Apparently, I didn't get the straight goods from the Vancouver Police Department when I reported in this space Oct. 20 that bike lanes are strictly for cyclists.

At the time, public affairs Const. Anne Longley told me the department's traffic enforcement unit said the separated bike lanes and the painted lanes were only for cyclists--not skateboarders, rollerbladers, etc.

Chris Keam of the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition read my report and contacted Longley via email to find out how the VPD reached its conclusion. Where exactly, he asked, is it mentioned in the city bylaws or Motor Vehicle Act that the lanes are restricted to cyclists?

"I have heard various advocates and politicians say that bike lanes aren't strictly for bicycles and I have made similar statements based upon those comments," he wrote. "It's important to me to ensure that the public has the right information in this regard."

Longley did some further investigation and discovered she was "given inaccurate information." Turns out, she said, there is nothing specific in the bylaws or the Act regulating the use of new or existing bike lanes or pathways. "I apologize for the error and appreciate your diligence in getting the correct information," Longley wrote to Keam.

I heard from Longley Wednesday and she told me the VPD's traffic section will meet with the city's engineering staff next month to sort out who exactly is allowed to use the lanes. Right now, she said, it's unclear. "All of these things are hopefully going to be clarified in the near future," she said. "Right now, there's just so much that hasn't been determined yet."

The city's intention in adding painted lanes and separated lanes was that cyclists would have their own paths. The painted cycling symbols on the roads and the bike path signs support the intention.

But until the law is sorted out, I guess I'm free to dust off my G&S Fibreflex Doug "Pineapple" Saladino deck and join my two-wheeled friends in the bike lanes.

Or, maybe not.

Apparently, there're some new rules regarding skateboard use on the streets.

Argh.

RAPID FIRE

In other transportation news...

The NPA's lone city councillor, Suzanne Anton, was hanging out at the Broadway-Commercial transit hub Wednesday talking rapid transit. I didn't make it down to hear what she said. But with this relatively new technology called email, I heard from Anton.

She's worried not enough attention is being given to the plan to run a rapid transit line from the Commercial hub to the University of B.C. The Metro Vancouver board will debate the Regional Growth Strategy Nov. 12 and Anton hopes the updated plan reinstates the importance of the Broadway line.

"The draft plan undervalued the importance of the Broadway extension and virtually ignored the needs of UBC," she wrote. "Once the Evergreen Line is built [to Coquitlam], buses on Broadway will not be able to carry the load of new riders. If Vancouver doesn't speak up, it may be decades before the line is completed out to UBC."

At a council meeting earlier this month, Anton said she hoped a decision on the UBC line wouldn't be a political one. But when the line is proposed to run through a riding represented by some guy named Gordon Campbell, how can it not be political, asked the cynical scribe.

mhowell@vancourier.com

Twitter: @Howellings