Vancouver residents fight to keep bike lanes on MacArthur Blvd

MacArthur Blvd south of Mill Plain Blvd with MacMcLoughlin Middle School in the background.


Outcry from bike advocates has succeeded in keeping bike lanes along a popular cycling corridor — at least for now. After a letter writing campaign and a rally at a recent city council meeting, the City of Vancouver is re-examining its proposal to remove bike lanes and replace them with shared bike/car lanes along MacArthur Blvd, a critical route used by people bicycling in and out of downtown Vancouver.

“Reducing any bicycle infrastructure in Vancouver simply makes no sense.”
— Amy Horstman

With two standard vehicle lanes and a bike lane in each direction, MacArthur is universally considered overbuilt for its current use. It was constructed during WWII to transport military equipment and workers; lore has it that it might have also been used as an airstrip. Now the route runs through quiet neighborhoods and is home to two public schools, a number of churches and a few small businesses. It has low car traffic volume, and with its bike lanes, it is a major section of the only east/west corridor in Vancouver that works well for bicycling.

The city’s proposal is part of a resurfacing/restriping project and may have resulted from possible liability issues with the existing bike lanes because of several sunken storm drains and steep sides. However, rather than implement long-term plans and visions that call for a road diet with dedicated bike lanes along MacArthur, the City asked residents how they’d prefer to re-stripe the road.

The response was mixed: In neighborhoods along MacArthur, people wanted to keep two lanes of traffic, but not by a significant majority. Overall, respondents wanted dedicated bike lanes. In an attempted compromise, the City proposed two standard vehicles lanes and sharrows in one of them. The bike lane would be eliminated. Cyclists were angry that the city had done no studies before making the decision and that it was passing up an opportunity to create a model multi-modal transportation corridor which could have been done as part of the re-striping process at no additional cost.

“Reducing any bicycle infrastructure in Vancouver simply makes no sense,” said Amy Horstman in her presentation to the Vancouver City Council at their last monthly meeting. Horstman, who has a daily 90 minute bike commute along MacArthur said, “We should be talking about how critical it is to invest time and money to connect our communities via bicycle lanes, separated greenways and other active transportation methods. Sadly, in a 2009 study by the Inavero Institute, Vancouver was rated as the having the worst access to bicycle routes and worst safety in the surveyed metro area.”

(Photo: Jan Verrinder)

Many people who ride bikes in Vancouver are united against having bike lanes replaced by sharrows. The official speed limit along MacArthur is 35mph; cyclists say many drivers exceed that, and expecting cars to share a lane with cyclists is unrealistic.

“The overall width and ‘freeway’ feel of the boulevard, the speed at which autos and trucks travel on the street—which in my experience is closer to 45 mph than the currently posted 35 mph,” Lou Elliott wrote in a letter to the city council, “and the general lack of understanding by automobile drivers of the ‘sharrow’ system and its intention, render the use of the ‘sharrow’ concept on MacArthur Boulevard not only ineffective and confusing but downright dangerous.”

Laurel Cripe put it more bluntly. “The only way I anticipate ‘sharing’ the road on MacArthur is the way I do anywhere there is no bike lane. I ride on the right of the lane with my teeth clenched, and I hope cars avoid running me over.”

The safety of children in the shared bike lanes is also a big concern. “We have bike programs at the middle school on MacArthur and are trying to encourage physical activity for our children,” said Jan Verrinder who lives in the neighborhood and rides along MacArthur. “Safety would be a serious issue if sharrows were substituted for the current bicycle lanes. Do we really want confused, speeding drivers coming up behind children and families in a shared lane?”

Cyclists are also concerned the city might lower the speed limit to try and mitigate the safety issues with sharrows. They are skeptical that drivers will slow down, and they wonder how the city will enforce lower speeds.

In response to cyclists concerns, the city is doing some safety and traffic volume studies and says it will have an update mid-April. Cyclists however are dubious that the city will retreat from its current plan. “The MacArthur neighborhood is an historical powerhouse,” said Todd Boulanger, a former transportation planner with the city. “They’re still living back in the old days when families were large and had five cars. They’re used to getting a higher level of attention.”

Contributor Madeleine von Laue is a Vancouver resident actively working to stop the sharrow proposal.

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eli bishop
eli bishop
10 years ago

“”The only way I anticipate ‘sharing’ the road on MacArthur is the way I do anywhere there is no bike lane. I ride on the right of the lane with my teeth clenched, and I hope cars avoid running me over.”

SO MUCH THIS.

MPP
MPP
10 years ago

We have a similar two-lane each direction road here and rather than sharrows (not practical in snow season) they installed “Bicycles May Use Full Lane – Change Lanes to Pass” signs along the route. They work great! The right lane is effectively a wide bike lane but if there are no bikes around cars are free to use it.

Ted Buehler
10 years ago
Reply to  MPP

MPP — where is this? Do you have photos of the signs? I like the idea of a “change lanes to pass” instruction — much better than the ambiguous “share the road” signs…

Ted Buehler

shirtsoff
shirtsoff
10 years ago

MacArthur is a much better east-west connector than Mill Plain. It would be a shame to lose the bike lanes along this vital artery. At times the shoulder/bike lane along MacArthur feel like a ditch (think out towards the Dairy Queen on the route) more than a proper marginal lane. This is based upon my memory of riding this way six years ago. Things may have changed. Either way.. Save MacArthur’s bike infrastructure!

Art Fuldodger
Art Fuldodger
10 years ago

The traffic data i found online
http://www.rtc.wa.gov/data/traffic/intersection.asp?id=399
shows MacArthur with less than 8,000 motor vehicles a day (both directions). One lane each direction, with left turn lanes at major intersections, is more than enough to serve this volume of traffic.

Art Fuldodger
Art Fuldodger
10 years ago

and you could use the extra space from the unneeded lane to protectt he bike lane, and make the traffic lane wider. A perfectly reasonable design for a residential collector street, but possibly not in the ‘Couve’s playbook…. because you wouldn’t be able to pass someone driving the speed limit.

Spiffy
10 years ago

with the mandatory helmet law keeping ridership down it’s no wonder that they think they can eliminate a bike lane…

Ted Buehler
10 years ago

“… the City asked residents how they’d prefer to re-stripe the road.”

Not necessarily the way to get the best result. Are the residents traffic engineers? I think not. Are they going to opt for the safest design? Not likely.

Sure hope some grown-ups step in and go with the safe, modern, code-compliant design of one traffic lane and one bike lane, with shoulders and buffers.

Thanks for the coverage, Madeleine!

Ted Buehler

BURR
BURR
10 years ago

Sharrows are meant to be used on roadways with insufficient right-of-way width to install bike lanes, and not as a substitute for bike lanes on roads where sufficient right-of-way width to install bike lanes does in fact exist, unless there are significant safety issues with a bike lane treatment, such as high volume, multiple or closely spaced right hook hazards.

Laurel
Laurel
10 years ago
Reply to  BURR

BURR, do you have link to anything official that explains this — like traffic planning guidelines? I’d like to say exactly this in a letter to the City Council.

GlowBoy
GlowBoy
10 years ago

Exactly right, BURR. Sharrows are not an appropriate treatment on a higher-speed, multilane boulevard. I know that Vancouver has bike-aware engineers on staff, and I know they can do better than this non-compliant proposal.