Finding a place to sit on Robson Street can be tricky, especially when the sidewalks are overflowing with people. With the lines of buildings fixed, it can be a challenge to find space for public seating. Yet just off to the side is underutilized space waiting to be recognised as an opportunity for community design. People enjoy walking along Robson to be seen while out for a stroll, some never knowing that one block down Bute is a quiet park block tucked into the West End's network of traffic calming. The West End mini-parks are paved traffic calmers, often with plantings, serving as meeting or resting hubs.

[caption id="attachment_4110" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="Separated Bike Lanes: Vision/COPE will expand them, NSV wants consultation, NPA wants moratorium and various "fixes." Photo by Kathleen Corey."][/caption] Transportation, always a major topic during a civic election, has spiked somewhat in the last few days with prompting from public forums and the release of the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition's comprehensive survey. While both forms of information are useful, they allow candidates to shape their message a little too much at times. Given the right audience, the NPA's George Affleck will stick his neck out further than any other candidate in supporting road pricing in the most congested areas of Metro Vancouver. He'll also muse about solutions to bring a second bicycle lane to the Burrard Bridge and suggest that he doesn't have any particular separated bike lane qualms beside business consultation - unfortunately, a rather different tone than his Georgia Straight op-ed. Similarly, after the Green Party's Adriane Carr played to Sunday's audience by claiming that there were no traffic studies or public support to removing the viaducts, she was conspicuously silent at the next night's transportation forum despite ribbing from Vision's Geoff Meggs. Conversely, her explanation of the "bike-free streets" debacle was embarrassingly thorough as she clarified it to bike-free bus lanes - simply suggesting that cyclists and transit vehicles be given their own space would probably be a better phrasing yet. To be fair, she gave what may have been the night's most convincing arguments in favour of bike lane expansion. Meanwhile, at Sunday evening's Last Candidate Standing, the NPA's Sean Bickerton explained his support for transit based density and touted his use of transit. He's favoured removing the viaducts in the past, against what is now party line. At a Tuesday presser, however, he threw cyclists under that proverbial bus by dedicating an entire platform point to their perceived misbehaviour. While drivers and pedestrians are only covered by a vague "share the road" education campaign, Bickerton wants to bring in cyclist licensing while cracking down on sidewalk riding and those without their styrofoam hats (as opposed to a more balanced approach).

[caption id="attachment_3679" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="Selected images from the Spacing Vancouver Flickr pool. Images courtesy of Philip Tong and Ben Johnson. "][/caption] Over the past week, the Coalition of Progressive Electors have rolled out plank after plank for their transportation platform, setting the bar higher than any other party is willing to jump at this stage in the campaign. The October 20th release is an all-too-rare case of politicians acknowledging the causes of poor cyclist behaviour (especially riding on sidewalks). The ...

[Ed: here's an extended clip of the morning rush at Hornby and Georgia -bg] Composed out of a few hours filming on Thursday, July 28, 2011, this video for Spacing Vancouver takes a look at the year-old (Dunsmuir) and six-month-old (Hornby) separated bicycle lanes through downtown, building on last week's feature on the lanes. This video is available in HD at its Vimeo page.

[caption id="attachment_1493" align="alignnone" width="600" caption="Saturday Afternoon on Hornby Street (Photos by Kathleen Corey and Brian Gould)"][/caption] [Ed: A video montage of the lanes is also available -bg] Several bike lane related reports and surveys will hit council on Thursday, providing statistics galore. Some, like the June-to-June midweek ridership increases of 50% on Dunsmuir, show clear benefits. Others, like the economic impact study results, rely on merchants' anecdotal reports to estimate a 4% decrease in sales - meanwhile, vacancy rates on Hornby are down from last year's 12% to 2%. The positive results are recognized not only by cyclists but by area visitors as well, with support for the Hornby lanes up to 64%. Numbers aren't required to see that the lanes are increasing ridership by making cyclists feel safe - that takes only a bike ride to find out. Unfortunately, those among the entrenched 28% opposition are also least likely to take this opportunity. If they did, they'd find an easy and protected False Creek crossing on the Burrard Bridge tying into the Hornby lanes and a quick and seamless route from quiet streets on Union and Adanac, over the Dunsmuir Viaduct, and into the heart of downtown. They'd also find plenty of other Vancouverites to keep them company.

[caption id="attachment_11826" align="alignleft" width="290" caption="Image courtesy of the UBC LARC502B class"][/caption] This is the second part of a series - in tandem with In Focus: The Georgia and Dunsmuir Viaducts photo essay - looking at the past, present and future of the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts. By Brian Gould and Erick Villagomez, re:place Magazine