Dear Editor:
When the District of North Vancouver announced bike lanes on Lynn Valley Road, I wrote to express my concern that if the new southbound bike lane simply dumped cyclists into the highway on-ramp lane at its end, there would be insufficient space to safely make the two merges required before the underpass; the new bike lane would effectively end in a trap.
The district has now built that trap. I was number three of three cyclists en route to work along Lynn Valley Road recently, when number two got caught in the trap.
The on-ramp lane traffic allowed him to merge but the through lane traffic did not – it ignored his signal and refused to let him in, forcing him to veer onto the sidewalk.
Judging by how skillfully he handled the situation, cyclist number two was highly experienced. But what if he hadn’t been?
Barely 30 seconds after number two escaped the trap at the underpass, I watched cyclist number one get “right hooked” by a right turning vehicle that failed to yield to him as he exited the new City of North Vancouver separated shared path along East Grand Boulevard to cross 19th Street. Fortunately, number one was also alert and able to avoid a collision.
As it stands, cyclists are often in a catch-22 with separated lanes. They’re safer, until they end. B.C. traffic legislation doesn’t address bike lanes let alone require vehicles to allow a cyclist to merge where a separated bike lane ends in a merge.
As such, drivers are not taught to look for where separated bike lanes end or otherwise intersect with the roadway, nor when they should be looking for cyclist traffic in separated lanes so as to anticipate when a cyclist will be crossing or merging.
This dangerous situation will persist until municipalities develop or seek the expertise to design better infrastructure and the province undertakes the long overdue updating of the 1957 Motor Vehicle Act to, among other things, address the proliferation of bike infrastructure being installed by municipalities.
Until that time, the risks associated with these conflict areas can be mitigated by individuals taking it upon themselves to watch for where separated bike lanes intersect with the roadway by crossing or merging and to look for cyclists well in advance of those intersection spots, so that they will expect the cross or merge before it’s too late to avoid causing a collision.
Natasha Reid
North Vancouver
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