Bike lanes are a sensitive subject in Vancouver.  As stated by Andrew Killas in the blog post Bike Lanes In The City, bike lanes have an overall negative effect on the community.  While bike lanes promote cycling, which is a green form of transportation, they also harm businesses and create traffic problems.  From a marketing perspective, the city of Vancouver is doing a great job of creating an environmental image, however the construction of numerous bike lines is one step to far.  In an article by the Vancouver Sun, merchants, whose storefront was to be blocked by a bike lane, stated their main fears regarding the bike lines as loss of storefront parking and no new prosperity.  The bike lanes were put up on many downtown streets such as Hornby street, in downtown Vancouver, to the dismay of storeowners.  In the winter time, the bike lanes largely go unused, and end up causing traffic jams, due to the fact that bike lanes take up a full traffic lane.  The mayor of Vancouver was quoted as saying, “The city is investing in cycling infrastructure, primarily in the core of cities where people have those short trips and it takes pressure off the road from cars and transit use” in anarticle by the Sun News.  This statement is false, as bike lanes just increase pressure on roads.  A good example is the Burrard street bridge, which cannot handle the capacity of cars due to subbing a bike lane for a traffic lane.  From the years 2006 to 2011, ridership to work rose from 1.7 percent to 1.8 percent in Vancouver according to the Sun Times.  This shows the expanding of bike lanes in Vancouver is very unnecessary, as the growth of bike commuters does not support the expansion of bike lanes.  The city should immediately stop the construction of bike lanes, before the impact harms anymore of Vancouver’s small businesses.

Sources: http://www.vancouversun.com/travel/Jury+still+impact+downtown+Vancouver+bike+lanes/10239796/story.html, http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/specialreports/archives/2014/02/20140220-220547.html, https://blogs.ubc.ca/AndrewKillas/

Media Source: http://politicalwhisperer.com/?p=53