More than 2,000 cyclists and 700 pedestrians recently used the Arbutus Greenway over a 12-hour period, according to the city’s latest count.
The numbers were released this weekend when Mayor Gregor Robertson marked the official opening of the temporary pathway, which stretches from False Creek to the Fraser River.
“We’re continuing to count and these numbers continue to increase,” Jerry Dobrovolny, the city's general manager of engineering, told the Courier Monday morning.
“Our expectations were that it would be very popular and these numbers are proving it. They push [the greenway] into the upper echelon of our routes in the city.”
The temporary pathway was put in place to allow residents to familiarize themselves with the greenway while plans are underway to create a permanent pathway.
Features along the nine-kilometre route include an all-weather hard surface that’s divided for walking and cycling, a bark mulch path for walking and jogging, washrooms, benches and MOBI bike share stations.
Pollinator gardens were planted along the greenway but that’s been more successful at the southern end. The flowers didn’t take as well everywhere because it was a little late for planting and there wasn’t enough rain.
The fall is considered the ideal time, so staff plan to put down another seed mix then.
“It’s a variety of different flowers so they’ll come up during the year,” Dobrovolny said.
#Vancouver's new Arbutus Greenway is in full bloom right now #lp pic.twitter.com/qhYhPMcFhR
— John Lee (@johnleewriter) July 8, 2017
Spotted this huge butterfly on #Vancouver's Arbutus Greenway today #lp pic.twitter.com/2vAMFTORNW
— John Lee (@johnleewriter) July 8, 2017
There’s also some lighting that will be installed before the fall, along with signals at 12th, Broadway and Marine Drive — at this point signs direct users to the nearest intersection.
More features such as art or sustainable green ideas around habitat could be added over the coming months. Dobrovolny said the city has adopted the concept of “action while planning.”
“While we’re in the design process and the consultation process, if good ideas come up, we’d like to try them out,” he said. “So if [residents] have got some great ideas over the next while, we’ll try to get them in.”
Dobrovolny said the city is not seeing complaints about user conflicts although some residents had been concerned cyclists would travel too fast along the hard surface and endanger pedestrians.
“People respond well to rules, in general, and that’s why we put the dividing line down the middle to show this side is for cyclists and this side is for pedestrians,” he said, adding the greenway is designed for recreational purposes not for high-speed cycling; faster speeds are more likely during commuter times.
Arbutus Greenway — Rainbow Rocks https://t.co/s9HiBuBQ7v pic.twitter.com/deuwrKfcRb
— Ken Ohrn (@KenOhrn) June 12, 2017
In recent months, the city has been collecting feedback about the overall vision for the final greenway through pop-up city halls and online.
Now it’s hiring a design team to work on conceptual designs.
“We’ve heard some feedback about the long-term vision and now we’ll start to put pen to paper and come up with some options. Then we’ll come back out to the community to discuss what those options look like,” Dobrovolny said.
The goal is to have a conceptual design by the end of the year or at the beginning of next year.
Residents can still submit feedback online and get on a city mailing list to get updates about the planning and design process.
“It really is a special project. We’re hearing that loudly and clearly from the public, so I’d really encourage people to get involved in this once-in-a-generation opportunity,” Dobrovolny said. “There was a generation that grew up with trains on the corridor and now there’s a generation that gets to shape active transportation on the corridor.”
The route for the future streetcar, meanwhile, hasn’t been determined — that will be part of the conceptual design.
The city will try to fit in all uses — walking, cycling and the streetcar — on some portions of the greenway.
“There are some sections where we’ve got much more width because we’ve got two streets as well as the corridor and some parking areas,” Dobrovolny explained. “And there are sections at the northern end where we might choose to take the bikes off onto a different route. We’ve got a number of different options that we’ll look at over these next few months.”
@naoibh
