The Cyclist's Guideto Vancouver's Downtown Transportation Plan |
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The Cyclist's Guideto Vancouver's Downtown Transportation Plan |
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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.
An eastbound bike lane could begin at Georgia Street and travel along Pender to the existing bike lanes on Pender between Cambie and Carrall. A connection could then be made via Carrall, Keefer and Columbia to connect to the Adanac Bikeway on Union Street. The implications of this bike lane include the removal of parking on the south side of Pender between Nicola and Jervis, the creation of a permanent parking lane on the south side of Pender between Jervis and Thurlow, the creation of a permanent parking/loading lane on the north side of Pender between Howe and Cambie, the relocation of westbound buses from the proposed one-way section of Pender, and the removal of some parking on Carrall, Keefer and Columbia.
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]
47. Create an eastbound bike lane on Pender Street and provide loading zones
The Issue: The current design of Pender Street between Cambie and Hornby is confusing for both vehicle drivers and bike riders. In addition, Hotels on the north side of Pender could use on-street loading zones. Pender is also an important bus route and Translink would like to improve bus operations.
The Approach: A public process needs to be undertaken to look at both the preferred one-way and two-way options for Pender Street.
[DTP p. 158]
Pender has medium traffic volume, 10 000 to 20 000 vehicles per day [DTP p. 44]. It has no special designation within the road network.
Pender Street (between Cambie and Howe) is to be considered for conversion from a two-way street to a one-way street. This section of street currently accommodates four narrow lanes of traffic where transit buses, delivery trucks, general traffic, taxis and cyclists all compete for road space. There is a desire to provide bike lanes as part of the downtown bicycle network and parking/loading spaces on the north side of the street. However, this does not appear to be achievable with a two-way street given the existing right-of-way. Because the conversion of this street from a two-way to one-way street will impact other streets and may have significant implications on traffic and transit operations, further detailed analysis with a micro-simulation model is recommended.
[DTP p. 53]
Interestingly, there was strong support for this in a survey conducted by the city. 50.3% agree or strongly agree, and only 29% disagree or strongly disagree.
[DTP second survey, May 2001]
A later survey with a larger sample size was performed by Ipsos-Reid, and found 48% support for a one-way conversion among businesses and 61% support among residents. This margin is narrower than earlier, but is still a majority, on balance [DTP Ipsos-Reid survey, Feb. 2002, p. 4].
| Intersection | Date recorded | Time | Direction | Left-turning vehicles | Through vehicles | Right-turning vehicles | Cyclists |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nicola | 2001.02.28 | am | eastbound | 11 | 999 | 0 | 6 |
| westbound | 2 | 313 | 22 | 2 | |||
| pm | eastbound | 8 | 265 | 3 | 7 | ||
| westbound | 5 | 834 | 12 | 18 | |||
| Jervis | 2001.08.20 | am | eastbound | 25 | 808 | 6 | 23 |
| westbound | 0 | 170 | 17 | 9 | |||
| pm | eastbound | 6 | 295 | 11 | 7 | ||
| westbound | 0 | 440 | 24 | 29 | |||
| Bute | 2003.07.11 | am | eastbound | 66 | 695 | 49 | 22 |
| westbound | 39 | 176 | 55 | 15 | |||
| pm | eastbound | 23 | 348 | 59 | 8 | ||
| westbound | 55 | 480 | 69 | 32 | |||
| Thurlow | 2003.07.15 | am | eastbound | 47 | 766 | 183 | 26 |
| westbound | 103 | 240 | 90 | 29 | |||
| pm | eastbound | 17 | 653 | 126 | 14 | ||
| westbound | 100 | 518 | 36 | 31 | |||
| Burrard | 2000.05.08 | am | eastbound | 202 | 309 | 90 | 12 |
| westbound | 79 | 400 | 40 | 15 | |||
| pm | eastbound | 148 | 449 | 106 | 9 | ||
| westbound | 105 | 290 | 19 | 26 | |||
| Hornby | 2000.06.19 | am | eastbound | 4 | 599 | 0 | 20 |
| westbound | 0 | 417 | 62 | 18 | |||
| pm | eastbound | 1 | 693 | 0 | 37 | ||
| westbound | 0 | 299 | 40 | 16 | |||
| Howe | 2004.08.09 | am | eastbound | 0 | 403 | 293 | 29 |
| westbound | 91 | 250 | 0 | 17 | |||
| pm | eastbound | 0 | 506 | 390 | 17 | ||
| westbound | 111 | 285 | 0 | 6 | |||
| Granville | 2003.07.10 | am | eastbound | 0 | 409 | 6 | 29 |
| westbound | 33 | 554 | 0 | 60 | |||
| pm | eastbound | 1 | 695 | 3 | 71 | ||
| westbound | 29 | 364 | 1 | 31 | |||
| Seymour | 2002.06.18 | am | eastbound | 4 | 501 | 0 | 13 |
| westbound | 0 | 427 | 152 | 51 | |||
| pm | eastbound | 10 | 782 | 0 | 64 | ||
| westbound | 0 | 343 | 71 | 34 | |||
| Richards | 2002.10.08 | am | eastbound | 0 | 332 | 362 | 4 |
| westbound | 10 | 653 | 0 | 44 | |||
| pm | eastbound | 0 | 623 | 416 | 28 | ||
| westbound | 2 | 437 | 0 | 12 | |||
| Homer | 2003.11.07 | am | eastbound | 22 | 320 | 0 | 6 |
| westbound | 0 | 403 | 59 | 37 | |||
| pm | eastbound | 24 | 587 | 0 | 38 | ||
| westbound | 0 | 326 | 80 | 11 | |||
| Hamilton | 2003.09.29 | am | eastbound | 0 | 370 | 79 | 14 |
| westbound | 1 | 358 | 0 | 85 | |||
| pm | eastbound | 0 | 651 | 78 | 53 | ||
| westbound | 1 | 296 | 1 | 26 | |||
| Cambie | 2003.07.28 | am | eastbound | 0 | 241 | 132 | 14 |
| westbound | 287 | 368 | 0 | 76 | |||
| pm | eastbound | 0 | 556 | 163 | 86 | ||
| westbound | 267 | 314 | 0 | 18 | |||
| Beatty | 2002.12.12 | am | eastbound | 0 | 255 | 0 | 4 |
| westbound | 0 | 671 | 0 | 33 | |||
| pm | eastbound | 0 | 580 | 0 | 37 | ||
| westbound | 0 | 428 | 0 | 2 | |||
| Abbott | 2003.07.29 | am | eastbound | 182 | 211 | 89 | 13 |
| westbound | 27 | 385 | 21 | 48 | |||
| pm | eastbound | 250 | 378 | 131 | 130 | ||
| westbound | 43 | 230 | 42 | 14 | |||
| Carrall | 2003.08.01 | am | eastbound | 0 | 219 | 31 | 8 |
| westbound | 6 | 233 | 0 | 27 | |||
| pm | eastbound | 0 | 460 | 123 | 30 | ||
| westbound | 39 | 179 | 0 | 8 |
The west end bus loop currently runs along Pender. It is proposed to change direction, from westbound to eastbound [DTP p. 162].
Pender is designated as an arterial street in the pedestrian network.
This street provides important links into the eastern part of downtown. Investments in the pedestrian realm will help to integrate this neighbourhood with surrounding areas. Planning initiatives with community input are proposed. Pender Street has been identified as part of the Downtown Historic Trail that will lead through several historic areas including Gastown and Chinatown. The possibility of converting a section of Pender Street to a one-way street will be studied.
[DTP p. 90]
Pender is currently a truck route from Georgia to Burrard, and from Beatty to Carrall, but both of these are slated for removal [DTP p. 105]. Pender lies within the downtown trucking area. Tour buses and airporter buses both use Pender [DTP pp. 110-111].
Parking is slated for removal on the south side of Pender from Georgia to Jervis. Rush hour parking will be added on the south side from Jervis to Thurlow. Parking will be added on the north side from Burrard to Cambie [DTP p. 125].
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]
This intersection will be much, much more usable once this spot improvement is implemented.
43. Prohibit southbound access onto Jervis Street from Pender Street
The Issue: The intersection at Jervis and Melville is confusing for drivers and difficult for pedestrians to negotiate. The Triangle West area is also a densely populated residential area and has limited park and open space.
The Approach: An expanded a parkette at the intersection could be created as well as provide for better pedestrian connections and vehicular movements. A bike lane can also be designed through the intersection to connect the westbound bike lane on Melville to the westbound bike lane on Pender Street.
[DTP p. 157]
This spot improvement has already happened, in a de facto manner. Construction on the tower at the corner of Pender and Jervis means that the corridor connecting Pender and Jervis is closed due to construction debris. Once construction here is completed, the corridor will probably paved off as shown in the spot improvement. This improvement doesn't have much impact on cyclists, except for removing conflicts with drivers crossing the eastbound bike lane on Pender. The bike box shown at Melville and Pender should prove useful for left-turning cyclists.
The present state of the Pender bike lane is quite poor. As it stands, the lane shifts location during rush hour, when parking is stripped. In the eastern sections, there is no dedicated bike lane at all, just a rarely-enforced bus/bike lane. Technically, it is part of the city bike network, but the only sections that can really be considered useful to cyclists are the parts east of Cambie.
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.)
At Bicycle Network Subcommittee meetings in October and November 2005, staff presented some diagrams for the redesign of Pender St. The most contentious issue remains the section between Burrard and Cambie St. This section has been the subject of a lengthy consultation process involving local business owners, TransLink and bicycle groups. The consultants did traffic studies for a number of options. The options have now been narrowed to two choices: the status quo (a bus lane eastbound with bikes allowed, but no bike lane), or an option where a bike lane is provided eastbound. If a bike lane is provided, it will require a ban on westbound car movement on Pender, leaving only a westbound bus lane (with bikes allowed). While this is hard for local businesses to accept, we believe it is essential. This is the only eastbound bike route planned for the downtown, and it needs to be a genuine bicycle lane to work well. A draft of the Consultants' Report is available here.
In the rest of the route, the biggest issue 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.
Staff are also worried about maintaining eastbound traffic volumes once a bike lane is established, and are proposing left-turn lanes to help ease the flow. We're more worried about right-turning traffic, especially at the two high-volume intersections: Howe and Richards. At both of those streets, the rightmost lane handles 300+ right-turning vehicles in the peak hour, about 1 car every 10 seconds. At Howe, the rightmost vehicle lane is designated as a right-turn only lane; at Richards, it's a "right-turn/through" lane. In both cases, the motorists will be crossing the cyclists' path, and 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 Pender)
Our final major concern is making it possible for cyclists to make left turns. While Pender St. is not as difficult as Dunsmuir, there can be substantial traffic on the route. A left-turn facility from Richards and Burrard would be valuable, and possibly even from Pender onto Hornby. (Given the ugliness of the Hornby/Hastings intersection, and the out-of-the-way route, it's unlikely that many cyclists would use this facility; most would probably turn left at Burrard instead. We are proposing a design similar to what was proposed at the intersection of the Hornby and Haro/Nicola routes (see diagram at right).
