Commercial Drive Complete Street Pilot - Add Bike Lanes, Patios & Public Space Now!

The City of Vancouver quickly improved cycling and walking on Beach Avenue during the pandemic and continues to do a great job of makings safety and other improvements along Beach Ave.

This demonstrates the value of making pilot changes quickly then monitoring and getting feedback from the community and making improvements as needed.

Please encourage the City to take a similar approach along Commercial Drive to improve the safety of people cycling, walking and rolling to businesses, homes, medical offices, school, community facilities, transit and other destinations on or near the Drive. This includes workers commuting to businesses, those delivering food for restaurants and customers who need to or chose to cycle.

Email Mayor and Council. NOW!

In April, Toronto City Council approved the Midtown Complete Street Pilot on Yonge Street that includes patios and protected bike lanes as per the image above. 

Commercial Near  Broadway Commercial Station

A similar pilot for the summer of 2021 on sections of Commercial near  Broadway Commercial Station could be a win-win and would be consistent with the City's climate, safety and equity policies. It could help resolve the disagreements as to the best permanent solutions. 

On the south, ideally the lanes would connect to Commercial Street and the BC Parkway via St. Reallocating a lane of traffic would create enough space for a separated bike lane. In some sections, parking could be reallocated to create patios, public space with seating, loading zones or more space for walking & rolling depending on the surrounding use. Generally, the city should discourage parking except some for wheelchair users near rapid transit stations.

Broadway and Commercial

At Broadway and Commercial, add bus lanes, reallocate the curb lane for protected bike lanes and ban right hand and left hand turns. This will make the intersection safer for everyone plus help ensure turning vehicles don't block the bus lane and conflict with people cycling.

Ban turns from NB and SB Commercial onto Broadway 

Rather surprised these turns are allowed. Unsignalized left turns are particularly dangerous especially for people walking. Right turning vehicles are both dangerous to pedestrians and often block buses while waiting for the large number of people walking and rolling in the crosswalks slowing bus service down and making it less predictable.

Not surprisingly, this intersection has the highest number of Crashes on Commercial with 14 from 2015 through 2019 according to ICBC. Five people cycling were in crashes with motor vehicles here. The highest for an intersection on Commercial with that is not a cycling route. It is also the highest for drivers with 489 crashes in that 5 years. This amounts to a crash around every 4 days.

Reducing crashes by banning turns not only makes streets safer for everyone, it reduces delays due to those crashes making transit service more reliable and less expensive to operate.

Please email Mayor and Council NOW!

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Mayor Stewart, Make Commercial Drive Great for People Walking, Cycling and Rolling
Tell them how a Complete Street with protected bike lanes, patios and moe public space would help you and your family and friends.
Please make Commercial Drive safe for people

 

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