Cycling advocates and some city politicians want future upgrades to the Burrard Bridge to include opening the east sidewalk to pedestrians again.

For more than one year, pedestrians have been banished to the west sidewalk on the span so cyclists can use the east sidewalk to ride over the bridge as part of a bike lane trial.

“In the worst case, this adds about six signal changes to their walk as well as forcing them to cross over an additional 20 traffic lanes,” Arno Schortinghuis of the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition told city council July 8. “Every time I cycle on the east sidewalk, my joy of cycling in a protected lane is tempered by the sadness and empathy I feel for the inconvenience to pedestrians.”

A year ago, city council approved a reconfiguration of the Burrard Bridge that reduced traffic lanes to five from six to make it safer for cyclists to cross in both directions.

Cyclists use the east sidewalk going into downtown and have a dedicated lane on the west side of the bridge to use when leaving downtown. Both cycling paths are protected by concrete barriers.

Ned Jacobs of the Friends of Burrard Bridge echoed Schortinghuis’s concern for pedestrians, saying “they are our number one priority.”

“We need to move forward,” said Jacobs, who congratulated council for the bike lanes. “We’ve done half the job, now we need to do the rest. And here we have a splendid opportunity to do so as a result of the work that has to be done on the bridge.”

Calling the bike trial a success, council approved a staff recommendation to fund $2 million worth of design work to build permanent cycling paths with barriers on the bridge.

Options such as allowing pedestrians to use both sides of the bridge is not mentioned in the report authored by assistant city engineer Jerry Dobrovolny.

But NPA Coun. Suzanne Anton and Mayor Gregor Robertson urged Dobrovolny to have consultants consider the option in the design.

“I’ve never been wildly enthusiastic about the pedestrians losing the east sidewalk,” Anton said. “In fact, I’m not enthusiastic about that at all.”

When Robertson asked Dobrovolny if opening the east sidewalk to pedestrians was a possibility, he replied, “We’ll try to keep all of those options open.”

Council’s unanimous vote to approve design work on the bridge means protected bike lanes on the bridge will be permanent. The council meeting occurred the same day the city announced in a press release that the one millionth bike trip over the bridge occurred the previous evening.

That translates to 83,000 bike trips per month in a city where the population hovers around 600,000. Transit buses appear to be unaffected by the changes to the bridge, the city report said.

Vehicle travel times to cross the span have remained the same in some approaches. But accessing the bridge from Georgia Street via Thurlow and Pacific now takes an average of one minute and 30 seconds longer in the morning rush and three minutes longer in the afternoon, the report said.

West End resident Gerry McGuire told council the bike lane trial is a “dirty initiative” and has not significantly reduced the number of people who continue to rely on their vehicles to drive over the bridge.

“On the weekends, traffic is backed up all the way from the Burrard Street bridge back to Cardero on a regular basis—on a nice, sunny Saturday and Sunday,” McGuire said. “And they’re spewing pollution into my bedroom.”

mhowell@vancourier.com