Qari The Burrard Street Bridge is having a lane closed off on a trial basis to give cyclists a safe place to ride. But how is this going to affect motorists who use the bridge? Is it worth doing? Will it help the environment? Yellow is the new ink and bikes are the new car Archaic Vancouverites experience culture shock upon finding out Vancouver is no longer a “car city” By Chloé Bach, Assistant Editor lazy, materialistic, and closed-minded Vancouverites bitch about one little bike lane on one little bridge. Oh, the horror! What a violation of Vancouverites’ negligent right to use material goods as symbols of status, rather than simply applying practicality. I say this because, unless you are commuting from a suburb, driving in this city is a ridiculous waste of time and money. Even before the implementation of the new bike lane, the Burrard Street Bridge was a bridge that any logical person would avoid during high traffic hours. Considering the close proximity of Kitsilano to downtown, there is really no excuse to drive between them. So why not make it a safer commute for those with the foresight to hop on a bike for 10 minutes? Are you too lazy to bike? Good news! There are buses that run every few minutes between Downtown and Kits. Truly, there is no real excuse to drive downtown unless you are commuting or just straight up crazy. : It seems reasonable that anyone unwilling to change their driving habits is going to spend a lot longer sitting in their car being a lazy sloth, than those willing to bike or walk to a bus stop. In fact, it has been demonstrated in several European cities that making driving an inconvenience has improved air quality, the transit system and even obesity rates. For example, Amsterdam is almost entirely restricted to bikes and pedestrians in the downtown core (an urban design I believe Vancouver should follow). With only 18 thoroughfares sprouting off of one major ring road, accompanied by major government programs to encourage biking and the use of transit, driving a car is not only impractical but a major inconvenience in Amsterdam’s dense | et me start off by saying I am beyond sick of hearing population. In contrast, there is Los Angeles, where the smog is so thick you can’t see the skyline because everyone spends hours sitting in their vehicle polluting the air and going nowhere. Which is no big surprise coming from a nation that is topping pollution charts left, right and center. With no Kyoto standards to meet, the U.S. is a prime example of how asinine and negligent it is not to accommodate more effective and environmental forms of transportation. I doubt any of us want to support or mimic this poor behaviour. So why not make an entirely viable alternative safer? Especially since the majority of drivers in this city are pretty much clueless. Like almost every other city in the world Vancouver was built almost a century ago as a “car city.” This means it’s time to move on, adjust and figure out a realistic way to deal with our city’s exponential annual growth as well as to ensure areas of high population density remain functional, safe and green. Attacks on Mayor Gregor Robertson by clueless conservatives are both unwarranted and short-sighted. Why is it a bad thing that he wants to be green? Who in their right mind wants to be not-green in this day-in-age? I can actually say I’m proud to live in a city run by a mayor who has making our city green, safe and progressive on his “agenda.” It is half-witted to assert that Robertson’s goals are anything other than a step in the right direction. It is really only logical to ditch your car if it involves saving large amounts of time and money, especially if our city can find safe ways, like the new bike lane on the Burrard Street Bridge, to facilitate it. Anyone stubborn enough to do otherwise is laughable at best. If you’re concerned about our city’s near permanent traffic, get the hell out of it! It’s as simple as that. Enough pandering to cyclists By Garth McLennan lright, enough is enough. When is City Hall going Ac stop the endless pandering to cyclists? The latest debacle to come from Vancouver’s Mayor Gregor Robertson is the elimination of the far exiting lane on the Burrard Street Bridge. A concrete barrier has been put up and the lane is now designated only for bikers. Robertson is trying desperately to carve out a legacy for himself as the “green” mayor and has made no secret whatsoever about his love for cyclists. Now, it’s nice that he’s thinking of the environment, but here’s what I don’t understand: in a city where it is hard enough to get out of near permanent traffic, removing a lane on a key bridge will only slow that traffic down even more. This lane closure will result in added wait times for drivers just sitting idle, causing more gas and exhaust to spew out into the air. How exactly is that cutting back on carbon emissions or helping the environment? Could someone please explain that to me? Let’s be honest here. Taking out one lane is just going to piss people off. No logical person is going to expect drivers to suddenly abandon their cars. Well, maybe Mayor Robertson is expecting that, so maybe I should say no logical person without-an agenda. That’s really what this is all about when you come down to it. This is just another frustrating example of politicians trying to score cheap political points by pandering to a very vocal minority at the expense of the majority. There are more drivers on the road than cyclists. Drivers just don’t complain as much. Vancouver was built as a car city. The backlog of traffic from this lane closure spills into side streets that were never built for this amount of traffic. That’s not even to mention that the number of cyclists that use the new bike lane, even in rush hour, aren’t enough to justify giving them an entire lane. This increased traffic congestion results in even more road rage than there already is in Vancouver, which is saying something. Now, it wouldn’t be so bad if cyclists weren’t so arrogant about it. There’s nothing wrong with hopping on a bike; but regular cyclists in Vancouver are a different breed. Obviously this doesn’t apply to every single cyclist out there but the bulk of them have this infuriating belief that they own the road. As anyone who has been forced to deal with downtown cyclists can surely attest, these people can be some of the most haughty, egotistical blowhards out there. Very few of them obey traffic laws. When you are forced to slam on the breaks when they run a red light to stop from sending one of them flying fifty feet, you usually get the finger or worse. I mean, the number of times I’ve seen cyclists downtown weave dangerously through rush hour traffic, pay zero attention to signs or lights and basically have no one’s safety on their mind is just too many. to count. Something has to change here. Cyclists are now clamouring for their own bridge, but how exactly will that be funded? If you bring up any sort of bike registration fee or toll for a bike bridge you get shouted down. Drivers have to pay for their bridges, so why not cyclists? I say, “Enough of all this crap!” This bridge bike lane is scheduled for a three month trial paid for by drivers of course. So, after that time, let’s get rid of it. Enough is enough.