My Commute - There
A recent series of articles in the Globe and Mail on commuting and transit caught my attention today (1). While I no longer really read Canadian "newspapers", as the quality of the journalism pales in comparison to the likes of the Guardian, the Economist, or Le Monde, they unfortunately remain one of the few options for Canadian news.
Journalism in Canada is sick and rotten, it is the most concentrated of all media agglomerations in the developed world, far outscoring the United States for concentration of the press in the hands of the few (1). Canada has become a model for pervasive digital convergence, where newspapers have become a tiny piece of a content pie owned and channeled through just a handful of major portals: Bell, Rogers, Postmedia, Shaw and Quebecor. In some regions of the country the reader has literally no choice, as is the case in Vancouver and Montreal, where the news media is entirely owned by a single source - Quebecor in Montreal and Postmedia in Vancouver.
I digress, back to those Globe and Mail articles. As a two bridge commuter I have tried everything to make my journey as efficient as possible - car, bus, metro, ferry, bike, you name it. After years of driving I gave up my car to go with transit. This was motivated by bridge traffic fatigue, rising gas prices, and the cost of running a car. This option did not last, as I soon tired with sitting on crowded buses stuck in traffic, and grew frustrated with being forced to buy a two zone pass even though my commute was only one stop outside of my zone. Truth be known, I have long been a proponent of touch cards and fare gates used by sophisticated transit systems such as Transport for London, or Transantiago, where fare is charged by distance travelled and not by arbitrary zone maps (2).
So I eventually gave up on transit and switched to cycling. This option has provided certain benefits, with the obvious ones being that I no longer have to spend time and money on running a car, or money on a two zone transit pass. One unexpected benefit is I now need to eat copious amounts of homemade cookies in order to keep weight on - something unfathomable when I was a motorist.
Yet cycling is not all cookies and cream, it is a battle against rain, cars, sleet, sun, and other bikes. From April through to October the levels of rush hour congestion on certain bike routes approaches the intolerable, with pinch points on the seawall and Burrard Bridge. These congestion zones are prone to accidents, as everyone converges together in a cacophony of bicycles and scooters. November's cold rain puts out the party and empties the streets for most of the winter.
So what about my bike commute, what is it like? I start my day at here, on one of Vancouver's most beautiful streets in one of Canada's most rarest of neighbourhoods.
Here the streets are narrow, the blocks are small and on a grid, and the scale is perfect for a pedestrian and a cyclist.
I consider myself fortunate to live in such a place, but also find it inherently unfair that other Canadians do not have the option to also be able to live like this. This is something government and Canadians need to address. It requires bold leadership and a real cohesive plan from the levels of government with money and power: Ottawa and Victoria.
My commute takes me from Kitsilano to the city core over Burrard Bridge. This is where it gets tricky - squeezing everyone into the space of a sidewalk. This picture was taken at 9:15, so the rush hour crowd was long gone.
In the morning there can be upwards of 30 cyclists converging at the south end of the bridge, and there is usually at least one who left home late and is in a hurry.
From the bridge I turn south down the alleyway to access the seawall, which at the present time does not link up to the bridge.
As a result I ride along Beach Road to the intersection at Pacific and then take the sidewalk to reach the seawall, as the alternative would be to try making a left turn from Pacific - not ideal at rush hour.
The Seawall connects nicely with a shared bike road route across the West End to Stanley Park and under the Causeway. From there I head North along Pipeline Road, across the wooden bridge and up one of the trails to the head of Lion's Gate Bridge. This section of the route only has one tricky area, which requires expert navigation across Pipeline Road to the wooden bridge.
Many motorists speed on Pipeline as they use it as a shortcut to get to Lion's Gate Bridge; they are also not expecting cyclists to turn left to the wooden bridge, as while it is marked as a one way, it is open to bikes.
The grade up to Lion's Gate Bridge is very steep, but it is a short trip and much nicer than the noise and fumes from riding up the causeway alongside the vehicles.
Riding Lion's Gate is not for the faint hearted. The sidewalks are narrow, pedestrians walk with their backs to you and are often looking at their phones and listening to music, completely disconnected from their surroundings.
This has lead to accidents and fatalities. Someone we know of was killed on the bridged when he lost control of his bike and ran into one of those steel cables - no padding on them, which means not even slow speeds and a helmet can save you.
The downhill from the top of the bridge to the North Vancouver is straight and narrow. In the winter I dislocated my shoulder when I pedestrian abruptly walked into me and knocked me over - luckily I was going slowly and was able to fall on the sidewalk and not into traffic or over the side of the bridge.
Once in North Vancouver the ride is a mixed bag. There is a brief section on Marine Drive before going down Tatlow to the Spirit Trail, which is one of the best cycle pedestrian paths I have ever had the pleasure to ride on.
It is separated from cars and wends its way through leafy suburban streets and is wide enough for everyone to have fun. Unfortunately the trail comes to an abrupt end as it throws you back into traffic at Welch and 1st.
In my early days I used to take the bridge over the railway line at this intersection to connect with the "bikeway"; however, I soon avoided this as it takes longer and it also throws you into the automall - not a good place for a bicycle. The alternative - the one I take - is to stay on 1st, which becomes steadily worse as both it and the "bikeway" converge onto Third Street. Ah yes, Third Street, another example of a lack of urban planning.
Anyone going east or west on the North Shore has just two primary options, this one, or the Trans Canada Upperlevels Freeway. Needles to say this stretch of road is always jammed with SUVs, trucks, and cars, while pedestrians, skateboarders, cyclists, and poles are forced to share a one metre wide sidewalk and avoid certain death by falling into traffic.
The horrid section of Third Street is thankfully only 3 blocks long, coming to an end at Forbes, where bikes and pedestrians are given the short end of the stick at the poorly designed intersection.
The last few blocks to the office take me through a small successful area of development at Lower Lonsdale, made up of mostly medium density and narrow leafy streets. One still needs to be alert riding here, as North Shore drivers are not known for their respect of pedestrians or cyclists, nor for their patience - certainly a result of the evolution of most of North and West Vancouver into large suburban sprawl that is entirely dependent on cars.
To follow: My Commute - back
(1)http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/vancouver-gridlock-costs-commuters-87-hours-a-year-study-shows/article18958517/
(2)http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/08/13/concentration-media-ownership-canada_n_1773117.html
(3) https://www.google.ca/maps/@49.3172354,-123.0985767,15z
Journalism in Canada is sick and rotten, it is the most concentrated of all media agglomerations in the developed world, far outscoring the United States for concentration of the press in the hands of the few (1). Canada has become a model for pervasive digital convergence, where newspapers have become a tiny piece of a content pie owned and channeled through just a handful of major portals: Bell, Rogers, Postmedia, Shaw and Quebecor. In some regions of the country the reader has literally no choice, as is the case in Vancouver and Montreal, where the news media is entirely owned by a single source - Quebecor in Montreal and Postmedia in Vancouver.
I digress, back to those Globe and Mail articles. As a two bridge commuter I have tried everything to make my journey as efficient as possible - car, bus, metro, ferry, bike, you name it. After years of driving I gave up my car to go with transit. This was motivated by bridge traffic fatigue, rising gas prices, and the cost of running a car. This option did not last, as I soon tired with sitting on crowded buses stuck in traffic, and grew frustrated with being forced to buy a two zone pass even though my commute was only one stop outside of my zone. Truth be known, I have long been a proponent of touch cards and fare gates used by sophisticated transit systems such as Transport for London, or Transantiago, where fare is charged by distance travelled and not by arbitrary zone maps (2).
So I eventually gave up on transit and switched to cycling. This option has provided certain benefits, with the obvious ones being that I no longer have to spend time and money on running a car, or money on a two zone transit pass. One unexpected benefit is I now need to eat copious amounts of homemade cookies in order to keep weight on - something unfathomable when I was a motorist.
Yet cycling is not all cookies and cream, it is a battle against rain, cars, sleet, sun, and other bikes. From April through to October the levels of rush hour congestion on certain bike routes approaches the intolerable, with pinch points on the seawall and Burrard Bridge. These congestion zones are prone to accidents, as everyone converges together in a cacophony of bicycles and scooters. November's cold rain puts out the party and empties the streets for most of the winter.
So what about my bike commute, what is it like? I start my day at here, on one of Vancouver's most beautiful streets in one of Canada's most rarest of neighbourhoods.
Here the streets are narrow, the blocks are small and on a grid, and the scale is perfect for a pedestrian and a cyclist.
I consider myself fortunate to live in such a place, but also find it inherently unfair that other Canadians do not have the option to also be able to live like this. This is something government and Canadians need to address. It requires bold leadership and a real cohesive plan from the levels of government with money and power: Ottawa and Victoria.
My commute takes me from Kitsilano to the city core over Burrard Bridge. This is where it gets tricky - squeezing everyone into the space of a sidewalk. This picture was taken at 9:15, so the rush hour crowd was long gone.
In the morning there can be upwards of 30 cyclists converging at the south end of the bridge, and there is usually at least one who left home late and is in a hurry.
From the bridge I turn south down the alleyway to access the seawall, which at the present time does not link up to the bridge.
As a result I ride along Beach Road to the intersection at Pacific and then take the sidewalk to reach the seawall, as the alternative would be to try making a left turn from Pacific - not ideal at rush hour.
The Seawall connects nicely with a shared bike road route across the West End to Stanley Park and under the Causeway. From there I head North along Pipeline Road, across the wooden bridge and up one of the trails to the head of Lion's Gate Bridge. This section of the route only has one tricky area, which requires expert navigation across Pipeline Road to the wooden bridge.
Many motorists speed on Pipeline as they use it as a shortcut to get to Lion's Gate Bridge; they are also not expecting cyclists to turn left to the wooden bridge, as while it is marked as a one way, it is open to bikes.
The grade up to Lion's Gate Bridge is very steep, but it is a short trip and much nicer than the noise and fumes from riding up the causeway alongside the vehicles.
Riding Lion's Gate is not for the faint hearted. The sidewalks are narrow, pedestrians walk with their backs to you and are often looking at their phones and listening to music, completely disconnected from their surroundings.
This has lead to accidents and fatalities. Someone we know of was killed on the bridged when he lost control of his bike and ran into one of those steel cables - no padding on them, which means not even slow speeds and a helmet can save you.
The downhill from the top of the bridge to the North Vancouver is straight and narrow. In the winter I dislocated my shoulder when I pedestrian abruptly walked into me and knocked me over - luckily I was going slowly and was able to fall on the sidewalk and not into traffic or over the side of the bridge.
Once in North Vancouver the ride is a mixed bag. There is a brief section on Marine Drive before going down Tatlow to the Spirit Trail, which is one of the best cycle pedestrian paths I have ever had the pleasure to ride on.
It is separated from cars and wends its way through leafy suburban streets and is wide enough for everyone to have fun. Unfortunately the trail comes to an abrupt end as it throws you back into traffic at Welch and 1st.
In my early days I used to take the bridge over the railway line at this intersection to connect with the "bikeway"; however, I soon avoided this as it takes longer and it also throws you into the automall - not a good place for a bicycle. The alternative - the one I take - is to stay on 1st, which becomes steadily worse as both it and the "bikeway" converge onto Third Street. Ah yes, Third Street, another example of a lack of urban planning.
Anyone going east or west on the North Shore has just two primary options, this one, or the Trans Canada Upperlevels Freeway. Needles to say this stretch of road is always jammed with SUVs, trucks, and cars, while pedestrians, skateboarders, cyclists, and poles are forced to share a one metre wide sidewalk and avoid certain death by falling into traffic.
The horrid section of Third Street is thankfully only 3 blocks long, coming to an end at Forbes, where bikes and pedestrians are given the short end of the stick at the poorly designed intersection.
The last few blocks to the office take me through a small successful area of development at Lower Lonsdale, made up of mostly medium density and narrow leafy streets. One still needs to be alert riding here, as North Shore drivers are not known for their respect of pedestrians or cyclists, nor for their patience - certainly a result of the evolution of most of North and West Vancouver into large suburban sprawl that is entirely dependent on cars.
To follow: My Commute - back
(1)http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/vancouver-gridlock-costs-commuters-87-hours-a-year-study-shows/article18958517/
(2)http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/08/13/concentration-media-ownership-canada_n_1773117.html
(3) https://www.google.ca/maps/@49.3172354,-123.0985767,15z