Vancouver park board backtracks on closing Stanley Park bike lane

In a surprising about-face, the Vancouver Park Board voted unanimously Monday night to retain parts of the Stanley Park bike lane, overriding their previous December decision to remove it.

The sudden backtrack came as an urgent business motion – bypassing the usual seven-day notice requirement for new motions. It comes after a December staff report indicated that the bike lane improved traffic flow and safety and would cost between $375,000 and $425,000 to remove.

“Six weeks ago, ABC blundered into this foolish decision to remove the bike lane in Stanley Park,” said park board commissioner Tom Digby, the sole Green Party member on the ABC-dominated board and the only commissioner to vote against removing the bike lane back in December.

“They went ahead without any cost considerations or safety considerations,” he said, noting there was “zero information about the cost.”

“But more significantly, there had been zero planning for the implementation of the removal,” he said.