The city has come through on a 2020 project for Burnaby Mountain Parkway, the road on the other side of Burnaby Mountain from where Charles Masala died in August 2019 after a jeep driver hit him while he was riding his bike on Gaglardi Way. (No charges have been announced in that case.)
Gaglardi Way is a four-lane hilly road on the southeast side of the mountain that has unprotected bike lanes on either side.
Burnaby Mountain Parkway is a two-lane hilly road on the southwest side of the mountain that also has unprotected bike lanes on either side.
I drive both of these roads nearly every day and they are not kind to cyclists.
Burnaby is improving one section of the parkway by adding 900 metres of “urban trail” on the north side of the road, between Centennial Way (located about halfway down the hill) and Gaglardi Way. It also looks like new lighting will be added and that is awesome because this area is dark, dark, dark.
This stretch of road’s bike path is one of the narrowest on the mountain for cyclists. There are also a couple of storm drains that stick out halfway into the bike lane and I’ve seen cyclists struggle to negotiate them without actually swerving into the road.
So, this urban trail is a good idea and I applaud the city for getting it done. The bike lane on the parkway does get much wider on the west side of Centennial, but then it all gets sketchy when cyclists hit the curve in the road. At that curve, there is another street on the right side that feeds into the parkway/Hastings.
I feel tense just thinking about it. Cyclists going up the parkway also have a really narrow bike lane.
I also still think four lanes is unnecessary on Gaglardi Way going down the hill. There isn’t really enough traffic. I think the city could come up with some sort of barrier to separate at least one bike lane.
The city did previously tell me that within the next five to 10 years, it will add more protected cycling facilities at that time to Gaglardi. It is also reviewing the details of Masala’s death.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44.
