Video: "My head got kind of trapped between the car and the kerb"
4th April 2006
This was the month that the Burrard Bridge lane reallocation trial was originally going to start after years of debate, multiple reports, delays and inaction from a succession of Vancouver City Councils.
The trial, which would give over the two kerbside lanes to self-propelled traffic, received unanimous approval from the COPE/Vision council in July 2005. However, it was killed by the NPA dominated council, days before Christmas 2005.
Currently, cyclists are not allowed to ride on the six lanes of the Burrard Bridge. They share a narrow (2.6 metre), raised sidewalk with pedestrians, joggers, inline skaters, skateboarders, and trolley-pushers going in both directions.
At the council meeting in December the NPA voted to draw up another plan to expand the bridge outwards with an outrigger style sidewalk that narrows at the buttresses of the bridge (the so-called "pinch points").
The pinch points are a concession to the cultural values of the bridge which is one of the last art deco bridges in North America.
However, insiders suggest that the Burrard Bridge upgrades will never get off the ground due to spiralling construction costs and entrenched disagreements about the best step forward. Any construction would also have to be negotiated with the Squamish Nation who own the land underneath the Burrard Bridge.
As the number of Vancouver cyclists and pedestrians increases each year a solution to the bridge's shortcomings grows more pressing.
Biker Jane Lister sued the City for negligence after her Burrard Bridge cycling accident.
The Burrard Bridge saga continues...