The Cyclist's Guide

Dunsmuir Street

Cyclists

This route [Georgia/Pender/Dunsmuir] is the main east-west connection between the Lions Gate Bridge and the Adanac Bikeway (Union Street). Although eastbound and westbound bike lanes on Pender Street are desirable, the narrow width of Pender Street between Howe and Cambie makes this difficult without compromising transit or business interests along the street. One potential solution is converting Pender Street from two-way to one-way eastbound along this section. This would allow for the creation of a one-way couplet of bike lanes, eastbound on Pender and westbound on Dunsmuir. [...] It is recommended that further detailed analysis be conducted given the complexities of the changes and a desire by many to maintain two-way traffic and transit services along Pender Street.

[...]

A westbound bike lane could begin on Union at Main and would offer two potential routes. One is along the proposed westbound bike lane across the Dunsmuir Viaduct, along Dunsmuir and Melville streets, connecting with Pender Street at Jervis. For the majority of its length, existing parking and travel lanes would be maintained, with the exception of Dunsmuir Street between Richards and Burrard, where parking would be need to be removed because of the narrow street width. The parking removal will help to improve traffic flow and safety in this narrow section of Dunsmuir. The alternative westbound bike route is to use Columbia, Keefer, and Carrall streets to connect to the existing bike lanes on Pender Street. Westbound cyclists on Pender Street would then head southbound on Beatty to reconnect with the westbound bike lanes on Dunsmuir.

[DTP pp. 98-99]

46. Create a westbound bike lane and improve the traffic lanes on Dunsmuir

The Issue: Currently Dunsmuir is a street that has a variety of curb-to-curb widths as well as lane widths. This increases confusion for both automobile and truck drivers. It also has a variety of sidewalk widths. A westbound bike lane could work with an eastbound Pender bike lane to provide better bike access in the area.

The Approach: A more standardized treatment of Dunsmuir Street would benefit the street as shown below. Lane widths have been made as constant as possible with the extra space used to widen the sidewalks and create a westbound bike lane on the north side of the street.

[DTP p. 158]

Road Network

Dunsmuir has heavy traffic volume in general, 20 000 to 40 000 vehicles per day. Traffic is medium between Richards and Burrard, with 10 000 to 20 000 vehicles per day, and tapers off to light traffic after Thurlow [DTP p. 44]. It is considered an important circulation street, and may be considered for major street status in the future.

Intersection	Date recorded	Time	Left-turning vehicles	Through vehicles	Right-turning vehicles	Cyclists
Beatty	2002.12.12	am	0	2387	95	25
		pm	0	1567	42	7
Cambie	2003.07.30	am	490	1739	0	68
		pm	358	1220	0	9
Hamilton	2002.08.15	am	173	1891	35	55
		pm	113	1261	26	17
Homer	2000.06.22	am	0	1633	150	26
		pm	0	1181	43	1
Richards	2003.07.25	am	605	1530	0	45
		pm	477	1169	0	14
Seymour	2001.07.05	am	0	1423	239	50
		pm	0	1089	188	18
Granville	2002.07.19	am	3	1615	1	35
		pm	7	1223	2	26
Howe	2000.08.23	am	256	1383	0	31
		pm	361	1178	0	9
Hornby	2004.06.17	am	0	968	241	25
		pm	0	1034	166	17
Burrard	2003.09.17	am	275	1762	119	15
		pm	585	1366	134	14
Thurlow	2003.08.12	am	554	632	281	11
(on Melville)		pm	587	728	147	24
Bute	2003.07.08	am	124	222	101	1
(on Melville)		pm	272	528	139	10
Pender	2003.07.08	am	141	28	31	2
(on Jervis)		pm	295	30	32	3

Transit

The intersection of Burrard and Dunsmuir streets, in the centre of the downtown office precinct, is a major terminus for regional bus routes and is the location of one of the busiest SkyTrain stations. Underground pedestrian connections link the SkyTrain station directly to Bentall Centre and Royal Centre. Bus stops line Dunsmuir and Burrard Streets next to the station. Generally this transit hub functions well. Changes proposed for this area include a mid-block crosswalk across Dunsmuir Street between Burrard and Thurlow Streets and bus priority on Burrard Street.

[DTP p. 71]

Pedestrians

Dunsmuir has no special designation in the pedestrian network.

Goods Movement

Dunsmuir already lies within the downtown truck area, but is now proposed to become a truck route:

Both Dunsmuir and Georgia streets between Burrard and Beatty are recommended to be added to the truck route network. This is based on the observation that heavy trucks are currently encouraged to use the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts to exit and enter the downtown peninsula from the east. If these trucks are coming from or destined to locations along Denman Street, the current truck route network would require them to travel along Pacific Boulevard, Burrard Street and Davie Streets. This routing is not only more circuitous, it also has greater impacts to the more sensitive residential land uses located along those streets. In comparison, the use of Georgia and Dunsmuir streets are more direct, and they do not have as many residential land uses.

[DTP p. 104]

Dunsmuir is currently used by tour buses and airporter buses.

Parking

Parking is slated for removal on the south side of Dunsmuir from Burrard to Richards [DTP p. 125].

Spot Improvements

As mentioned earlier, a crosswalk is planned near Burrard Station. The existing mid-block crossing is not well marked at all - I couldn't find it when I was hunting for it:

45. Enhance the crosswalk on Dunsmuir at Melville (mid-block crossing)

With a major bus transit service and the Bentall Centre on one side of the street and a SkyTrain station on the other side, the pedestrian crossing demand is high mid-block on Dunsmuir between Thurlow and Burrard Streets. The existing mid-block crossing on Melville Street is not particularly well marked. This crossing should be better marked and made more visible.

[DTP p. 158]

Comments

The Dunsmuir route would be better if it was on Pender. The VACC favoured full bicycle lanes in both directions on Pender St., instead of splitting the lanes into an eastbound/westbound couplet on Pender/Dunsmuir. Dunsmuir is an unfriendly street for cyclists, with heavy traffic, very high right turn volumes, and buses to contend with. As an eastbound street, Pender would have been preferable, although it does not connect as well to the viaducts. However, we've had little luck convincing staff to adopt this plan: they have argued that "traffic chaos" will result, and that the cars pushed off of Pender by the bike lanes will bring downtown traffic flow to a standstill, stopping even the buses. (The "traffic chaos" argument is common in traffic circles, but the ridiculous predictions of their models points mostly to the failings of their software and the problem definition.)

As it stands, this route has heavy traffic. The diagram above looks less threatening than, say, Richards St. - three lanes, instead of three lanes plus parking - but traffic flows are heavier and faster than on Richards. Furthermore, it's planned to become a truck route, which makes it more threatening. Trucks may conflict with bicycles when making right turns, particularly at Burrard St., which is another truck route.

Curb treatment along Dunsmuir isn't very uniform. From block to block, the curb sometimes goes in or out by about half a metre. The spot improvement above suggests a uniform curb and lane treatment, which would be valuable. One disadvantage of the above treatment is the removal of parking from the south side of Dunsmuir, which would eliminate the barrier between the fast-moving traffic and pedestrians. Removal of parking would, however, be useful in awkward sections like the bus hub at Dunsmuir and Burrard.

At a Bicycle Network Subcommittee meeting in October 2005, staff presented some diagrams for Dunsmuir St., under the assumption that westbound bicycle lanes would be necessary (and not provided on Pender St.) The most contentious issue at the time was the proposal to not include bicycle lanes in the westbound direction from Jervis to Georgia. (While Dunsmuir St. would bring cyclists west from Beatty to Jervis, the street ends there and they would merge on to Pender to continue west.) We hope to convince staff to make the space from Jervis to Broughton at least, and possibly use a bus/bike lane for the rest.

We're also worried about right-turning traffic, especially at the two high-volume intersections (Hornby and Thurlow) and the one intersection of two truck routes (Burrard). At both Hornby and Thurlow, the rightmost lane handles 300+ right-turning vehicles in the peak hour, about 1 car every 10 seconds. At Burrard, right-turn volumes are relatively low (about 120 in the peak hour), but that will likely increase once the new convention centre is built at the end of Burrard St. In all cases, the rightmost lane is a "right-turn/through" lane, and motorists will be crossing the cyclists' path. Something is needed to ensure that through cyclists have the right-of-way and are not unduly impeded by turning motorists.

Proposed VACC design for intersection of Hornby and Smithe
(could be adapted for Dunsmuir)

Our final major concern is making it possible for cyclists to make left turns. Few cyclists will be comfortable making vehicular left turns on Dunsmuir, since there are so many lanes of traffic. Alternative facilities are needed, therefore, at Beatty, Richards and Burrard St. We are proposing a design similar to what was proposed at the intersection of the Hornby and Haro/Nicola routes (see diagram at right). A similar facility will be needed to allow left turns from Hornby onto Dunsmuir, or even from Beatty onto Dunsmuir.

The VACC has also written a letter [PDF | HTML] summarizing our support and issues with this route.