First big section of temporary bike lane in Stanley Park now removed

Traffic cones along Stanley Park Drive between Prospect Point and Third Beach for the temporary bike lane, May 2022. (Google Maps)

As of Wednesday, the first major section of the controversial temporary bike lane on Stanley Park Drive has been removed.

The Vancouver Park Board states the bike lane segment within Stanley Park’s northwest sector — between Prospect Point and Third Beach — is no more. This two-km-long segment was the simplest section for the work underway to remove the bike lane on Stanley Park Drive’s entire nine-km counterclockwise route on the park’s perimeter.

This involved removing traffic cones and installing 45 interim signs, which carried a cost of $25,000. Park Board staff previously indicated they were looking to complete this first phase of removal work before Christmas, but this was delayed due to the need to dedicate crews to maintenance duties relating to the recent snowfall.

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The more complex work to come to remove the rest of the temporary bike lane will be achieved by early April 2023.

The entire cost of the removal is estimated at about $400,000 due to the permanent-like fixtures installed between April and July 2021 elsewhere on Stanley Park Drive, which replaced the 2020 configuration of traffic cones and delineators with concrete barriers. Over $700,000 was spent on installing the temporary bike lane.

The erasure of the temporary bike lane involves the removal of 830 concrete barriers requiring special machinery to load onto trucks, 700 traffic delineators, 1,000 traffic cones, 250 signs, and some asphalt, as well as the scrubbing of 3.5 km of line painting.

stanley park drive bike lane removal plan

Tentative plan to remove the temporary bike lane on Stanley Park Drive, as of December 15, 2022. (Vancouver Park Board)

The cost of removing the concrete barriers is the single most expensive cost, estimated at between $100,000 and $120,000. This is followed by the $75,000 cost to remove pavement markings, and $50,000 to remove curbs and gutters, drainage pipes, and asphalt ramps and paths.

There is also a 30% cost premium as the work has to be performed mainly during nighttime when there are fewer visitors to Stanley Park and less vehicle traffic. This cost premium avoids significant traffic congestion.

The ABC Vancouver party’s super-majority control of the Park Board’s elected body intends to reinstate the bike lane with a permanent design that retains the pre-pandemic configuration of two vehicle lanes.

The configuration that has been in place for much of the pandemic period sets aside one lane for vehicles and one lane for cyclists, but this has been a cause of major traffic congestion during the peak season.

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