Bike lane changes? Stanley Park car exit through Beach Avenue pondered

Bike lane changes? Stanley Park vehicle exit through Beach Avenue pondered

Existing configuration of Beach Avenue looking east near Park Lane, with the pandemic-time bike lane. (Google Maps)

The matter of the existing configuration of the Beach Avenue bike lane impeding Stanley Park’s vehicle access was briefly discussed in Vancouver City Council’s final meeting before their month-plus long summer break earlier this week.

The segment in question is the bike lane’s three-block stretch along Beach Avenue between Park Lane and Morton Avenue/Denman Street — the westernmost segment of Beach Avenue before Stanley Park.

Prior to the pandemic, this segment of the roadway had one eastbound vehicle travel lane, one westbound vehicle travel lane, and one curbside parking lane on the north side of the street. The bike lane was previously situated off-street on the south side of the roadway between the pedestrian sidewalk and beachside trees.

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As a pandemic-time measure to accommodate an on-street, bi-directional bike lane, Beach Avenue’s vehicle access was reduced to one westbound vehicle lane only. The previous off-street bike lane is now used as an expanded pedestrian space.

Furthermore, cyclists have been banned from the West End waterfront’s seawall pathway ever since the parallel Beach Avenue bike lane has been put in place.

Pre-pandemic configuration of Beach Avenue between Park Lane and Denman Street:

The pre-pandemic configuration of Beach Avenue near Gilford Street looking west towards Park Lane/Stanley Park. (Google Maps)

Existing configuration of Beach Avenue between Park Lane and Denman Street:

The existing configuration of Beach Avenue near Gilford Street looking west towards Park Lane/Stanley Park. (Google Maps)

There has been “lots of conversation from the public who really love the open space, [but] some people are still concerned that it has backed up park access,” said ABC councillor Sarah Kirby-Yung during the meeting, before suggesting the possibility of restoring two-way vehicle access while also retaining a bike lane.

“What I’m hearing is that people are loving the opportunity for additional bikes, but we also have huge backups and people are saying this is working against climate because you have all of these cars trying to go one way out of the park.”

Kirby-Yung later clarified in a tweet that a bike lane on Beach Avenue is not going anywhere.

The Beach Avenue bike lane is a popular part of Vancouver’s active transportation network and cycling infrastructure and its not going anywhere. #vanpoli pic.twitter.com/Vh5xFYlXXQ

— Sarah Kirby-Yung 楊瑞蘭 (@sarahkirby_yung) July 28, 2023

The signage for the Beach Ave Bike Lane is about as straightforward as the debate around where the bikes should go 🧐. #vancouver #vanpoli pic.twitter.com/jXiD4F2irq

— Tara Foslien (@TaraFoslien) July 28, 2023

ABC councillor Brian Montague said he has received complaints from local residents and businesses on access impacts as a result of the eastbound-only direction for vehicles, and shared he recently experienced some confusing accessibility issues with the road network.

“I actually had a meeting in there in that sort of area not that long ago, and found myself into the park all of a sudden — and I’m actually pretty familiar with the city,” he said during the meeting. “But I found myself just driving through Stanley Park to kind of get to where I needed to go.”

In response to the questions from the councillors, City of Vancouver chief engineer Lon LaClaire said his team already has plans to convert this segment of Beach Avenue from a one-way vehicle westbound towards Stanley Park to a one-way vehicle eastbound exiting the park.

“This would allow another route out of the park, allow the tour buses to use that, and based on what we’ve been hearing from concerns around access and circulation in the park, that’s of interest to them. That’s an easy one for us to trial because it is mostly a signage change,” said LaClaire.

He says this conversion to one-way eastbound is triggered by the Vancouver Park Board’s decision earlier this year to remove most of the on-street temporary bike lane on Stanley Park Drive, including restoring multiple ways for vehicles to exit the park from Stanley Park Drive near Second Beach.

Currently, vehicles on Stanley Park Drive in the Second Beach area must turn left onto North Lagoon Drive and funnel through into West Georgia Street in order to exit Stanley Park. For years during the pandemic, this has been the only way out of Stanley Park, which has been deemed unreliable and adds to West Georgia Street’s congestion.

The Park Board’s new additional exit would allow vehicles to continue south on Stanley Park Drive, past North Lagoon Drive, and then turn left onto Park Lane through the West End’s neighbourhood streets. Last month, Park Board staff indicated this additional Stanley Park exit via Park Lane will take more time to plan and implement.

2023 plan for the removal of most of the Stanley Park Drive bike lane, and the restoration of an additional Stanley Park exit via Beach Avenue and Park Lane. (Vancouver Park Board)

LaClaire says converting the short segment of Beach Avenue between Park Lane and Denman Street into a two-way direction for vehicles is more complex as the bike lane would have to be shifted.

“There’s a number of options there… there’s winners and losers in each of these, and there’s no particularly right answer,” added LaClaire. He said cyclists could return to the pre-pandemic, off-street bike lane next to the roadway, but there are some concerns with accommodating the volume of cyclists that currently use the route.

“That’s something we would look at as to whether or not we need to make changes to the path that we were using prior to the pandemic changes.”

In a statement last week, Bonnie MacKenzie, a spokesperson for advocacy group Stanley Park for All, said Beach Avenue should be reopened to two-way vehicle traffic between Park Lane and Denman Street as a measure to address neighbourhood concerns of Stanley Park traffic going through the West End’s local streets, which will also see increased truck traffic over the coming years for Metro Vancouver Regional District’s major Stanley Park Water Supply Tunnel project.

Two-way vehicle traffic along Beach Avenue between Denman Street and Pacific Street was restored in April 2021 when semi-permanent road design changes were made, while also accommodating an on-street, bi-directional bike lane.

The City and the Park Board are also in the process of creating a long-term master plan for redesigning the West End’s beach and park areas, including a permanent design change for Beach Avenue.

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