A sign recently posted by an intersection on Vancouver’s Central Valley Greenway is raising concerns about safety for cyclists, stating in a tongue-in-cheek way that someone will have to die before the City of Vancouver addresses them.
The board, which is not authored by the municipality, was shared in a Reddit post on Sunday and as of Monday afternoon, had more than 1,200 votes. It suggests the bike crossing near Victoria Road and East Broadway is unsafe, relying on an un-signalled crosswalk to help cyclists traverse six lanes of traffic.
“Don’t even *try* to figure this one out,” the sign reads next to a diagram of the intersection.
“We’ll fix it once one of you gets killed. We promise! Love, The City of Vancouver.”
In an emailed statement, the City of Vancouver said it is aware of the “unsanctioned” sign and the location’s challenges for cyclists.
Jeff Leigh, president of HUB Cycling, said the Victoria-East Broadway crossing has made cyclists “very uncomfortable” for quite some time.
“It’s not much better for people walking, but the cycling crossing in particular from the Central Valley Greenway goes to a mid-block crossing of Broadway, about 60 metres from Victoria, and it doesn’t have any protection,” he explained.
“It doesn’t have a signal light, it doesn’t have any flashing lights — it is simply a crosswalk painted (in) the middle of the street across Broadway, and as a result, it leaves people feeling very, very nervous and very scared to cross it.”
East Broadway has three lanes of traffic going in either direction and the crossing relies on cars to yield.
“The real danger is when the first vehicle stops and the others decide that they don’t know why someone is stuck in front of them, so they cut by on the inside or the outside,” Leigh explained. “That is what frequently happens.”
The Central Valley Greenway is a 25-kilometre regional greenway linking Vancouver, Burnaby and New Westminster that combines off-road and on-road paths.
According to the City of Vancouver’s website, recent safety upgrades to the greenway in East Vancouver include a new protected bikeway on Grandview Highway North between Clark and Commercial drives, reduced vehicle volumes on Grandview Highway North, and a new traffic signal at the East 8th Avenue and Victoria Drive intersection.
The portion of the greenway between Clark Drive and John Hendry Park — which encompasses the problematic intersection flagged in the sign — was identified for improvements in 2021.
“We are currently working on a design for a rebuild of Victoria and Broadway to improve the Central Valley Greenway (CVG) crossing to be safer and more comfortable for people cycling of all ages and abilities,” reads the City of Vancouver’s emailed statement.
“We are planning to coordinate this work with the Victoria-Broadway Area Renewal project for the next capital plan.”
Global News spoke with a handful of cyclists passing by Victoria and East Broadway on Monday.
Ed Tung said while you “have to watch the movement of traffic for sure,” he gives the crossing a “danger” rating of about six out of 10.
“Normally it’s pretty okay because they’ve got the green sign for the bike,” he explained. “For me, it’s pretty straightforward. At least they’ve got the bike lane there.”
Fernando Maglio said he can “totally see it being confusing,” but hasn’t used that particular crossing before.
“I would definitely be concerned. It’s such a busy street. There’s a lot of cars and I can see a lot of cars missing the signs and all that,” he told Global News.
Electric unicyclist Paul Whitmore, who would “never go across it”, said, “It’s very scary. You have to go across three lanes of traffic and there’s two crosswalks up there and I feel a lot safer on those.”
Linda Jordan called the crossing “definitely a mistake.” She said that while she applauds Vancouver’s overall cycling infrastructure, she walks her bicycle to the nearest lit traffic intersection and walks it across instead.
“I think it’s absolutely ridiculous and it’s very, very dangerous. I can’t imagine who would have thought it was a good idea.”
Leigh of HUB Cycling said many cyclists choose to use the pedestrian crosswalk instead of the crossing for cyclists, and while that’s not encouraged, he “certainly understands” why riders do it.
“We need 60 metres of protected lane to get cyclists down to a safe, signalized crossing, and then signage to get them to there,” he suggested. “Without that, we’re left with a very dangerous situation.”
He said the crossing has been on the advocacy group’s cycling “priority gap list” for many years and a design to resolve it was proposed in 2021, but never implemented.
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