The Cyclist's Guide

Haro / Nicola

This route has undergone some substantial changes since its original conception. In the Downtown Transportation Plan, it was called the Nicola/Alberni/Jervis/Haro/Smithe bicycle route. In 2005, when city staff looked at the route in detail together with members of the VACC and the BNSC (Bicycle Network Subcommittee), some other options were considered. In the end, the final route was a simpler one running along Haro St. (and one block of Smithe), connecting the Hornby St. bicycle lane to the Chilco St. bicycle lane. A fork along Nicola St. completes the connection to Coal Harbour, meeting the original goals of this route. The crossing of Georgia St. is already in place, but the crossing of Pender St. is not expected to be built until at least 2008. In the interim, the Cardero St. crossing can be used.

The two maps are shown to the right. The current plan is shown above, and the original plan smaller below.

Cyclists

This route provides an alternative east-west route connecting the Burrard/Hornby bike lanes to the Georgia Street bike lanes. The route is a combination of a shared on-street bike facility within the West End residential area (Haro and Bute streets), and two-way bike lanes on Haro and Alberni where they would have little impact on existing parking and moving lanes. On the one-way section of Smithe Street between Hornby and Burrard, there would only be a westbound bike lane.

[DTP p. 99]

Road Network

Traffic volumes on Haro are mostly very light, 0 to 5 000 per day [DTP p. 44]. Haro is considered a local street west of Bute [DTP p. 49].

Traffic volumes on Smithe range from medium (10 000 to 20 000 per day) to heavy, 20 000 to 40 000 per day [DTP p. 44]. Smithe is a major road from the Cambie Bridge to Howe St [DTP p. 45], and is an important circulation street [DTP p. 47].

No traffic volume data is available for the relevant part of Nicola St., but nearby portions are very light. Nicola is a local street [DTP p. 49].

Traffic volumes on Alberni St. are light on the proposed route, 5 000 to 10 000 per day [DTP p. 44]. Alberni has no special designation within the road network.

Intersection	Date recorded	Time	Direction	Left-turning vehicles	Through vehicles	Right-turning vehicles	Cyclists
Georgia	2001.02.22	am	southbound	1	1	0	1
on Nicola			northbound	0	6	23	3
		pm	southbound	3	8	2	3
			northbound	7	9	31	4
Jervis	2000.12.20	am	southbound	2	7	0	0
on Haro			westbound	28	16	9	0
		pm	southbound	5	20	3	2
			westbound	34	51	20	4
Thurlow	2003.11.14	am	eastbound	0	9	76	3
on Haro/Smithe			westbound	249	23	0	3
		pm	eastbound	0	20	209	5
			westbound	423	12	0	5
Burrard	2002.07.29	am	eastbound	32	0	34	3
on Smithe			westbound	233	274	300	12
		pm	eastbound	59	0	86	8
			westbound	300	416	246	29
Hornby	2003.07.16	am	westbound	0	654	789	22
on Smithe		pm	westbound	0	603	791	14

Transit

No impact.

Pedestrians

None of these streets plays any special role in the pedestrian network.

Goods Movement

The Alberni and Nicola sections of the route lie in the truck area [DTP p. 106]. An airporter bus uses the Alberni section of the route [DTP p. 111].

Parking

Rush hour parking will be added on the south side of Alberni [DTP p. 125].

Spot Improvements

24. Enhance the crosswalk on Smithe Street at Haro Street

At the location where Smithe Street becomes Haro Street (mid block between Burrard St and Thurlow St), the north sidewalk can be confusing and awkward for people walking along the street.

This could be corrected by normalizing the intersection. This would improve conditions for all users.

42. Normalize the intersection of Georgia and Pender Streets

The Issue: The intersection at Georgia and Pender has one of the longest pedestrian crossings in the City. Cyclists require a safe connection between the bike lanes on Georgia Street and the bike lanes on Pender Street.

The Approach: A significant public parkette that both increases green space and improves pedestrian connections could be created. Bike lanes will be incorporated into a redesigned intersection.

[DTP p. 156]

Comments

The intent of this route seems to be as an access route to and from Coal Harbour and the Lion's Gate Bridge. The revised route (Smithe+Haro/Nicola) was selected at the City's Bicycle Network Subcommittee in May 2005 for several reasons: 1) it's simpler than the original route (Smithe+Haro+Jervis+Alberni+Nicola), and hence easier to remember and follow; 2) the grades are equivalent; 3) by avoiding Alberni, there is less traffic along the route.

With the revisions, Haro Street can act as an "off-Robson" route, although that hasn't officially been the goal. Even without the revisions, it could easily serve that role: with bicycle-friendly crossings at Thurlow and Burrard, it serves the main commercial sections of Robson west of Burrard.

The VACC hosted a ride of this route on April 14, 2005. Some of the issues that came up during this ride:

Smithe at Burrard, looking west

• The one-way westbound block on Smithe between Hornby and Burrard will serve two groups: Hornby cyclists transferring to this route, and any cyclists who are already on Smithe and transitioning to this route. This block is tough, due mainly to the high right-turn volume onto Burrard. At Burrard St., the street profile has one left-turn lane, one through lane, and one right-turn lane (see VanMap diagram). The city engineer (Donny Wong) thinks the street width is sufficient to allow two bike slots at Burrard: a through slot, between the through vehicle lane and the right turn-lane; and a left-turn bike slot, between the left-turn vehicle lane and the through vehicle lane. David and Jack suggested that the positioning of the through slot is good, but the bike lane should keep that positioning for the entire block, like the Burrard southbound lane. It's a short block, and if the bike lane is against the curb, it'd be very hard for cyclists to shift across the heavy right-turn traffic into the through slot. Also, cyclists coming from Hornby or Smithe can easily get in the correct position for a non-curb bike lane.


Proposed VACC design for intersection of Hornby and Smithe

• There were also some suggestions for facilitating left-turn manoeuvres onto Smithe from Hornby.

  Smithe at Hornby, looking west

  Vehicular cyclists should have no problems, but cyclists who try to make pedestrian-style left turns could have difficulty. There are two types of pedestrian-style left turns: cyclists who reach the light when it's green for Smithe will go west first, and will probably then position themselves for a vehicular-style left turn. There could be some conflicts with drivers making left turns, so a bike box in the left-most lane on Hornby would be useful. Cyclists who reach the light when it's green for Hornby will probably go through the light, and then try to position themselves to go west on Smithe when the light changes. This is really tricky, because of the lane configuration on Smithe: a right-turn lane and a through/right lane. Cyclists who go to the curb and try to advance as pedestrians will face a "no walk + right turn signal," and likely substantial confusion. Cyclists who position themselves in the rightmost lane will have to deal with cars in the through/right lane trying to turn right (about 2/3 of the volume, according to VanMap). Cyclists who position themselves in the through/right lane may be okay, but it depends on how they position themselves: if they sit on the right side of that lane, drivers may try to turn right around them, and they'll also have troubles once they get through the intersection, since the through/right lane becomes a right-only lane at Burrard. The only solution we can see is a bike box in the through/right lane, which will make it obvious to cyclists where they should wait, and avoid any dilemma about where in the lane to wait. The diagram on the right illustrates one possible design. (The lane along Smithe on the east side of Hornby is not really feasible given the width of the street. Also, the bike box does not need to include the right-turn only lane, and could be designed to only span the three through lanes.)


Smithe at Thurlow, looking west

• There should be enough room for bike lanes both ways between Burrard and Thurlow. The city may try to normalize the funny island that merges onto Smithe westbound. The intersection of Smithe and Thurlow has a few issues, mostly relating to the wornout "right-in" diverter on the west side. Some local residents spoke with us, suggesting that westbound traffic often dodges the diverter. Also, Thurlow traffic turning right onto Haro often ignore cyclists heading west from Smithe to Haro - understandable, since it's an unusual movement when cars can only turn left; but it has to be dealt with. Finally, we saw issues for eastbound cyclists, who will face heavy left-turn traffic coming from the westbound direction.
• At Haro and Bute, there is heavy pedestrian traffic. The city is considering a raised pedestrian table there. We have no problems with this, provided that it's marked visibly for rainy nighttime riding.
• We like the traffic circles along this route; they're often better than stop signs. More bulging at the circles could improve the traffic calming.


Nicola at Georgia, looking north

• On Nicola at Georgia, there's already a cyclist-activated signal to allow eastbound Georgia cyclists to turn left, and cross Georgia St. to access Pender St. This same signal should allow northbound Nicola cyclists to turn left onto the westbound Georgia St. bicycle lanes, connecting to the Lion's Gate Bridge and Stanley Park. That intersection is a strange one, however, since Pender St. merges with Georgia right there (see spot improvement 42 above). Until spot improvement 42 is implemented (2008 or later), Nicola cyclists will not be able to cross Pender St. to access Coal Harbour or the seawall.
• There is an alternative: the Cardero bikeway has a signal to allowing crossing of Georgia St. after Pender St. has ended. That signal is enough to make the connection. Unfortunately, that section of Cardero St. (between Alberni and Georgia) is quite narrow, and is very busy in the afternoon peak as drivers use it to turn left onto Georgia St. When the Cardero bikeway was designed, Nicola was deemed to be a better crossing point for cyclists.
• So, in the short term we'll be using Cardero to cross Georgia St., but in the long term once spot improvement 42 is completed, Nicola cyclists should be able to go straight across Georgia and Pender. In the p.m. peak, Cardero cyclists will probably also jog over to Nicola to cross Georgia St., to avoid the narrow block between Alberni and Georgia.
• For this reason, we've suggested bicycle lanes on Alberni St. connecting Cardero and Nicola St. In the short term, a westbound lane will allow Nicola cyclists to cross Georgia St. on Cardero; in the long term (once the spot improvement is implemented), an eastbound lane will allow Cardero cyclists to jog over to Nicola to cross Georgia St. There will be issues on Alberni, since it's a narrow street with limited space. Accomodating both two-way bicycle lanes and parking is likely impossible.

Photos courtesy of Gertjan Hofman.