City of Vancouver says ridership on major bike lanes on the rise

Aug 18 2018, 3:17 am

There are more people than ever riding their bike on Vancouver’s major bike routes.

According to a ridership update by the City of Vancouver, with optimal weather conditions prevailing, ridership records were broken in July on five major routes across the city, specifically for both weekend and midweek counts.

Here are the total cycling ridership counts for July 2018 compared to previous record years:

  • Burrard and Cornwall
    • Previous record in July 2014: 195,000
    • July 2018: 216,000
  • Science World
    • Previous record in July 2017: 227,000
    • July 2018: 239,000
  • Adanac Bikeway (at Hawks)
    • Previous record in July 2017: 120,000
    • July 2018: 127,000
  • Lions Gate Bridge
    • Previous record in July 2017: 71,000
    • July 2018: 72,000
  • Point Grey Road at Volunteer Park
    • Previous record in July 2015: 102,000
    • July 2018: 111,000

In the last decade, various levels of government, particularly the municipal government, have spent a total of roughly $100 million in new cycling infrastructure. Over the past year alone the City has built:

  • New bike lanes as part of the Burrard Bridge upgrade
  • Cambie Bridge southbound bike lane
  • False Creek South seawall separated pedestrian path and bike lanes
  • Alexander Street bike lane
  • Arbutus Greenway’s temporary bike path and intersection and signal upgrades
  • Improvements to cycling infrastructure at Quebec Street and 1st Avenue, Smithe Street, and various upgrades to the downtown bike network

The City is also a financial backer of Mobi Bike Share, having invested $5 million in startup costs to start the system in 2016. It is also provided Mobi with $1 million for initial startup costs and an annual $500,000 subsidy for the first five years of operations.

According to the municipal government, Mobi saw a record number of rides this summer, with over 110,000 rides in July. To date, the bike share system has seen 90,000 users and over 1.1 million rides.

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