I did a deep dive on Thursday about the issue of protected bike lanes in Burnaby and what cyclists want to see as far as infrastructure changes in our city.
The City of Burnaby sent me a bunch of information about its future plans, but told me today (Friday) that it had left out one key project.
The city has a 2020 project planned for Burnaby Mountain Parkway, the road on the other side of Burnaby Mountain from where Charles Masala died last Saturday after a jeep driver hit him while he was riding his bike on Gaglardi Way.
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 wants to improve 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. You can see where it will be located on the map the city provided.
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, an urban trail is a good idea. The bike lane on the parkway does get much wider on the west side of Cenntennial, 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. I wish cyclists didn’t have to wait until 2020 to get this done.
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 add in its email today 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.
