying cars coming along?
Just please stop shoving bike lanes down our throats.
Andy Radia is a Coquitlam resident and political columnist who writes for Yahoo! Canada News and Vancouver View Magazine. He has been politically active in the Tri-Cities, having been involved with election campaigns at all three levels of government, including running for Coquitlam city council in 2005.
