Transportation Choices

Bike route signs: A gallery

2011-05-22T00:16:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered where you are on a bike route? Or how far it is to a major destination?

Point your city's planners and engineers responsible for cycling infrastructure to this page. Below are a handful of examples of bicycle signage that might helpful and in some situations not helpful. However, this post will be constantly updated with different signs out there serving cyclists.

Seattle, Washington

This is a great example of on-street sign giving the rider the bike route name and the distance to two different neighbourhoods plus the direction they are in. It serves the cyclist well.

Bellingham, Washington

A simple post that is found at every street crossing of the Railroad Trail Greenway. It gives distance to parks along the route and close by if off the route. Also let's you know the name of the street you are crossing. In this case it is Illnois Street.

Portland, Oregon

Portland's signage is interesting as it points you in the direction of different cities and high schools and it gives you the distance. But where it stands out is the time suggests it takes bike at a reasonable pace. This helpful for people who think it is too far bike everywhere.

Where to now?

2011-05-21T23:38:00.000-07:00

Throughout many years of cycling I have often wondered if the engineers and planner truly treat bicycling as a form of transportation or merely just pay it lip service. Most often I assume it is the latter.

While many municipalities and highway authorities will gladly install bike lanes, bikeways, and bike boulevards they often ignore two critical arenas of bicycle infrastructure – bicycle parking and signage for cyclists.

Let’s pause for a moment and think it in terms of cars. You head out to go to the local WalMart or some other store. And even though you have a map there are only a few street signs to get your there. You glance at the map filled with street names, but you glance up at the corner and you do not see a single street sign anywhere. Instead you start counting the number of streets you cross before you make a left at the big street with no name. Then you pull over and count the next number of streets on the map and do the same. Finally after five or six times pulling over you arrive at your destination.

Vancouver gives the location of toilets and drinking fountains.

The planners and engineers would not stand for this. The store owners would be demanding better parking to people to shop at their stores. And while this scenario seems farfetched in reality this is what cyclists face almost every day.

Some places like Vancouver are excellent. If a bike route goes along a street they often put the bike routes name on the street name blade. By the way, that is the official engineering term for street sign. But even Vancouver fails at letting you know how far you are away from a major destination. For destination signage I look to Portland, Seattle, and London for great examples. However, these places do not tell you what bike route you are on other than to through up signage just saying “Bike Route”. So, really no place is perfect.

And when it comes to multiuse trails most place do not even tell you what is the name of the street you are about to cross. However, Bellingham, Washington does a great job of this. At every street crossing on that city’s incredible rails-to-trails network there is a sign simply saying you are crossing XYZ Street. Even small residential streets get this treatment.

And this what cyclists want. To have the exact same level of service as motorists get. But cyclists want this on bike routes and bike paths.

Bellingham's detailed trail signs.

Frequently city staff will say, “Go get a bicycle map”. But this is a shortcoming as those maps can be out of print. Or are only available through civic facilities like libraries which are not always open. But you’d think that the engineers and planners who keep saying we have to bike more often to more places would really see cyclists needs are the same as motorists needs when it comes to signage. I guess they know where they are going, but I don’t know when I come to visit your city.

A sign – a simple sign – says so much. There’s just so few of them out there that really help cyclists.

Gloucester Industrial Estates: A proposed bus route network

2011-03-10T15:06:00.000-08:00

Every working day some 3,000 employees access this isolated industrial park on the Abbotsford-Langley boundary. But because the Gloucester Industrial Estates is on the boundary between TransLink and Central Fraser Valley Transit catchment areas it is hard to service the workers with any efficient transit route. Or so it would seem.

Recently business leaders from Gloucester Industrial Estates led by EV Logistics met with TransLink planners to discuss the issue of how to get employees to the work site.

“We are one of the larger employers in the park, and we want local people to get to this work environment. But a lot of them are first-time employees and they don’t have rides. We would be employing more people from Langley if we had transit.”

EV Logistics’s Dave Martin

TransLink’s Ken Hardie commented that the Gloucester Industrial Estates are spread across the Lower Mainland and the Fraser Valley, but wondered how to serve this business district being responsible in part for the economic viability throughout the region.

Let’s get beyond the suggested mini-bus linking only Aldergrove to Gloucester Industrial Estates and start thinking about a regional approach. And it’s not that hard.

To begin with Gloucester Industrial Estates is at a natural crossroads of two proposed transit routes. Being at the junction of the Trans-Canada Highway and 264^th Street it is a logical point to provide not just service between Gloucester Industrial Estates and Aldergrove, but also to Langley City, Abbotsford, and Willow Grove. Even Surrey Central SkyTrain station can be access with efficient direct bus routes all centring on this interchange. In fact these transit routes might even generate enough traffic to warrant building a park-and-ride facility at the interchange.

The first route would connect Langley City to Abbotsford via Gloucester Industrial Estates. The second route would link Aldergrove to Walnut Grove Exchange and Surrey Central SkyTrain. Meeting at the Trans-Canada Highway and 264^th Street interchange they could provide a necessary connection linking two regions.

A closer look at the Langley City to Abbotsford route helps understand that a viable solution to the Fraser Valley’s public transportation infrastructure is closer at hand then many people realize. But it requires that TransLink and Central Fraser Valley Transit work closely to provide one bus route. This does not mean that Central Fraser Valley Transit is absorbed by TransLink. Rather the two organizations can partner to operate one route.

This concept is happening just across the US border where Whatcom Transportation Authority and Skagit Transit operate the 80X route linking Bellingham and Mt Vernon along the Interstate 5 corridor. And Skagit Transit goes further by working with Island Transit, Community Transit, and Everett Transit to provide interconnecting regional transit services. The Everett Express then links riders to Downtown Seattle.

And the Langley City to Abbotsford route would be able to link important and growing Fraser Valley communities where people live in one and work in the other. It would be the start of a regional network of bus routes. Essentially a modern day equivalent of Pacific Coach Lines that served from Downtown Vancouver to Harrison Hot Springs and Hope during the 1970s and 1980s. And there is little doubt that the Fraser Valley doesn’t need a regional approach to transit.

Meanwhile the Aldergrove to Walnut Grove/Surrey Central SkyTrain route can help provide a faster way of linking up the far eastern section of TransLink’s service area to the rapid transit line running to Downtown Vancouver. Right now to travel on the 502 Surrey Central SkyTrain/Aldergrove route takes about 70 minutes. This is more time than it takes drive the Trans-Canada Highway from 264^th Street to Downtown Vancouver outside the rush periods.

In addition, Walnut Grove Exchange offers workers at Gloucester Industrial Estates a one bus transfer to Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows.

By implementing these two transit routes suddenly Gloucester Industrial Estates is not some isolated business park in the Fraser Valley. Instead it is at the centre of the region. And with 3,000 and growing employees it deserves to be a part of an interregional approach to transit routes.

It’s time for the politicians and transit planners to begin to actively think on a regional basis for transit. And the Gloucester Industrial Estates just might provide enough of a focus to make something that at first glance not promising to something might be just one piece to solving a whole region’s transit problems.

Let’s bring both TransLink and Central Fraser Valley Transit into the discussion. And while Aldergrove is important to this discussion, so are the Abbotsford, Langley City, and Willow Grove communities.

Transit and land use: North America’s fatal flaw

2011-03-10T12:57:00.000-08:00

Years ago the Township of Langley approved an expansive industrial development just off the Trans-Canada Highway at 264^th Street. From the point of view of shipping logistics the Gloucester Industrial Estates make sense. It is right by the main highway into Vancouver and the same route links deep into the Interior of British Columbia. It is a mere 20 minute drive to one of the lesser used commercial truck crossings into the United States. And there is even rail access on one flank of the industrial park. These are all great factors from a business perspective. Just one thing is missing. How do the 3,000 employees get there every day?

Taken out of lower quality agricultural land, the Gloucester Industrial Estates are far removed from most medium or even low density urban areas. The closest is Aldergrove at five kilometres away. But far flung is Langley City and Abbotsford. All of these urban areas provide the work force that creates the wealth that comes the estates.

These communities are scattered across the Fraser Valley and are not connected to Gloucester Industrial Estates with transit. Instead all the workers must drive or bike into the area. The situation is so prominent that businesses in Gloucester Industrial Estates frequently advertise for employees with ads that clearly state: “No Public Transport Available”.

What further complicates Gloucester Industrial Estates is that is on the edge of TransLink’s catchment area and is just beyond Abbotsford’s Central Fraser Valley Transit area. So working alone both of these transit agencies are hard pressed to provide any effective transit that can serve the employees.

If it sounds like Gloucester Industrial Estates is minor issue. It’s not and it certainly will not be in future. The Township of Langley helps promote the industrial park and clearly states that only 395 acres have been developed of the total 700 that are allowed. In other words, Gloucester Industrial Estates is only at 56% of its approved capacity.

One developer of a part of Gloucester Industrial Estates promotes it as “a master planned industrial community”. While it may have been well planned to serve the needs of businesses are have located there, what was missing in the development of this business park and others across the Lower Mainland and the Fraser Valley where does public transport fit into the master plan?

A goal for all municipalities when approving medium and large scale projects is have a formal transportation plan that looks beyond the safe and expedient movement of goods, but also how does the work force get to work by using transit, cycling, and walking. And these elected councils should encourage developers to include non-automotive transportation facilities into their “master planned” communities.

And Gloucester Industrial Estates and the Township of Langley are not alone in this. Abbotsford continues to approve medium and high density developments without a second thought to reducing the impact of getting around by car. Currently the Tretheway family is developing Vicarro Ranch Estates between McKee Peak and Eagle Mountain. Here only 37% of the land is going to be developed for housing while the rest is to be set aside in a natural state. A great goal. But, again, where is the transportation plan that takes into account transit, cycling, and walking for the people who live there to get to work, school, and shopping? Can we really tout labels of “master planned” and “ecological planning principles used” if we don’t include sustainable transport principles as well?

What happens far too often in the North American planning process is that sustainable transport that connects proposed residential, shopping, and industrial complexes are not even thought of beforehand. The councils then approve the project, the contractors come and build it, and people start trying to get to the development. A year passes after completion before the first person puts up their hand and says, “Where does the bus stop?” Or can you hear, “Where are the bike lanes so I get there without a car?”

It is essential that in planning any community, shopping mall, or business park that the developers must come up with a comprehensive plan as how sustainable transport will be included in the project and how it will link people to destinations five and ten kilometres away.

Of course the project developers will argue that this will increase the project’s costs. Well, yes and no.

First, any cost taken by a developer will be passed on to the person purchasing the developed property in two or three years’ time. Any developer who says he’ll absorb the cost is a crafty salesperson, because in the end every business passes the costs on to the consumer. Otherwise every developer would be declaring bankruptcy at the end of each project.

Second, it would be a fool who doesn’t expect the cost of oil to reach $150, $200, or more per barrel in the next few years. This will mean that price of gas per litre will rise. Presently economists are expecting prices at the pump to be at $1.50 per litre in Summer 2011. How much driving will anyone do when fuel reaches $2.50 per litre?

Third, if we assume the Gloucester Industrial Estates had to produce a comprehensive transportation report for, let’s say, $250,000, this only works out to $357 per acre. And if the sustainable transportation issues were acknowledge and developed from the beginning it would save tens of thousands of dollars for the businesses of Gloucester Industrial Estates in screening out potential employees who don’t have cars. It is conceivable that most businesses would rather pay a small price up front than spend thousands later weeding out these 'unsuitable' employees.

And comprehensive sustainable transportation plans would help cities and transit agencies plan bus routes, bike lanes, and sidewalks into the development when it is less expensive to do so. Letting all these projects be built and then coming back to the drawing board later on is a waste of taxpayers and the developer’s money. Sustainable transportation planning should be one of the first aspects in any developer’s plans. Not some afterthought.

The Battle of the Bike Lanes

2011-02-15T19:00:00.000-08:00

Cycle tracks will abound in Utopia.
-- H.G. Wells

The streets of Vancouver – or at least the pages of The Vancouver Sun – have erupted this past week with the Battle of Dunsmuir and Hornby Streets.

Over the past few years the Vancouver City Council embarked on an ambitious project by taking one lane of Dunsmuir Street and turning it into a two-way segregated bike lane. While this is still a trial project, last year the city council took a lane from Hornby Street and did the same treatment.

Many people expected the negative feedback to come from people who don’t bike. However, last week “avid cyclist” Rob MacDonald wrote an extensive op ed piece as to why he felt segregated bike lanes do not help cyclists and how they can impact small businesses.

A few days later Councillor Geoff Meggs, who supports bicycling facilities, wrote an op ed article appearing in the same journal as to why MacDonald – at least in Megg's opinion – was wrong on almost every account. This was followed by the Valentine’s Day edition of The Vancouver Sun running three-quarters of a page of letters from both supporters and detractors of the bike lanes.

One of those letters came from another avid cyclist, J.M. Jeffrey, who wrote:

If Mr. Meggs wants to increase cycling ridership by dealing with the No. 1 reason people chose not to cycle -they don't feel safe -then he should support spending money to teach people how to ride safely.

This last point is truly the crux of the issue. Cyclists and motorists both need education of how road space is to be shared.

So put aside the discussion about the safety of the segregated bike lanes for a moment and focus on what exactly cyclists are. Part of traffic that uses the roads every day.

What is needed is an education program to teach all road users of their responsibilities and how they must respect each other.

Most people know that to get a driver’s licence in Canada requires taking a series of government exams, both written and practical. But few people know there is a national cycling in traffic education program called CAN-BIKE.

It’s sad that the cycling education program is not treated seriously by most levels of government and is often given lip service. Further, even though there is a national cycling education program, it is offered sporadically at best outside a handful of large centres like Vancouver and Toronto.

Yet British Columbia provides one of the best ways of advancing cycling education programs along.

A few years back the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, which is the only auto insurer in the province and issues driver’s licenses, began a two year graduated licencing program. The concept behind this program is that through two years of stringent requirements to get a license it would make most people better drivers.

The ICBC program still neglects creating full awareness of vulnerable road users – pedestrians and cyclists. Other than a few pages in the driving manual and perhaps getting a question on the driver’s test, there really isn’t any true demands of the learning driver to understand the importance of their responsibilities to these road users.

So let’s toss in an incentive. If a learning driver takes a CAN-BIKE II course and passes then reduce the two year period to obtain a driver’s license by three or six months. It is easy to imagine that most teenagers would take the CAN-BIKE course if only to reduce the waiting time to get a driver’s licence.

No, it wouldn’t be perfect. But really life isn’t perfect. It would create more awareness and understanding of vulnerable road users by new drivers.

While segregated bike lanes have advantages it is doubtful that we will achieve full segregation. Even the much lauded nation – Holland – when it comes this type of facility hasn’t achieved this. There are many points where cyclists and motorists must coexist. One place is central Amsterdam. And the Netherlands still has crashes involving cyclists and motorists.

It would be nice to live in utopia, but nowhere is. Instead we need to create a better understanding between cyclists and motorists. And education is one of the best vehicles to achieve this.

Bicycle Parking: The Missing Spoke

2011-02-09T11:43:00.000-08:00

A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
-- Margaret Mead

When planners, engineers, and city councillors think about creating better cycling conditions concepts like bike lanes, bikeways, and paths with scenic views come to mind. Inevitably they forget about when the cyclist arrives at a destination that there needs to be bike racks.

Yet, at the same time when a shopping mall is being approved they ensure that there is more than adequate parking for cars. A quick look at Google Maps satellite view over suburban North America reveals that the footprint for parking lots is often two or three times greater than the footprint of the stores they serve.

Meanwhile, cyclists frequently get short shrift with no parking facilities what so ever.

For Abbotsford there is an excellent example of this. On the east side just by the Mission By-pass is Clayburn Centre. It is your typical suburban style shopping mall where the stores roughly half circle the parking lot. And with such major anchor stores such as IGA Marketplace, Rexall Drugs, and Prospera Credit Union as well as a host of local stores and offices, it features over 71,000 square feet of retail.

And it features over 300 parking stalls for cars and not a single bicycle rack.

It makes a cyclist wonder who is at fault. Essentially everyone is. The city council, the mall management, the stores, and the cyclist.

Most city councils around the world will discuss cycling infrastructure and most install bike racks for the public to use at city halls, recreation centres, libraries, and other civic facilities. But few will sit down and create policy establishing mandatory bicycle parking requirements at shopping centres. Without this incentive many shopping malls do not have bike racks. Or, if they do have them, they will be placed in out of the way locations.

As to the mall management for them it is very simple. The emphasis is on the mantra, “Let’s maximize profits.” No issue with that at all. However, what happens is that it’s viewed that people arriving by car will purchase more than the person who rides a bike. Often this is true. But many cyclists I know have driver’s licences, own a car or two, and even drive to work. Yet, this cyclist still might want to go for a bike ride and on the way home pick up a litre or two of milk. But they are discouraged with the lack of bike racks at the mall.

Turning the retailers I have to agree that many small businesses do not have the time or money to think about installing bike racks, however being in a shopping mall like Clayburn Centre this is why they pay rent to a mall management to make sure that all their potential customers needs are being meant including having bike racks installed.

As to the bigger mall tenants, in this case IGA Marketplace, Rexall Drugs, and Prospera Credit Union, bike parking often get ignored. And, yet, it is ironic that these types of businesses have environmental policy statements saying how they are working with customers to reduce the impact on the earth’s resources. But do they think outside the box-shaped store and see if transportation choices like cycling are covered? IGA Marketplace discusses environmental practices on their website, for example offering an Eco Shopping Bag for 99¢ with the slogan “Take it easy on the earth”. But what about bicycle parking?

And the cyclist? Yep, they can be at fault, too. Most often cyclists do not approach the store manager and say, “Hey, I like shopping here, but you don’t have a bike rack outside the door.” Many managers will respond to this as the requests keep coming. And, yes, I’m one those cyclists who often just leans my bike against the wall, locks the wheels to the frame but nothing else, and walks away quietly grumbling in my head, “Why isn’t there a bike rack here?” But no more.

I urge all cyclists in Abbotsford and elsewhere to keep on saying to store owners and mall management, “Are you going to install a bike rack or two?” With frequent enquiring like this we can make a change, however ever small, for better bicycle parking.

It’s one rack at time, but each one is important to making Abbotsford a bicycle friendly city.