Cars zipped by as a group of cyclists slowly rode up the steep hill that spans about two blocks of East McLoughlin Boulevard in Vancouver’s Central Park neighborhood.
There are no bike lanes on that greater stretch of road, which begins at East Reserve Street and ends at Grand Boulevard. And residents’ cars are often parked along the curb, forcing riders onto the sidewalk or into the road, slowing down uphill traffic.
For many cyclists, such as Jim Thomas, he worries about the larger vehicles he’s sharing the eastbound lane with: school and C-Tran buses that at times fly by mere inches away.
“You get a bottleneck right there, and it’s dangerous,” said Thomas, 64, who’s lived on East McLoughlin for nearly 26 years.
Between 2013 and 2015, there was one collision involving a motorist and cyclist at East McLoughlin and W Street, according to city data. The driver made a right turn and failed to yield to the cyclist.
Members of the Vancouver bicycle stakeholder group and Central Park Neighborhood Association want to avoid any more.
That is why they have proposed installing speed radar signs and eliminating on-street parking on the south side of East McLoughlin to designate a bike lane.
‘Slam dunk’?
In May, Norma Watson, president of the neighborhood association, presented the project to the city’s Neighborhood Traffic Safety Alliance, which works with residents who apply for traffic-calming projects. The city allocates funds — about $170,000 for the latest round of projects — to install traffic control devices and signs.
Speed monitors found that nearly 3,700 vehicles use that stretch of East McLoughlin daily. About 85 percent of those travel 10 mph over the posted speed limit of 25 mph, said Madeleine von Laue, a member of the Vancouver bicycle stakeholder group.
“It’s a very busy section for cars. More cars make it more dangerous for cyclists,” she said.
Her group did an informal polling of residents and conducted a parking count in the spring. Von Laue said they found that the highest percentage of parking utilization was 25 percent on the south side and 37 percent on the north side of East McLoughlin.
One of the arguments for the grant came from the city’s Comprehensive Plan, Watson said, which speaks to the completion of the arterials.
“All of the houses have their own driveway, so it seemed like sort of a slam dunk,” she said.
Results from a recent city petition showed otherwise, however, and mirrored opposition garnered in 2003 that ultimately killed a similar project. The city at that time proposed eliminating on-street parking on the south side of East McLoughlin for an eastbound bike lane and designating a westbound bike lane that would abut the parking lane on the north side.
Last month, 102 petitions went out, with residents having three weeks to respond to whether they support the latest project proposal. As of Sept. 2, only 25 petitions were returned, and the majority of those did not support removing parking for a bike lane, said Jennifer Campos, a senior planner with the city.
Many residents wrote comments that indicated they support speed radar signs but not the bike lane, she said.
“I think everybody is OK with making it safer, but they don’t want to give up what they see as a right,” Watson said. “Street parking is a privilege.”
An inconvenience
Watson said she thinks the petitions should not have included renter input, or homeowners who live at cross streets, where they can park, because they “skew the numbers in an amazing way.”
One longtime resident, Mel Duarte, vehemently disagrees.
“The people who want (the bike lane) aren’t the people who live in these two blocks,” he said. “If they take away parking on that side, it will flood (the north) side.”
There is currently a sharrow — shared-lane marking — on the downhill lane for cyclists, because they can better keep up with traffic.
Duarte, 63, has lived on East McLoughlin for 16 years and said he opposed the project the first time it was proposed more than a decade ago.
Eliminating on-street parking would lower home values, he said, and people with multiple cars would have nowhere to park, and neither would their guests. Some residents already partially park up on the curb because it’s a narrow road.
“They can get off their bike and walk it up the sidewalk,” Duarte said. “They don’t want to be inconvenienced, but they want to inconvenience us. They want to put all of the weight on the owners.”
He suggested cyclists cut over from East McLoughlin to East 16th Street via X Street to avoid the steep curve. They would still end up at Grand Boulevard, and although there’s no traffic signal, there is a stop sign, Duarte said.
Watson said residents have also suggested that cyclists use East 13th Street to avoid that area. But again, cyclists argue that there’s no traffic signal at Grand.
“They’re acting like because they live here, it’s their street. I use this street at least three times a week (going and coming). It’s a safety issue,” said cyclist Jan Verrinder, 64, who lives in the nearby Harney Heights neighborhood.
But the groups aren’t ready to give up yet.
Watson said the next step is to go door to door to speak with area residents about the project and plead their case to the city later this month. At the very least, they will still pursue the project for speed radar signs.
