The city has formally cancelled the proposed bike lane installation on Cook Street in favor of maintaining the existing route on Vancouver Street. I am now filing the final paperwork with the planning department to ensure the current business access and parking configurations remain unchanged. We will continue to monitor …
April 12, 2016
Final supporters
KEEP BIKE ROUTE ON VANCOUVER STREET!
City Hall is planning to put in two bike lanes on Cook St., which will extend through North Park Village all the way through to Cook St. Village. This means that more than 50% of our parking stalls between Caledonia St. and Pandora St. will disappear, and we will lose the middle turning lanes. And for many reasons, Cook St. is simply more dangerous for cyclists than the established cycling route on Vancouver St.
Parking & Delivery Trucks:
- There is already far too little parking for you, our customer, to access our services. Therefore we cannot afford to lose over 50% of our Cook St. parking stalls!! Side streets are primarily residential parking only, therefore cannot be used by customers. Parking tickets are issued quickly there.
- Without parking, fewer people will come to this Village and will not stay as long.
- Fewer people obviously means businesses will be damaged - and without businesses, there is no Village. Village businesses are already suffering from poor economic conditions, increased costs, and the sad state of the Canadian dollar. There is an obvious solution - keep the bike lanes on quieter, safer Vancouver St., which is only one block over and has very few businesses in comparison. Everyone wins.
- Delivery trucks, which use the existing centre lane, will no longer be able to easily deliver their goods or pick up garbage and recycling.
Cyclist Safety & Traffic Congestion:
- Vancouver St. is already the designated bike route in the Official Community Plan (OCP, bylaw 12-013) and meets the Mayor’s wish for a minimum grid.
- Vancouver St. has 3 times the number of cyclists. Cyclists have already chosen Vancouver St. as their preferred route.
- Many vehicles turn onto and off of Cook St, making it much more dangerous as a cyclist thoroughfare than Vancouver St.
- Removing the turning lanes will block the street, frustrating everyone and making the Village less enjoyable.
- Without the turning lane, people will drive around the stopped vehicle in front of them. This will increase the risk of hitting a cyclist, who has a false sense of safety in their “bicycle lane”.
- North Park Village businesses have nothing against cyclists or bike lanes! But it should be noted that bicycles do not represent much of the traffic here.
The name Victoria City Hall has given this initiative, #biketoria, does not identify it to the public as a transportation, business and safety issue, and it needs to be treated as such.
Please sign below if you wish to keep the bike lanes on Vancouver St. to preserve what little parking there is on Cook St., as well as protect cyclist safety.
Thank You for your support from the North Park Village business community!
Updates
March 17, 2016
I have requested a formal meeting with the planning department to review the impact of the proposed parking removal on local business operations. We are drafting a letter addressed to the council members that outlines the specific logistical risks regarding delivery access and traffic flow on Cook Street. Expect a summary of their response as soon as we receive a written confirmation.
20 Comments
I roll in my powerchair and take the bike routes because riding the sidewalks isn't fun when you feel all the cracks and what not and the roadway is smoother with a lot less traffic then going down cook st. Also what about children that use the bike route so now your saying you'd rather your child riding a the bike lane on a major busy road??? There's a bad accident waiting to happen. Not much thought put into this.
Adding volume (cyclists) while reducing flow (removing center lane) is sure to create conflict between car to car traffic and car to cycle traffic.
As someone who drives a large work truck down Cook St very regularly, and parks in the area fairly often (already a difficult thing to do a lot of the time), a bike lane on Cook St would be a total nightmare. Please keep it on Vancouver, that would be much safer for everybody.
Cook Street is a nightmare for pedestrians and drivers as it is. Adding another variable makes no sense when there is a perfectly good route already in use on Vancouver Street.
As a cyclist who regularly commutes between Fernwood and Downtown, I feel much safer on Vancouver St in its present state, and will continue to use it no matter the outcome of this initiative. We don't need to move cycling traffic to a much busier and more dangerous street, especially when that change will also have a negative impact to businesses.
And don't f'up Vancouver Street either. The 'protected' cycle aren't protected where it counts, intersections. At best they will just make those intersections less convenient and slower at worst, that, plus more dangerous, forcing cyclists to pass right turning cars on the right, forcing cyclist to cross two or four lanes of traffic (rather than one), etc.
some research to consider; Studies find replacing on-street parking with a bike lane has little to no impact on local business, and in some cases might even increase business. http://www.citylab.com/cityfixer/2015/03/the-complete-business-case-for-converting-street-parking-into-bike-lanes/387595/
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The city has formally cancelled the proposed bike lane installation on Cook Street in favor of maintaining the existing route on Vancouver Street. I am now filing the final paperwork with the planning department to ensure the current business access and parking configurations remain unchanged. We will continue to monitor …
April 12, 2016
Final supporters
KEEP BIKE ROUTE ON VANCOUVER STREET!
City Hall is planning to put in two bike lanes on Cook St., which will extend through North Park Village all the way through to Cook St. Village. This means that more than 50% of our parking stalls between Caledonia St. and Pandora St. will disappear, and we will lose the middle turning lanes. And for many reasons, Cook St. is simply more dangerous for cyclists than the established cycling route on Vancouver St.
Parking & Delivery Trucks:
- There is already far too little parking for you, our customer, to access our services. Therefore we cannot afford to lose over 50% of our Cook St. parking stalls!! Side streets are primarily residential parking only, therefore cannot be used by customers. Parking tickets are issued quickly there.
- Without parking, fewer people will come to this Village and will not stay as long.
- Fewer people obviously means businesses will be damaged - and without businesses, there is no Village. Village businesses are already suffering from poor economic conditions, increased costs, and the sad state of the Canadian dollar. There is an obvious solution - keep the bike lanes on quieter, safer Vancouver St., which is only one block over and has very few businesses in comparison. Everyone wins.
- Delivery trucks, which use the existing centre lane, will no longer be able to easily deliver their goods or pick up garbage and recycling.
Cyclist Safety & Traffic Congestion:
- Vancouver St. is already the designated bike route in the Official Community Plan (OCP, bylaw 12-013) and meets the Mayor’s wish for a minimum grid.
- Vancouver St. has 3 times the number of cyclists. Cyclists have already chosen Vancouver St. as their preferred route.
- Many vehicles turn onto and off of Cook St, making it much more dangerous as a cyclist thoroughfare than Vancouver St.
- Removing the turning lanes will block the street, frustrating everyone and making the Village less enjoyable.
- Without the turning lane, people will drive around the stopped vehicle in front of them. This will increase the risk of hitting a cyclist, who has a false sense of safety in their “bicycle lane”.
- North Park Village businesses have nothing against cyclists or bike lanes! But it should be noted that bicycles do not represent much of the traffic here.
The name Victoria City Hall has given this initiative, #biketoria, does not identify it to the public as a transportation, business and safety issue, and it needs to be treated as such.
Please sign below if you wish to keep the bike lanes on Vancouver St. to preserve what little parking there is on Cook St., as well as protect cyclist safety.
Thank You for your support from the North Park Village business community!
Updates
March 17, 2016
I have requested a formal meeting with the planning department to review the impact of the proposed parking removal on local business operations. We are drafting a letter addressed to the council members that outlines the specific logistical risks regarding delivery access and traffic flow on Cook Street. Expect a summary of their response as soon as we receive a written confirmation.
20 Comments
Not every road in Victoria needs to be a designated bike route. Presently huge trucks use the centre lane for loading and unloading. It would be far more dangerous if they had to use curb side loading zones as they would have to cross over bike lanes. Trucks and bikes are not compatible. The recent fatality on Fisgard is proof of that!!
I roll in my powerchair and take the bike routes because riding the sidewalks isn't fun when you feel all the cracks and what not and the roadway is smoother with a lot less traffic then going down cook st. Also what about children that use the bike route so now your saying you'd rather your child riding a the bike lane on a major busy road??? There's a bad accident waiting to happen. Not much thought put into this.
Adding volume (cyclists) while reducing flow (removing center lane) is sure to create conflict between car to car traffic and car to cycle traffic.
As someone who drives a large work truck down Cook St very regularly, and parks in the area fairly often (already a difficult thing to do a lot of the time), a bike lane on Cook St would be a total nightmare. Please keep it on Vancouver, that would be much safer for everybody.
Cook Street is a nightmare for pedestrians and drivers as it is. Adding another variable makes no sense when there is a perfectly good route already in use on Vancouver Street.
As a cyclist who regularly commutes between Fernwood and Downtown, I feel much safer on Vancouver St in its present state, and will continue to use it no matter the outcome of this initiative. We don't need to move cycling traffic to a much busier and more dangerous street, especially when that change will also have a negative impact to businesses.
And don't f'up Vancouver Street either. The 'protected' cycle aren't protected where it counts, intersections. At best they will just make those intersections less convenient and slower at worst, that, plus more dangerous, forcing cyclists to pass right turning cars on the right, forcing cyclist to cross two or four lanes of traffic (rather than one), etc.
some research to consider; Studies find replacing on-street parking with a bike lane has little to no impact on local business, and in some cases might even increase business. http://www.citylab.com/cityfixer/2015/03/the-complete-business-case-for-converting-street-parking-into-bike-lanes/387595/
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Not every road in Victoria needs to be a designated bike route. Presently huge trucks use the centre lane for loading and unloading. It would be far more dangerous if they had to use curb side loading zones as they would have to cross over bike lanes. Trucks and bikes are not compatible. The recent fatality on Fisgard is proof of that!!