Ignoring the political rhetoric that has attached itself to Vancouver's bike lanes as firmly as Lycra on a road cyclist, the fact is we have a very decent cycling infrastructure in this city.
Perhaps not quite on a par with renowned cycling meccas such as Portland or Amsterdam, but certainly in a different league than the life-or-death traffic duel that passes for bike commuting in London. We now have more than 25 dedicated bike routes and more than 300 kilometres of on- and off-street bike routes. That's not bad going at all.
Among those 300 km, I'm sure all of us who ride regularly have our favourites. I have a soft spot for Midtown/Ridgeway, with its quiet neighbourhoods and glorious views of the North Shore mountains from Queen Elizabeth Park and Mountainview Cemetery.
I also love the Portside route with its peek-a-boo flashes of water and the Second Narrows Crossing looming ahead. It seems a world away from the roar of vehicles and bustle of pedestrians on East Hastings, even thought it's just a few blocks north.
But, for me, the commuting moment I love most is when I crest the Burrard Bridge in the morning and see the early sunlight reflect off downtown towers, frame the Granville Bridge and illuminate the taxi ferries chugging back and forth across False Creek.
Conversely, there are stretches along certain bike routes that we all dread. As a downtown commuter, I loathe the couple of blocks between Richards and Burrard streets on Pacific Boulevard. In spite of the number of bike routes that converge here, there's no marked bike lane. With traffic turning onto Seymour and filtering in from Howe, cyclists who want to continue straight ahead have to take a leap of faith across a lane in which heavy rush hour traffic is cutting right and merging left, and then try and make room for themselves as cars squeeze frighteningly close on the final block between Hornby and the bridge.
Of all the cycling I do in Vancouver, this is the spot where I feel most in danger from traffic. There's simply too much going on, and cyclists are forced into lanes where drivers don't expect them to be.
Another stretch that I really don't enjoy riding is 49th Avenue. This is a designated cycle route, but you'd never know it from the behaviour of traffic. Cars constantly cut off cyclists, and passing parked vehicles on the right is like running a gauntlet of abruptly opening doors as people pop into the road without warning.
Drivers in 麻豆传媒映画aren't always especially nice to cyclists (and vice versa), but this is the stretch of road where they seem most oblivious to the presence of two-wheel commuters.
Of course, this is just my personal opinion. I'm sure other cyclists have stretches of road they avoid and others they detour toward. What do you think? What are your most and least liked bike routes in the city? What route do you think could benefit from improvements? Drop me a line at [email protected] and let me know.
Kay Cahill is a cyclist, librarian and outdoor enthusiast who believes that bikes are for life, not just for commuting.
