Vancouver park board votes to immediately remove temporary Stanley Park bike lane
Vancouver park board votes to immediately remove temporary Stanley Park bike lane
The Vancouver park board has voted to immediately remove the temporary bike lane on Stanley Park Drive that has been in place since early in the pandemic.
Removing the lane was a promise ABC Vancouver candidates made during the recent civic election and now that they have a majority on the board they have followed through on it at Monday night's Park Board meeting.
"We're taking everything into account and it's a hard decision. But I think it's time to move forward but then also come back with a better solution for the bike lane," said Angela Haer, the commissioner who brought the motion forward.
The motion to remove the lane passed 6 – 1 with all ABC commissioners in favour.
Cycling advocates say the separated bike lane on the roadway was a safer option than sharing a lane with traffic, or riding on the seawall which can get very crowded.
"It's just such a joy to be able to safely ride through the forest," said Lucy Maloney with Love the Lane, an advocacy group formed by people who wanted to see the lane made permanent.
"The bike lane is wide enough that you can ride side by side and chat to a friend and there's still plenty of room for faster cyclists to pass you."
The motion also directs staff to begin exploring how to create a permanent bike lane on Stanley Park Drive that is less disruptive to other park users.
Haer said it is ABC's intention to move forward with that plan in a way that maintains two lanes of traffic for motor vehicles.
"Our goal is to keep the two lanes of traffic -- just like pre-COVID -- just like we had previously, and bring in another bike lane," Haer said.
Given the confines of the roadway and the close proximity of hundreds of large trees along Stanley Park Drive, it is not clear if that ambitious goal will be possible.
Haer said it will up to Park Board staff to figure out if it can be done.
"The engineers that work with our Park Board and the City of Vancouver, they're brilliant," Haer said.
"And we trust them. They're going to come back with an even better solution than this."
Maloney said she would have preferred for the park board to maintain the existing lane and make changes to sections of it over time rather than remove it now and then replace it in the future.
"They could leave it in place and make incremental improvements," Maloney said. "Leave it in place so cyclists are safe and Vancouverites have a healthy low impact option for outdoor exercise."
Many business operators in the park blame the lane for a drop in customers, saying it creates additional congestion and the cones and signage around entrances and exits to parking lots has been confusing.
Gerry O'Neil, owner of Stanley Park Horse Drawn Tours, says the bike lane forces his carriages to share a single lane with cars.
In the years since it's been in place, he has seen numerous impatient drivers swerve dangerously into the bike lane to get around his carriages rather than wait for a safe opportunity to pass.
"I feel really good. I am cautiously optimistic. The devil is in the details," referring to the possibility a new permanent cycling lane could soon be on the drawing board.
Work to remove the barriers, cones and signage for the bike lane is set to begin immediately.
It's not clear when, or even if, a new permanent replacement will be built on Stanley Park Drive.
A senior government official says a Canadian military assessment team is on its way to Turkiye in the wake of a devastating earthquake that's killed thousands.
A man has been arrested and two children are dead after a driver crashed a city bus into a daycare in Laval, Que. Wednesday morning. The deadly crash sent multiple children to area hospitals and parents scrambling to find their kids shortly after they dropped them off for the day at the Garderie éducative Sainte-Rose, north of Montreal.
Many Canadians are experiencing strains caused by the increased cost of living and inflation. In his exclusive column for CTVNews.ca, contributor Christopher Liew shares some of the top credits and deductions that you may be able to claim on your income tax return to help you save money.
The officer who pulled Tyre Nichols from his car before police fatally beat him never explained why he was being stopped, newly released documents show, and emerging reports from Memphis residents suggest that was common.
In a first for the Bank of Canada, it has released a summary of deliberations by its governing council regarding its policy decision to raise its key interest rate target by a quarter of a percentage point to 4.5 per cent in January. Here are five key takeaways from those discussions.
Netflix Canada is rolling out its long-anticipated plans to crack down on password sharing, saying it will begin notifying Canadian users today by email about limitations.
The way respiratory viruses have circulated this fall and winter, most Canadians could probably benefit from a hand-hygiene refresher. Here are the latest hand-washing best practices to apply in your daily life.
Condolences are pouring in on Parliament Hill after a Laval, Que., city bus crashed into a daycare on Wednesday morning, with federal politicians of all stripes expressing their sympathies with the families affected and gratitude to the first responders.
Mounties on Vancouver Island say they were in "disbelief" when they saw a senior driving more than 100 km/h through a school zone in Qualicum Beach, B.C.
Charges have now been laid against a tug and barge company and one of its senior officials two years after a tug sank off British Columbia's coast south of Kitimat, killing the captain and one crew member.
The Calgary Police Service asked residents of a northwest neighbourhood to shelter in their homes as officers responded to a situation Wednesday morning involving a firearm.
Animal welfare advocates are urging pet owners to spay and neuter their pets after two kittens were found abandoned in a child's backpack in the St. Albert area last week.
An Ontario lawyer who filed a $229-million lawsuit against his former “sugar baby” for alleged fraud had his case dismissed after the court found he'd become "obsessed" with the young woman when she attempted to end their arrangement.
An Ontario grocery chain said they are seeing an “unprecedented” surge in customers after a recent TikTok revealing the company’s low food prices went viral.
A man has been arrested and two children are dead after a driver crashed a city bus into a daycare in Laval, Que. Wednesday morning. The deadly crash sent multiple children to area hospitals and parents scrambling to find their kids shortly after they dropped them off for the day at the Garderie éducative Sainte-Rose, north of Montreal.
Condolences are pouring in on Parliament Hill after a Laval, Que., city bus crashed into a daycare on Wednesday morning, with federal politicians of all stripes expressing their sympathies with the families affected and gratitude to the first responders.
Justin Trudeau has thrown in the towel in the fight to maintain the federal role as gatekeeper of a public, universal, accessible and fair health-care system in Canada, writes former NDP leader Tom Mulcair in an exclusive column for CTVNews.ca. 'That could have tragic consequences for folks on the lower rungs of the social and economic ladder.'
The federal government is putting up $500,000 for a feasibility study into a potential search for the remains of two Indigenous women at a Winnipeg-area landfill.
An annual $5 payment to members of seven First Nations has remained the same for more than 150 years, but one man is hoping to change that. Zongidaya Nelson is suing the federal government for 11 billion dollars on the behalf of his Roseau River Anishinabe First Nation, and the six other First Nations in Manitoba that signed Treaty 1 in 1871.
A Saskatoon couple is left feeling powerless to help their family and friends dig out of the rubble following the two major earthquakes in Turkiye on Monday.
Saskatoon's Ward 3 city councillor David Kirton decided to cancel his “Coffee with the Councillor” event scheduled for Saturday afternoon at Confederation Mall because of what he calls threatening phone calls and emails which became a “cause for concern”.
In a police interview that occurred shortly after the death of a three-month-old Regina baby, the boy's father, Catlin Goodwill, denied wrongdoing. Video of the interview was played during Goodwill's manslaughter trial, bringing many in the courtroom to tears.
Nova Scotia Health is under the microscope after eight employees were found snooping into medical records. The privacy breaches involve the electronic health records of people associated with the April 2020 mass shooting in Nova Scotia, among others.
Former London, Ont. high school teacher Dustin Epp, 48, was supposed to appear for his sentencing hearing Wednesday afternoon, but the matter has been delayed until next week due to health-related concerns and to give Epp more time to prepare his legal defence.
A 20-year-old driver from London, Ont. is temporarily without a licence after OPP stopped them for allegedly driving 145 km/h in a 60 km/h zone on Tuesday night.
A thief was siphoning fuel from trucks on York Street in London before a massive fire broke out in a storage yard. U-Haul told CTV News London an explosion occurred at 745 York St. around 1 a.m. Hours later, a photographer from the London Police Service Forensics Division was on scene taking photos of charred vehicles.
A grieving family in Noelville, Ont., is reeling after a judge dismissed a trial connected to a 2019 workplace fatality involving a close family member.
The wait is over for ticketholders in the latest Canadian Hard of Hearing Association's Ultimate Dream Home Draw as Pure Country Sudbury morning show hosts pulled the names of the prize winners Wednesday afternoon.
A memorial has been set up in the area where 30-year-old Karen Cunningham’s body was found, as police in Woodstock continue to investigate her death as “suspicious” in nature.
