City of Vancouver improves safety on Union-Adanac bike route

If you've been participating in bike to work week in Vancouver, you may have noticed a few changes along the Union-Adanac bike route.

The City of Vancouver has nearly completed a $1.4 million project to make the route safer for cyclists and pedestrians from Gore Street East to Nanaimo Street.

The bike route is a key artery into downtown Vancouver from Boundary Road and Burnaby's Francis-Union bikeway.

According to Paul Storer, manager of transportation design for the city, approximately 5,000 cyclists use the route daily and the investment was made to "make it comfortable for all ages and abilities."

Storer met up with Stephen Quinn, the host of CBC 's The Early Edition, along the route and explained some of the changes.

He said one of the key issues for the city was to make the route safer for pedestrians to cross. pointing out users will notice the sidewalk has been widened at some curbs to make the crossing distance shorter.

'Curb bulges' and better lighting

Storer told Quinn the "curb bulges" also give more space for pedestrians to wait safely and makes them more visible to drivers and cyclists.

"They give a little bit of comfort for everyone using the intersection, hopefully about where everyone is supposed to be and what they are likely to be doing," he said.

The route has also benefited from significant lighting improvements for late night and early morning riders.

Storer has worked on bike route designs and improvements for the city for 14 years and said there is much less pushback from motorists now about investing in bike lanes then there was when he first started on the job.

"You're never going to make everyone happy," said Storer, but he thinks the increase of riders in the city in the last decade or so has started to change that mindset.

"I think people are more starting to understand what a multi-mobile city looks like and that all of these things can co-exist."