10 Years of the Burrard Street Bridge Bike Lane

How a Vancouver non-profit stopped resisting cycling infrastructure and started supporting it

In July, the Burrard Street Bridge bike lane turned 10 years old. In 2009, a single lane opened for cyclist to take them out of downtown Vancouver toward the city’s south and west. (Today, there are two separated lanes for cyclists heading in each direction.) There was some dread before the opening. A bike lane that went up on the bridge for a week in 1996 angered motorists and, for some, become a symbol of the incompatibility of cycling and

motor-vehicle infrastructure.

Some labelled Charles Gauthier, president and ceo with the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association (dvbia), as a naysayer of the 2009 project. “Sometimes I speak on issues that I’m neutral about, personally,” he says. “But I’m here to represent the organization.” The dvbia was concerned that fewer people would head downtown because the bike lane would add time and increase congestion. “We never had anything that said downtown has to be only accessible by the car. But it was kind of implied we’d be staunch defenders of motorists. Then a change came mid-2011,” he says.

In the fall of 2010, the city agreed to do a study. When the results came out the following year, they showed that business were not affected by the bike lane in a significant way. Interventions by the city could address any remaining negative impacts so that they wouldn’t be long-term. Even though Gauthier had been hearing from some of the businesses he represents that customers found it too hard to drive in, the data showed something else. More people actually walked, took transit or biked to the downtown establishments. Gauthier doesn’t believe the businesses necessarily had it in for the bike lane; they simply didn’t understand their customers or only heard from motorists with complaints. “So with that, we thought, why should we be leading this fight when the bike lane isn’t having an irreversible, detrimental impact to street-level businesses?” he says.

Since the opening of the Burrard Street Bridge bike lane, there have been other changes that have led to more acceptance of cycling infrastructure. Gauthier notes that the city now does a better job of consulting with businesses and the community. A younger demographic is not only working and playing downtown, but even the dvbia’s board has gotten a bit younger. Businesses are hearing a demand for end-of-trip cycling facilities. “Also, I think we’ve become more factbased than being reactive. It’s the evolution for an organization,” he says.

So, has Gauthier also become an accidental bike-lane advocate? “I’m going to answer that in the plural,” he says with a laugh. “We’re now definitely in support of ensuring that downtown is accessible by all modes of transportation. Any time there is talk of adding bike infrastructure downtown, we want to make sure the city is doing the appropriate consultations. We’ll want to hear from our businesses. We’re not going to fight it. We’re certainly going to try to find the best possible solution for everyone. I’d say we’re much more on the pro side than the con side, in a big way.”

“We thought, why should we be leading this fight when the bike lane isn’t having an irreversible, detrimental impact to street-level businesses?”