A reader pointed us to this report [.pdf] from the Greenways and Neighbourhood Transportation Branch of the City of Vancouver. It documents cycling and pedestrian traffic based on StatsCan census data and the city’s field research.
As you’d expect, cycling and walking are highest in the downtown, with walking being more popular in the core, and cycling being more popular slightly outside of downtown. However, I would have guessed that in a dense, fair-climate city like Vancouver, that the combined walking and biking share for the downtown would be higher than 50%. Are the other 50% taking the Skytrain to workplaces outside the downtown? Or are they motorists? Although the purpose of this report is to highlight cycling and walking, but I’m instantly curious about the traffic breakdown (although I could dig it up on StatsCan).
3 Comments for Vancouver stats
Cyclist_Loving | February 13, 2009 at 3:25 pm
Padraic | February 14, 2009 at 2:43 pm
After talking to a few people from Vancouver, it seems that during the winter people will take the bus, even within the downtown, in order to avoid getting wet.
Chris B | February 14, 2009 at 2:59 pm
I used to live in the West End (downtown Vancouver) and I didn’t know anybody who would take the bus to a downtown location. I think the key is that there are a lot of pwople who have jobs outside of downtown.
Vancouver has a lot of bike routes, but very few dedicated bike pathways. Ontario is probably the street that has been turned the most into a bike route, and it shows. That one southern outlier of 27% is right on the Ontario bike route (running N/S). Most of Vncouver’s bike routes consist of markings on the roa and little else, but Ontario has dedicated lights (with buttons at cycle level) all intersections have traffic circles, and every third or fourth is blocked off to non-bike through traffic. The result is that a bike moves much faster than a car.
This is the best site ever.