Safety improves but equity lags in Metro Vancouver bike infrastructure

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A study on Metro VancouverThe cycling network finds that while safety and accessibility have been improved, there is still more work to be done to make cycling more accessible.

Women remain under-represented, for example, and those who bike to work tend to be wealthier and whiter.

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“Cycling tends to be higher where bike routes are more comfortable for everyone, and this allows more women to cycle,” the report from HUB Cycling notes.

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The study found that while cycling infrastructure improved across the region, access varied greatly from city to city. Those gaps affected the number and type of people who biked to work.

“The quality and connectivity and completeness of the cycling network really equalizes gender use,” said Timothy Welsh, director of program development at HUB Cycling.

Research has found two features in particular increase ridership: accessibility and safety.

To measure safety, HUB Cycling worked with TransLink and Metro municipalities several years ago to create a rating system for bikeways that ranges from “comfortable for most” to “comfortable for very few.”

Comfort for most of the bikeways are either completely protected from vehicle traffic or are on common roads with speed limits of 30 km/h and little traffic.

Accessibility was measured by the distance from the nearest bikeway. Studies have found that people who live 400 meters from a bikeway are more likely to cycle.

Some cities have done better than others to improve the accessibility and quality of their bikeways.

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Welsh pointed to Coquitlam, saying the city “has done a sensational job of adding cycling networks and connecting with the SkyTrains.”

As a result, she said, “You can see a pretty substantial increase in Coquitlam in female riding.”

Surrey had more than 1,100 miles of cycle routes in 2021, but less than a third were considered comfortable for most. Less than a quarter of Surrey residents who cycled to work were women.

In Vancouver, nearly 80 percent of the city’s 626 kilometers of bike routes were rated as comfortable for most. The city had one of the highest percentages of female cyclists in 2021, at 42.7 percent.

Willa Minnes, co-founder of WOW laugha cycling group focused on women, said that when the group was founded 10 years ago, they reached out to women to ask why they weren’t riding.

“They say it’s because they’re scared. They don’t feel safe on the road,” Minnes said.

Bike commuters also tend to be wealthy, the study found. People earning $200,000 or more were nearly three times more likely to commute by bike than those earning $20,000 to $60,000.

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Welsh said that while a number of factors, including job requirements and the ability to work from home were factors, the design of cycling infrastructure also played a significant role.

“The cycling network tends to be better where people are better off,” Welsh acknowledged.

“While we are building the network and making it more comprehensive and more comfortable for the majority … we must also encourage more ridership from different socio-economic groups,” he said.

The study also found that in areas where the network of bicycle routes grew or improved, the rate of bicycle collisions fell even though more people rode bicycles.

For Minnes, security is more than infrastructure. He grew up in Alberta, where learning to ride a bike safely was a mandatory part of public school, he said, and WOWride continues that mission.

“We’re really proud because we’re empowering women to get out there and ride safer,” Minnes said. “And then they want to ride.”

@njgriffiths
ngriffiths@postmedia.com

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