Victoria moves forward with Vancouver St

Victoria is moving forward with the last of the downtown AAA bikeways on Vancouver St from Bay St to Beacon Hill Park. Below is analysis of the route and how to let the city know that you support Vancouver St.

What’s already happened?

Staff have conducted extensive consultation and have lowered their cars per day target, changing it from 1500 to 500, in line with City of Vancouver AAA guidelines and our request to council from a few months ago.

What will happen next?

Staff are doing final consultations right now, followed by construction late this year. There are several key challenges:

Alignment near Quadra school

There are four options for routing near Quadra school – we favour the Fifth Street alignment because it is flatter and offers a direct connection to Quadra Elementary.

Busy school traffic

The Vancouver St corridor passes both Quadra Elementary in the north and Christ Church Cathedral School in the south, and both schools generate a lot of motor vehicle traffic. We think both schools need protected bike lanes on the roadway immediately surrounding the schools.

How can I say yes? What should I say?

Send an email to engage@victoria.ca. Here are our big points:

1. Build the bikeway on 5^th St to provide direct access to Quadra Elementary
2. Design the bike lane near both schools to ensure children have a safe place to ride in school pickup traffic
   (5^th St near Quadra School and Vancouver St near Christ Church Cathedral School)

What about Cook St?

Cook St remains on the AAA bikeway network and we believe it is the better choice, and we will be working on getting a Cook St bikeway built after the minimum grid is finished