The Cyclist's Guide

Cardero Street

Cyclists

The Cardero cycling route is intended to be shared with other users. No further details are provided regarding its intended design or use.

Road Network

Traffic volumes on Cardero are very light, 0 to 5 000 per day [DTP p. 44]. Cardero is considered a local street.

Transit

No impact.

Pedestrians

Cardero forms an arterial in the pedestrian network:

This route was selected because of the existing pedestrian investments already made via traffic calming measures and mini-parks along the street. This route also provides a `water to water' connection from English Bay park to the new park along the eastern edge of the Bayshore Hotel. A pedestrian actuated light should be installed at Beach Avenue to facilitate safer pedestrian crossing.

[DTP p. 89]

Goods Movement

Cardero is outside the downtown truck area, except for the section from Robson to Georgia [DTP p. 106]. The north sections of Cardero are also on tour bus and airporter bus routes [DTP pp. 110-111].

Parking

No impact.

Spot Improvements

No impact.

Comments

Cardero is a straightforward and quiet street for cycling. Good connections through the local miniparks are important, and good signal systems at Beach, Robson and Georgia are also necessary. Pedestrian signals already exist at Robson and Georgia; the status of Beach and the presence of cyclist signals is unknown.

This route is uncontroversial; it's a good residential route, similar to many others outside the downtown.

The critical pushbuttons at Davie and Robson are expected to be installed in 2004. [Administrative Report, July 22, 2004, CC #5761]

VACC members attending the City's Bicycle Advisory Committee saw plans for Cardero St. in November 2004. The issues apparent at this stage are:

• the connection to the Seaside routes is particularly difficult due to the slopes between Beach Ave. and the Seaside routes. Engineering is still trying to find a reasonable solution. On the north side of Beach, bulging would be useful for improving the visibility of southbound cyclists, but we're not sure about how that would work when parking is stripped during rush hour.
• not much thought has been given to connections to the future Beach Ave. route yet
• the minipark at Burnaby is particularly difficult. The northbound exit crosses a laneway, but the laneway isn't clearly demarcated from the street. Technically, a laneway never has right-of-way (and hence has to stop and yield to cyclists going through), but drivers probably won't be aware of that, and will think they have right-of-way. Engineering is planning to change the laneway at the sidewalk, raising it to the level of the sidewalk. This will simultaneously give pedestrians clear priority and act as a speed bump; I think it'll be enough to reduce conflicts between laneway drivers and bicycles as well.
• staff intended to change the diagonal diverter at Haro by reducing small parts of it to the level of the roadway. BAC members suggested that the design used for the diverter at Bute and Pendrell might be more appropriate, since it allows pedestrians to easily walk along the diverter still. Bollards would be needed for either design to prevent cars from trying to cross the curbs.
• The block from Alberni to Georgia is a real difficulty. The roadway is quite narrow here, traffic volumes are high, and it's a short block. Much of the northbound traffic is trying to make a left-turn on Georgia. Engineering has suggested that the route could jog over to Nicola to access the Coal Harbour seawall. Personally, I'm skeptical about jogs; I think they really confuse cyclists, and make it difficult for cyclists to maintain a mental map of the route's location. However, I haven't seen traffic volumes on that block, and I don't know what it looks like. I reserve judgment, for now. Others in the VACC prefer the jog. The jog will be built as part of the Haro / Nicola bicycle route.

As this prepares to go to council, an administrative report with many of the details on the route is now available. The VACC has also written a letter [PDF | HTML] summarizing our support for this route.