Many people were horrified when they first learned that the proposed Hornby Bike Lane would cost $3,2 million. I was impressed: that’s more money than I can even imagine.
Since then, I’ve gained a bit more perspective. Readers have kindly shared with me some Vancouver City Council Minutes, and I have discovered that $3.2 million is neither that horrifying nor that impressive. Let’s look at a comparison between amounts recently spent (or about to be spent) on Knight Street, and the amount spent on the entire Hornby Bike Lane.
| Comparative Costs | |
| Left turn lanes, Knight @ 49th | 3,000,000 |
| Left turn lanes, Knight @ 41st | 3,200,000 |
| Left turn lanes, Knight @ 57th | 6,200,000 |
| Left turn lanes, Knight @ 33rd | 3,400,000 |
| Total for left turns on Knight | 15,800,000 |
| Bike Lane on Hornby | 3,200,000 |
As is apparent from the above, the amount spent on improvements to just one road (admittedy an important road, but still just one road) amounts to five times the cost of the Hornby Bike Lane!
Yet I have not heard so much as a whimper of complaint at this reckless use of taxpayers’ money. Surely those who don’t drive should be out in droves, complaining bitterly that THEIR money should be spent on libraries, or art galleries, or bowling greens, or whatever it is that THEY happen to find important?
Apparently, if money is spent on roads, no one gives a damn – but if money is spent on a bike lane, then it could suddenly become the most personal and important $3,2 million ever spent in the history of Vancouver. Am I the only one who finds this odd?
It’s somewhat painful for me to have to point out that the Knight St. improvements move hundreds of thousands of times more people than the bike lane-plus tonnes and tonnes and tonnes of goods necessary for everyday survival in a modern society-there is no comparison.
Indeed. But building bike lanes acknowledges the reality of a future that will inevitably look different from our current reality; while endlessly pouring money into a mode of transport that is obviously going to have to change beyond what we can even now imagine, entails clinging lemming-like to a mode of living that the planet cannot possibly sustain. So while Knight st currently has more value for US, bike lanes have more value for our children and grandchildren. IMHO.
The Knight Street bridge carries 38-55,000 vehicles per day (http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/20091103/documents/ttra2.pdf).
Meanwhile, as many as 2,000 or more bicycles use the Dunsmuir bike lane on a good day (http://vancouver.ca/engsvcs/transport/cycling/separated/dunsmuir_results.htm)
While I agree that Knight Street is a much more important corridor to the city’s economic well-being, let’s not get carried away. It’s traffic volume is perhaps only something like 25X more than the Hornby bike lanes are likely to see.
The important point here is that when the press prints “$3 million” in a story, it looks expensive. But what people don’t realize is the enormous amount spent by the city as a matter of course on road works. The City’s 2011 budget provides nearly $70M toward “Engineering” (which includes road works), which represents close to 1/4 of the City’s entire budget. For decades, the vast majority of this budget has been spent on infrastructure for motorvehicles, with almost nothing being spent on cycling infrastructure.
So if we need to spend a bit more now to catch up, it seems only fair, right? After all, 100 years ago, there were only bicycles.
.. And we haven’t even gotten into the topic of cost savings yet. Bike infrastructure encourages people to bike instead of drive. People who bike are healthier: “The charity Sustrans reports that investment in cycling provision can give a 20:1 return from health and other benefits.” (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycling#Health), and healthier people cost the health care system far less than unhealthy people do.
When we take a big picture look at cycling, these capital investments are a bargain at 10x the price.
Thanks for those excellent points Ken, and for that useful link. Makes me think of an interesting way to evaluate money spent on roads, too. If we factor in the costs associated with the deaths and injury caused by cars, roads become enormously expensive. So far this year, I believe 9 pedestrians have died in Vancouver so far this year, while many more have sustained serious injuries due to being run down by cars. This represents an enormous financial cost, apart from the massive emotional costs.