Vancouver, British Columbia, has decided to convert two

Vancouver, British Columbia, has decided to convert two lanes of one of its busiest commuter bridges to bike lanes. Council voted to switch two of the six lanes of the Burrard Street Bridge as a one-year experiment, beginning in April 2006. “I became a city councillor because of global warming,” said Fred Bass, a chief proponent of the bike lanes. “And it seems to me that what we have here is a very feasible way of testing out whether we can mobilize people to walk and cycle and for people to leave their cars behind.” The Art Deco bridge connects the 546,000-population city’s downtown to Kitsilano and other southwestern neighborhoods. During peak hours, 8,000 to 9,000 people cross the bridge, 49 percent of them lone drivers. “The city tried a similar bike lane experiment in 1996,” the Vancouver Sun reported, but it was called off after one week “because of motorist outrage and escalating hostility between drivers and cyclists.” Bass expressed optimism with the experiment, noting that the lane closings will be accompanied by a program promoting cycling and walking across the bridge and alerting motorists to alternative routes.