Is the Hornby Street separated bike lane good for business? It depends who answers the question.

But as the Courier discovered on a recent sunny Friday while randomly polling 10 business operators along the 12-block stretch, the responses won't please city council, which unanimously approved the $3.2 million lane in October 2010.

The majority of operators want the lane scrapped.

Some said business was down, others complained about losing parking spots outside their stores. Traffic congestion has increased, they say, and point to the city eliminating right turns on Helmcken Street and installing cyclist-only signals.

Middle ground was difficult to find in the Courier's survey, which included visits to a restaurant, a café, a travel agency, a photo lab, a hotel and a high-end gift shop.

All offered the same observation: Very few cyclists use the lane that runs two ways on the east side of Hornby Street, from Pacific to Hastings, and is protected from traffic by a series of barriers, including planters.

"Common sense will tell you that this is not necessary," said Jack Richardson, owner of Cantour Travel on Hornby near Pacific Street. "Look outside and tell me where all the bikes are."

Richardson was sitting at a desk with a view of the bike lane. The discussion turned to city council's desire to make Vancouver the greenest city in the world and create more travelling options less dependent on the car. "Cycling as a means of mass transportation?" Richardson responds. "C'mon, we're not China. Let's get serious. If we're interested in moving people, how about more buses or rapid transit?"

Over the next two months, researchers will spend $120,000 of taxpayer money to determine what effect separated lanes have had on businesses along Hornby and Dunsmuir Street--the other shorter, less expensive downtown separated bike lane.

Stantec Consulting, with assistance from Site Economics Ltd. and Mustel Group, is conducting the study. Stantec was chosen by the Vancouver Economic Development Commission after it consulted with city staff, two downtown business associations and the Vancouver Board of Trade. The study will focus on the short and long-term effects of the lanes on storefront businesses such as Cantour Travel, commercial property owners and businesses located on upper floors of buildings.

Similar surveys will be conducted on Howe and Georgia streets, which don't have separated bike lanes, to compare results with findings on Hornby and Dunsmuir streets.

Researchers will recommend ways to mitigate any negative economic impacts on businesses and include an analysis of what other cities with separated bike lanes have done to keep businesses thriving.

The study's findings will go before city council in July.

What the Courier discovered in its survey is that operators on Hornby aren't so much hurting financially from the implementation of the bike lane as they are more philosophically opposed to the idea.

The lane, they say, is also an inconvenience to them and their customers. Add an unstable economy, the HST and new drinking and driving laws and the answer to whether the separated lanes are good for business becomes more complex.

Richardson, for example, said he hasn't seen a decline in business at his travel agency since the separated lane opened in December.

"But has it enhanced it? No. Has it made life more difficult? Yes."

Though he acknowledged much of his business is done electronically by computer, couriers and some customers still have to access his agency at 1357 Hornby St.

He says he's lost at least six metered parking spots outside his store.

Richardson also has to make trips to the bank in his car, drop off tickets to clients and said the congestion along Hornby--a one-way street--has noticeably increased since the bike lane was built.

Richardson already mailed in his survey to the researchers.

"Unfortunately, there's no spot [in the survey] that asks if we should go back to the way it was," he said, noting Hornby originally had a painted bike lane that didn't require removing parking spots.

Further along Hornby, the general manager of The Landis Hotel and Suites isn't complaining about a downturn in business. In fact, Khaled Ali said business is up because of conventions and an increase in Canadians travelling to Vancouver.

It's his guests he's worried about.

At least twice a day, he said, Ali witnesses an altercation between a cyclist and a motorist or taxi driver. It occurs when a motorist is travelling north on Hornby and turns right--across the bike lane--into the hotel's driveway.

"Cyclists are spitting on their cars," said Ali, as he stood behind the hotel's front desk, which has a view of Hornby Street. "The problem is some cyclists think they have the right-of-way and speed."

The area outside the hotel is the most likely spot along Hornby Street for a collision to occur. That's because the neighbouring hotel, The Cascadia, is renovating its façade and built scaffolding over top of the bike lane, creating a small tunnel.

Visibility is a problem.

The hotel arranged to have plywood attached on the sides of the scaffolding and painted signs on it urging cyclists to ring their bells and for pedestrians to use caution.

The Courier witnessed two narrow misses in the few minutes standing outside the hotels. Tourists coming off a bus and a toddler who stepped into the bike lane were startled by cyclists yelling "heads up, heads up" as they zipped along the lane.

Management at the Cascadia declined to comment when approached by the Courier to discuss the bike lane's effect on the hotel and its guests.

Stephen Ho, owner of Stephen's Photolab at Hornby and Davie streets, said he relies on guests from the Landis and Cascadia hotels to keep his business afloat.

The rising Canadian dollar has meant fewer American customers. The loss of at least three street parking spots outside his store has also eliminated the number of customers he used to get.

"For city hall to do this, it is no help to businesses," he said from inside his store, which he's operated for 16 years. "This is a good location but nobody can park here anymore."

Now he has drivers stopping in the street, with their emergency flashers on, and running in to the store to ask where to find a parking spot. He estimated about 30 per cent of his customers are motorists.

It's the same number he quoted when calculating how much his business has declined since the lane opened in December 2010. Ho pays $15,000 a year in property tax and said if council wants the lane to be permanent, then he expects a break on his taxes.

"People riding the bikes are not helping my business, it's the drivers," he said, noting he has witnessed altercations between cyclists and pedestrians at the intersection.

Across the street from Ho's photo lab is the BG Urban Café, where owner Noshin Dehghani was busy serving customers. She opened the café in February 2010 in anticipation of hungry crowds arriving for the 2010 Winter Games.

Business was good and then flattened out when city crews began building the bike lane in the fall of 2010. More tourists are in town and business is picking up, but it could be better, Dehghani said.

But is the bike lane solely to blame?

"Everything altogether--the bike lane, the HST, the economy, no parking."

So should city council get rid of the lane?

"Leave it. Spend the money on something else. People will get used to it."

Though it may not look like it--with the planters, bike signals, concrete curbs and bike racks along the streets--the Hornby and Dunsmuir separated bike lanes are considered trials.

It's up to city council to decide whether they should be permanent and that decision won't come until Mayor Gregor Robertson and his 10 councillors get a look at the business impact survey in July.

Meanwhile, the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition and cycling advocates continue to push for the lanes to be part of the city's permanent transportation infrastructure.

And, it appears, cyclists are using the lanes.

The city's counters recorded 1,555 bikes at Hornby and Robson over a 24-hour period on the day of the Courier's survey May 13, according to Jerry Dobrovolny, the city's director of transportation.

The Dunsmuir lane, which opened in June 2010 and links with Hornby, is also proving to be a popular route for cyclists. An average of 1,900 cyclists each weekday used the lane in July and August 2010.

Other city data indicates vehicle travel times along Hornby are unchanged on weekday mornings but increased by one minute--from five-and-a-half minutes to six-and-a-half minutes--on weekday afternoons when driving from Pacific to Hastings.

The Insurance Corporation of B.C. didn't have any fresh data available to say if collisions between motorists and cyclists along Hornby had increased, decreased or remained the same.

The mayor rolled up on his bike last Wednesday morning at Hornby and Pender, where he checked in with another BG Urban Café, which handed out free cinnamon buns to passing cyclists.

Robertson's appearance was part of a Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition event to show businesses, such as the Pender Street location of the Urban Café, support the bike lanes.

The cycling coalition has posted a list of about 100 businesses on its website that support the lanes, although the majority of operators are not on Hornby Street.

So what does the mayor have to say about the business operators who want the Hornby lane scrapped?

"We've got to assess this over the full course of a year and see what the positive and negative impacts are," he said, standing on a sidewalk next to the bike lane. "We are seeing a significant increase in ridership now and that's a key piece."

The Dunsmuir lane will have been open for one year when council reviews the business impact study. The Hornby lane's one-year anniversary is in December, two months after the civic election.

The total cost to implement the city's separated bike lanes, which includes the Burrard Bridge, Hornby, Dunsmuir and the Dunsmuir viaduct, is $5 million.

That's $120 million less than the city's annual budget for transportation-related projects such as roads. City staff still hasn't calculated how much money it will cost to remove the lanes, if council chooses to scrap them.

For now, business operators such as Jack Richardson at Cantour Travel have to live with the lanes and wait to hear the results of a study he expects will reveal some pushback to the urban experiment.

"I know I'm not the only one who has a problem with it."

mhowell@vancourier.com

Twitter: @Howellings