Vancouver cyclists have an improved corridor to ride in downtown Vancouver, but many business owners along the route are not pleased with the decision.
City council approved plans on Tuesday night to build a $3.2 million, two-way separated bike lane on a trial basis along the east side of Hornby Street. The bike lane budget also includes $200,000 for a communications plan.
The move will connect the city’s existing Dunsmuir Street and Burrard Bridge bike lanes as part of council’s ongoing effort to improve infrastructure for cyclists downtown.
Mayor Gregor Robertson said the new bike lanes represent an essential component of an overall transit, cycling and pedestrian access plan that will improve downtown Vancouver’s economy.
“We’ve seen in cities around the world the economic benefits that come from increasing ridership into dense urban areas,” Robertson said in a statement. “Our work in Vancouver is following the best practices of cities like New York, Paris and Montreal who’ve increased their cycling capacity.”
But not everyone is happy about the mayor’s transportation plan.
According to a survey released Monday by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), 92% of Hornby Street business owners fear the separated bike lane will hurt their businesses.
The CFIB said estimated revenue losses range between 5% and 80%, depending on the business. The average sales loss per business is estimated at $6,960 a month or $83,000 annually.
“If you expand the trend from our survey to the whole street, Hornby businesses are bracing themselves for a multi-million dollar hit,” said Laura Jones, the CFIB’s vice-president of Western Canada. “This is not trivial to businesses whose families and employees depend on them.”
The CFIB wants the mayor to compensate business owners for any losses that are a direct result of the separated bike lane.
A statement from city hall released shortly before midnight Tuesday said nothing about compensation for business owners, but did say parking would continue to be available on every block along Hornby and 160 parking spaces would be added to Seymour and Howe Streets as buses return to Granville Street. The city is projecting a loss of 158 parking spaces on Hornby.
The city said it would continue to monitor the success of the bike lane, including ridership numbers, traffic volumes and business impacts.