The plan to remove a controversial temporary bike lane from Vancouver’s Stanley Park could cost as much as $425,000 and take until the first week of April, a Vancouver Park Board memo has revealed.
The ABC party-dominated park board voted earlier this month to begin “immediately” removing the lane which has ringed the park on Stanley Park Drive in its current form since 2021.
The ABC majority maintains its plan is to remove the current temporary lane and replace it with something that will better accommodate both cyclists and motorists and alleviate accessibility concerns in the park.
Park board Chair Scott Jensen said he wasn’t surprised at the cost estimate, given the size of the project.
“So to remove it and transition to something better obviously will have a price tag with it. Right now we are only spending $25,000 to remove the cones from Prospect Point down to the Teahouse Restaurant,” he said.
“We need to make sure we spend the money thoughtfully and not to be rash. The decisions we make are decisions that are going to last a lot longer, these are not temporary decisions.”
According to the memo, the work would include removing 700 traffic delineators and 1,000 traffic cones, taking down 250 signs and removing 830 concrete barriers, along with repainting lines on the road.
It envisions the removal taking place in phases. The first phase, involving the removal of cones between Prospect Point and Ferguson Point could be completed by Dec. 23, it states.
Much of the work would need to take place at night, inflating costs by about 30 per cent, the memo notes.
That work is estimated to cost between $375,000 and $425,000, and according to the memo, funds would come from accounts dedicated to permanent cycling infrastructure in the city’s capital plan.
Jensen said that suggestion was a “mistake” and that the money will instead come from the park board’s general budget.
The Vancouver Green Party’s Tom Digby, the sole non-ABC commissioner on the park board, said he worried the high cost of removing the lane could pinch the board’s work in other areas.
“It was quite irresponsible to make a full commitment to taking this action without knowing what the budget numbers are,” he said.
“We don’t even have an operating budget for next year from city council. We know there’s seven per cent inflation across the system. Things are going to be really tight in the next year. So to commit to a project without knowing what the money is, is really surprising.”
Digby said he was optimistic his colleagues on the board would listen to feedback and consider only removing parts of the lane that caused the most controversy.
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Cycling advocate Lucy Maloney with the group Love the Lane said the hefty cost should help people understand building safe road infrastructure is more complex than many realize.
She said her group is less worried about the price tag than keeping road users safe and maintaining separate bike infrastructure in the park.
“I think there’s a lot of scope to do that. The memo sets out a staged approach to removing (the bike lane) that’s safe, so only a small amount of it is going to be able to removed in the short term, it’s going to take a couple of months to organize the safe removal of the rest of it,” she said.
“What we’re hoping is in the meantime the park board is going to work on designing the new lane, and hopefully there’s potential for people to put in place sections of the new lane while they are removing the old.”
The separated bike lane has proven to be a flashpoint in civic politics.
Opponents say it reduced accessibility for seniors and people with disabilities, created congestion and hurt businesses in the park.
Supporters said it created a safe space for families and people of all cycling abilities to enjoy the park, while leaving drivers a full lane on Stanley Park Drive and only minor reductions in parking.
During the 2022 municipal election, some ABC commissioner candidates told HUB Cycling their plan for Stanley Park was to close the lane, develop a more equitable and desirable option for cyclists, and implement it in time for the summer of 2023. However, the plan to remove the bike lane was not included in the party’s platform or posted on its website.
Jensen said work will proceed as planned with the first-phase cone removal, and the board will hear back from staff in the first quarter of financial year 2023 with options about what the most practical and economical next steps will be.
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