In October of last year, the bike lanes were voted in and approved for downtown Vancouver. Within 24 hours, construction had already begun, raising a red flag that the cote was not a fair vote. As a twice-a-day commuter through the downtown core, I quickly saw the effects of firstly the construction, and secondly the removal of lanes for automobiles replaced with bike lanes. Hornby Street was my route home from school, which I chose based on the massive amount of congestion on Burrard, the street parallel. As luck would have it, the bike lanes were being installed on Hornby Street. This caused for one lane removed of paid-meter parking which allowed for now only 2 lanes of driving. Right hand turns were either limited or all together illegal, thus, causing for even more backups. The question is how effective are these lanes and how many people actually use them to commute instead of driving. To me the answer was simple, it was rare anyone would be using them at all. Not only is the city losing parking money, but the cost for the lanes was 3.2 million(http://www.vancourier.com/Vancouver+Hornby+Street+bike+lane+price+tops+million/3592236/story.html). Now, I don’t see how this can be paying off financially. Bikes don’t have to be insured, nor are licences needed. In order to make the lanes more efficient licences for bikes should be necessary.

In this video you can see just how busy the lanes are.

http://www.news1130.com/news/local/article/282254–bike-lanes-are-here-to-stay-anton