Colleen McGuinness was working for the City of Vancouver’s economic development office when the hospital district along West 10th Avenue was created as a way to strengthen and enhance the city’s healthcare services.
Little did they imagine that, decades later, so many cyclists would also be using the street as a safe east/west corridor. If they had, she said, they would have planned it differently.
At Wednesay’s council meeting, in her role as chair of the seniors advisory committee, she supported — with caveats — the city’s new plan to make the four-block corridor safer for patients, pedestrians, drivers and cyclists.
Barbara Pringle also once worked for the city. She helped to write the Greenways plan to make Vancouver a more walkable and bikeable city, a goal she’s still passionate about.
Little did she imagine that she would be diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and have two serious illnesses, the after-effects of which would result in visiting the health precinct five times a month. She knows what it’s like to be in such all-encompassing pain that when you get out of your car outside the Mary Pack arthritis centre your brain can’t compute there’s a cyclist coming towards you, let alone propel your legs to get out of the way.
She spoke Wednesday against the plan. By allowing bikes on the corridor, she said, the city is not doing enough to protect vulnerable patients who have to be there.
“We find the journey to get help difficult and painful,” she told councillors, echoing the comments of another speaker who said that if the city could close a portion of Point Grey Road to make it safer for cyclists they could close a portion of West 10th to make it safer for patients. “Unfortunately, most of the changes [to the plan] still do not meet our needs.”
At the end of the three-hour meeting, councillors voted 8-2 in favour of the 10-point plan. The two dissenters were Councillors George Affleck, who had wanted to pass only parts of the plan, and Melissa De Genova. (A story about the council discussion is coming soon.)
By declaring the area a hospital district the plan will:
- create narrow bike lanes in each direction to discourage cyclists who don’t need to be in the hospital precinct while making it safer for the 60 per cent of cyclists who either work or are patients there; it’s hoped the narrow bike lanes and speed of slower cyclists will be another incentive for cyclists who don't need to be on the street to choose another route
- divert commuter cyclists to either 7th or 14th avenues and create a new north/south route west of Oak to make that easier
- create and enhance drop-off loading areas for patients who arrive by car or Handydart, and increase the loading time from three to 10 minutes
- add to the number of disabled parking spots
- make West 10th one way westbound from Cambie to Ash
- enhance street and pavement signage to make people aware they are in a hospital district
- improve safety at key intersections
Jacques Courteau spoke in favour of the plan on behalf of the persons with disabilities advisory committee. “At first there was the perception that there was a lack of understanding of how it would impact people with disabilities,” he said. When Vancouver Coastal Health, which manages several of the facilities, and the B.C. Cancer Agency became involved in December, “they really started to talk about these issues in meaningful ways.... It was a major breakthrough for Vancouver General Hospital to provide access to their land to move the sidewalk.”
The process wasn’t easy — “everyone wanted to give a little and everyone wanted to get a lot” — but Courteau recommends that the collaborative approach becomes the best practice for the city in the future.
Tanya Paz of the active transportation policy council welcomed many aspects of the plan but regretted it did not include a recommendation to make a half-block of Heather Street a car-free zone and that five trees will be cut down. (McGuinness said that the city has to do more to sweep up falling leaves and blossoms which become a safety hazard.)
Plans to divert cyclists to 7th and 14th avenues is one thing; convincing cyclists to make the detour is another, Paz said, especially since West 10th runs along a steep incline. “If a person is a driver they’re not going to be fazed by going two blocks out of their way; as a cyclist it adds up.”
That incline is what makes it impossible for people in wheelchairs to park on a side street before making their way to the Blusson Spinal Cord Centre, said Jocelyn Maffin, resource centre manager of the B.C. Spinal Cord Injury Community Services Network.
“I’m here to draw the exclamation mark to the population I represent,” she said, speaking also as a person in a wheelchair who relies on the centre’s services. While events such as the Paralympics draw attention to what is possible, those athletes start off as a sick person who needs everyone’s consideration.
Removing any of the existing parking spaces next to the Blusson Centre “jeopardizes the entire mission of the facility,” both for patients and the research that occurs there, she said.
As a person who’s started to cycle, she supported the bike lanes but repeatedly stressed that no plan that removes parking next to the centre is acceptable.
Kevin MacDuff of HUB Cycling works for VCH and bikes to work in the precinct. “The current design doesn’t work well for anyone and we urge you to approve the plan,” he said. By designating the area as a health precinct, and adding signage and street painting, the increased awareness will encourage everyone be more aware to be extra cautious and considerate.
After the meeting, Colleen McGuinness agreed that banning bikes would have been the best option but not the most realistic. “If a vehicle can go there, a bike can,” she said. “The bike is simply too much a part of the culture.”
She says part of the problem lies with the provincial government not funding parking as part of hospital construction. A few of the new buildings in the precinct have no underground parking lots.
