Painted bike lanes are great for Nimbys, they can always point at them and say "See? Nobody actually wants to bike here." Meanwhile I, and many of my neighbors would love to commute exclusively on bicycle if it weren't so dangerous and poorly designed.
Also as a cyclist, I often avoid these bike lanes because they are full of rubbish, large drain holes, water etc. then I get cars honking at me because I’m not in the bike lane despite it being for more dangerous than the road
What's sad is that the designers of the bike lanes know they're shit but they're forced to build them to appease the budget allocation, biking in The USA literally looks like a death sentence, no wonder nobody does it. Every bike lane should be clearly marked, colour coded and separated from the road via a barrier, preferably a tree line but even then it's so noisy on American roads which would be a deterrent but I suppose this solves itself with the adoption of bikes, public transport, EV's and perhaps hydrogen powered vehicles. In every video of someone biking in The USA you see illegally parked vehicles in the bike lane, drivers acting like it's not even there, the bike lane passing through a junction, etc. All of these problems are solved if you separate it from the main road.
Painted bike lanes are not bike infrastructure, they're car infrastructure. They offer no protection for cyclists. Their entire purpose is to get bikes out of the way so cars can drive faster and more dangerously.
Lol I live in the midwest US and most of the roads I'm riding on are country roads where people drive 60+mph(100+kmh) no bike lanes, or even painted stripes in the middle or anything. Also not many cars, but I still never ride without a mirror
I cycle that path you took in Surrey 4 days a week to get to work--I can confirm that I've almost died several times. The cycling path on Fraser highway between 148th and 156th is just unforgivably bad.
Also, cycling infrastructure isn't the "million dollar question" it's actually cheap, really cheap. Cars are the million dollar (but generally billion dollar) answer. You could build bike infrastructure across the entire lower mainland (and a good chuck of bc) for the cost of the port mann bridge. The skytrain across the same area as the port mann which carries a similar number of people cost about $64.2 million in 2023 dollars, port mann cost $1058 million in 2023 dollars (doesn't include the upgrades to the highway either side of the bridge). That's 16x more.
Repairs for car roads are more expensive cause cars destroy the roads more. Also, the expense of the more car accidents. Watch Not Just Bikes on how more expensive and subsided highways and suburbs are. Not Just Bikes has a video on how Japanese trains move millions of people per day.
After doing more research, trust me humanity is doomed. We are headed for probably mass death in about 50-100 years so trust me this is the least of our worries. Humans are just stupid, selfish creatures. Our best hope right now is to minimize the damage humans will cause and to try and protect as many species as we can so that after the carnage the Earth can maybe heal. I don't think humans will go fully extinct but we are probably about to go through some DARK times.
@@lizzehWatch Shifter on how to prevent bike theft. One is putting bike racks in visible areas. I think Japanology had a video on biking with a giant underground bike locker. It's good if work places had bike lockers. Criminals make plans on people based on observing people's daily consistent schedules. There needs to be good train or bus infrastructure so people aren't left stranded if their bike is stolen. CityNerd said he biked to Walmart and they wouldn't let him in cause he had a backpack. They told him to put it in his car which he didn't have. We need to stop discrimination against nondrivers too. I prefer walkability so I and poor people don't have to deal with bike theft or train fees or schedules.
In my neighbourhood, they've swapped the order of the bike lane & parking lane on a couple of streets (so from the outside to the middle it's sidewalk => bike lane => parked cars => then car traffic lanes). It's made a real positive impact on how safe & comfortable it is to bike & walk down those streets. I hope this catches on.
This is happening in some areas of Toronto but only in some areas. Maybe in suburbs they could swap the position of grassed boulevards with the scary painted bike lanes. I know it would be expensive to retrofit, but if it were done in new developments at least.
@@not_old_yet Given how little sidewalks are used why not just join the sidewalk, grass strip, and the gutter lane into one proper width mixed use path.
@@leathandris6734 That would be ideal. On the really wide roads with wide boulevards, it would be nice to retain a strip of green, maybe with trees. Beside the multi-use (What a lovely dream!) ☺️
Now if only Ken Sim would stop trying to delete our cycling infrastructure in Vancouver. Not everyone has a meeting room that they can stick a peloton in. 😂
@@420greatestqueen Most people don't realize that their local mayor and city council have more effect on their daily lives than who's PM and running the country at the federal level. Unfortunately, local politics don't get enough attention. I'm hoping Sim gets booted from office in the next election! So far his term as mayor has been a disaster, but incumbents have a big advantage so there needs to be a strong candidate and a well-organized team to oppose him.
In the extremely suburban Lakewood Ranch development in Florida there are some very good multi-use paths that are separated from traffic. Unfortunately the network doesn’t nearly cover the whole area.
I recently moved from Tampa to Winter Haven. While Tampa isn't great for bikes, Winter Haven is actively hostile. We don't even get painted bike gutters, and city ordinances prohibit riding on sidewalks in "business districts" (meaning anywhere more than 50% of the street frontage is devoted to business).
Petitioning FutureProof to make a video about how fixedgear bikes and the ultimate future-proof vehicle with how simple they are and how good they are for your longevity and health. Even if the world ends, bikes would still be king.
I live in a suburb and I can either walk 15 minutes to my closest grocery store or ride my bike less than 2 minutes. I wish I could cycle more but there aren’t any bike lanes
good for you... My wife and I go to the grocery store once a week. We get 3-4 bags of grociers and 1-2 gallons of milk. Can't put that on a bike. I'm 6'-4" 230lbs, and bench 250lbs. No way I'm carrying 3-4 bags of grociers and 1-2 gallons of milk 5,10,15 blocks. The great thing is, I DON'T HAVE TO! I have a car for that. It's wonderful. You should really try it. The freedom a car gives you is truly amazing. Can't recomend it enough...
I'm fortunate enough to live a few blocks outside of Mueller in East Austin. The bike lanes are wonderful not only because they're SAFE, but because they're USEFUL. I can use them to get groceries, see a movie, have dinner and drinks with friends, get a haircut, or stop at Mueller park for a jog. Coming from a North Austin suburb (where I still tried to bike to the nearest grocery store whenever I could) it was a night-and-day difference in how it felt to cycle. It's not perfect (the bike lanes don't extend beyond Mueller and the neighborhood is surrounded by nasty stroads), but I can see the potential for something really special if/when other connecting infrastructure is built.
fellow Austin urban cyclist here (also originally from North Austin/Cedar Park, moved to Central Austin). I love that neighborhood and I love its bike lanes. it really is quite unfortunate how it's a little bit of a bubble, whenever I want to go to the area I have to cross I35 via 51st and it's just never pleasant.
@@Sporcle1 ugh I hate that crossing. Drivers get so unpredictable at the roundabout. It's further south on i35, but I've heard good things about crossing at the rock shop near Wilshire Blvd. The neighborhood streets that connect from there to Mueller are comfortable to ride.
@@scruf153 No doubt, it's nice to have anything at all. But the nature of infrastructure networks means they get exponentially better the more they connect, so it's good to push for more!
@@titosrevenger City of Victoria is really good and keeps getting better. Saanich is not bad and is getting better too. Unfortunately Oak Bay is still stuck in the 1950’s.
The majority of the Capital Regional District is pretty pro-bike. One of the reasons I moved there from Edmonton, but in its defence, Edmonton is also very pro-bike, and has the longest continually running bike coop in North America, I believe. I think it started in the mid 80s
Saanich also has concrete barriers separating traffic from bike lane along Tillicum, Mackenzie (which are connected by the Goose / Lochside) and are working on more advanced separation along Shelbourne at the moment. What I especially like about the design of these corridors is that not only are they direct routes but they avoid hills! Mackenzie is the gentlest route to UVic, but coming from downtown, you either had to take a long route via the Goose/Lochside or ride up some hills / weave through a neighbourhood of slower streets with a lot of on-street parking - and still have to hit a big climb or two. The separated lanes being built on Shelbourne will be a game-changer because it's flat all the way and will connect with Mackenzie.
Great video! A few years ago I talked to an American who had absolutely no hope about any changes in US infrastructure and basically gave up. And yet here we are, people are hard at work trying to make a difference. I'm cheering you all on from the Netherlands. Even though it will take a very long time (as it did in the Netherlands, it took decades of hard work from the engineers to get where we are now), keep it up and eventually may your hard work pay off. I really enjoyed the vid too :)
As a subscriber and Fleetwood (Surrey) local who, just this year, began biking for my commute; I must say this video is quite the surprise! Delightful to watch, and factually sound all the way through! You cleanly covered the 3 main positive points I wanted to say about cycling in Surrey, so I feel I should expand upon 2 of them (for the benefit of the viewer): 1) Hub Cycling is not merely a good educational resource, they're also a fantastic advocacy group! I recommend donating to them if you live anywhere in Metro Vancouver and want to see more cycling infrastructure in your area. 2) Surrey Central has indeed quickly become a great place to bike around, but it's also poised to be a major hub of public and active transit in the future! It currently connects several of the bus lines in Surrey to the (soon to be expanding) Skytrain network, and has multiple new high rises being built right now. (It's still in need of a good bike shop tho) The positive growth we're seeing in Surrey (and North America as a whole) is thanks in no small part to channels like this; who are able to articulate the facts regarding transportation and infrastructure in such a way that everyday people feel compelled to speak up for positive change in their cities. So thank you, for all the hard work and quality videos!
Besides the current infrastructure, I expect the other great hurdle Surrey needs to overcome to improve cycling is the open swaths of farmland flanked by steep hills along the Serpentine River. Despite being a very oft-used stretch to drive over (thanks to businesses in Langley), and having protected bike lanes, the geography keeps it unfriendly to cyclists. I expect the growing popularity of capable e-bikes will help this somewhat, but what I'm most looking forward to is the forthcoming skytrain development which will span right across!
I enjoyed your real world cycling test in this one, and learning about Saanich! It’s great to see more protected bike lanes being built and planned, but I feel that the success of Saanich shows how those kind of separated greenways can be better catalysts for getting people on bikes than cyclelanes next to noisy roads. It’s just such a better overall experience.
With e-bikes volume is increasing in my rural suburbanized college town. Hills were a major factor. But, biking to parks, do errands, or work means you have to reconnoiter because the necessary bike infrastructure like safe riding lanes, bike racks, etc., might not be available.
Yep. A recent study here in Germany found that the "short bike ride" for an e-bike is up to 15 km, in some cases even 30. So "to far to bike to the grocery store" doesn't exist any more - only bike-unfriendly roads.
One thing I'd add whenever possible is separating the bike lanes with trees. Not only we need more trees and all, but the shade provided helps so much in those summer months. Riding from Vancouver to Porty Moody and the worst heat getting to Port Moody was from the asphalt, not the sun. Also yes, separated bike lanes please... Riding on the shoulders on Bernet Hgw with cars flying by at 80~100kmh feels awful, but gets much better as you approach downtown with slower traffic and way more bike lanes in good conditions.
I live in Scarborough and bike through the intersection you showed every time I go to work. The small chunk visible in the photo (and a much longer stretch perpendicular to it) are going to be upgraded to separated bike lanes within the next year or so. I attended a public consultation for it just a couple weeks in a building visible in the photo!
I found watching this video shocking and really surprising! I live in the UK and cycle around my city all of the time. It’s super normal to cycle around the suburbs here and we have some bike lanes but our cycling infrastructure is no way as good as places like the Netherlands. I’m excited and hopeful that you guys in North America can get more into cycling as it can improve the quality of life tenfold. I love that I get to be outside, exercising, I love the adrenaline of cycling. And it helps me get faster to places, especially as driving and trying to park can be quite inconvenient where I live.
In schools we teach students valuable life skills like reading, writing, math, exercise, etc. It would be cool to see Bicycle Education incorporated into the curriculum too!
It's better than a concept for a while. Here's a program called safety town in the USA. I volunteered one year for it when I was in highschool. But yes, Street knowledge is not knowledge. That's sacred to driver's education. I would. I argue that we don't do enough Street/drivers in children's education.
When you do the drone shot over the old railway bike path and you show that they didn't bother connecting it to all of the amenities around when it's literally right there, a few meters away...
This definitely feels like it could be describing my suburb. A decent amount of cycling infrastructure, but absolutely no cycling NETWORK. A bunch of MUPs that don't connect to each other. Then a bunch of unprotected bike lanes that disappear at every. single. signaled. intersection. Precisely one road with an actual separated bike lane on one short stretch, and a parallel MUP for one other shorter stretch (at the opposite end of the road). It's cycling infrastructure for short and extremely local recreational cycling, not for actually getting anywhere. It's under a 5 minute bike ride to my nearest grocery store, but not a remotely safe one....
The absence of biking infrastructure is especially painful considering just HOW MUCH WASTED SPACE THERE IS! You could easily, EASILY have dedicated bike paths criss-crossing the suburbs but NIMBYs are just too stuck up to see any resemblance of change…
London, there have been 3 tests to see which mode of transit was the fastest. Every time bike came out fastest and car slowest, while metro and buses flipping between each other.
Glad you enjoyed my neighbourhood! Saanich, while it has a ways to go, is going to be a great place for cycling in the future. We just need to start reducing the 4 lane stroads cutting through the areas where dense housing will be in 25 years, and putting in AAA cycling infrastructure.
The repurposing of the train line into Galloping goose trail is such a massive win for cycling infrastructure. That trail has become a cycling destination for tourists, a daily commuter route and a casual bike ride for locals. I know many people have visited the cities along the route judt because of that path. Wish we could see more of that foresight in other cities. Build the infrastructure and the cyclists will come!
The Goose connecting to Lochside is also amazing in that you can get from downtown to Sidney by bike and it's flat the whole way... nice to have a defunct rail line, which not every city has, but good for them to make use of it and the old E&N line for this purpose. Some places do leave in defunct rail infrastructure.
While I'm all for safe cycling routes, you could argue it a lack of foresight to not plan for reinstated rail lines on the old right-of-ways, and it certainly was a lack of foresight to abandon them in the first place. Safe and connected cycling is great but it's even better when it can connect to high quality rail transit
You also need bike racks where one can lock the FRAME of the bike to a secure structure at the destination. Most bike racks only allow one to lock one of the tires, making it extremely easy to steal a bike.
Ironically, when i lived in saanich, i gave up on biking, because the route to UVIC was pretty bad. But they've done so much in the last 6 years or so. I had a friend who rode the galloping goose from saanich to esquimalt, across the inlet, and i was jealous. Now i ride to work sometimes, but crossing the alex Fraser bridge isn't all that stress free.
The Goose is such an awesome path. Especially connecting to Lochside. Biking to the ferry has never been easier. If only the Lower Mainland would put cycling infrastructure on their side
Minor correction, the trail North of Uptown is Lochside until you get to the fork at switch bridge. From there the other directions (south and west) are the Galloping Goose.
Indeed, the very quietness and spaciousness of the suburbs make them fundamentally much better for cycling than city centers. Not for walking, but for cycling. Sweden is OK but not amazing at urban and inter-urban bike infrastructure, but our suburbs and suburban towns are ALWAYS absolutely packed with greenway (away-from-street) bike paths. After years of hating the boring swedish suburbia I have really come to appreciate this aspect of them.
Great video Uytae, all city councils need to see this. You've covered the largest of the issues preventing more cycling to get to nearby destinations, well done. I think one of the next most significant of the issues is theft. The majority of destinations provide no way for visitors to lock their bikes and if they do, it's often inadequate and just an afterthought (South Surrey Home Depot, I'm looking at you...). The city and businesses can help by providing decent bike lockup options - I love what they've done in some parts of West Van as an example.
As someone who commutes to work in the suburbs all it would take for the suburbs to be more viable is for businesses to bring back their bike racks. I'd prefer other things as well, but bare minimum I need a place to keep my bike. It would be nice if some of the larger stores had secure bike lockups. It would be nice if there were more bike lanes. Separation from car traffic would be optimal. But bare minimum if I go somewhere I need to put my bike somewhere and currently I only know of one grocery store that has a small bike rack, it's out of the way and kind of sketchy and I don't want to use it. Bring bike racks inside where staff can easily see if there's someone with an angle grinder. I do want to say one thing though, those places shown as not great for cycling, with painted bike lanes that shares with cars...it's really not that bad. The editing makes it seem chaotic and scary but I honestly don't feel unsafe at all. I was really worried after I decided to start cycling to work but once I actually got going it was fine. The places I do feel unsafe are large roads without a bike lane, but I avoid those. So I want to encourage people who are considering cycling to work, or anywhere, to do it. It's likely scarier in your head than in reality. Pick a route you think works best and do a test run.
I’m a cyclist who works in Saanich (and lives less than 100m from the border of Saanich). Cycling really is the best method of commute for me. Driving a car would mean that I’d have to go around the massive Cedar Hill Golf Course, which has several busy intersections around its corners, whereas a bike path lets me cut through it and saves me probably 25% of the time. Taking the bus is far worse because the only routes require me to walk to the end of the block and take two buses that ultimately make a V shape, taking around 30 minutes, when I can get to my work in 12 minutes by bike. I have to cross some busy streets, but there are designated crossings. There are some cracks in this perfect cycling utopia, though, and most of them are centred around Shelbourne Street, a main thoroughfare that is currently closed for construction. That’s led to people taking residential roads as detours, which has made some roads that are usually safe to bike on seem a lot more treacherous. There are also some places where the bike lane just inexplicably ends, such as patches on Cedar Hill Road (one of the roads that people are using instead of Shelbourne). But overall, I can’t complain. It really is easy to get by by bike in this city. Thanks for the video!
If we’re being technical, Utyae, the trail from Mackenzie to Uptown that you took is actually the Lochside Regional Trail, which meets up with the Galloping Goose Trail at Uptown, which was your destination. But the point is valid that these regional trails make cycling a much more pleasurable experience in Saanich than in Surrey!
In Surrey, I used to bike everywhere. I didn't have a car, and I was biking anywhere from 120-200km a week, (lots was on Fraser highway that you rode in this video). One day I was riding to lunch, and I got hit by cars twice, then on the way home a flat tire about 12km away from home... Now flat tires are a common occurrence in Surrey, but getting hit by cars twice in one trip was really the deal breaker. I bought a car and just drive everywhere now, it was really eye opening that I was not safe and that the risk I was taking was much greater than I had remembered... We still bike for recreation but just on trails or completely separated/protected bike lanes... It sucks but I'm not going to ride if I'm literally risking my life just trying to get into the office
Wonderful information! The suburbs is exactly where bikes thrive the most, cities as you pointed out can be nicer walking and using the bus due to how cramped it can be.
Back in my college years, I cycled along busy streets without bike lanes…. I was lucky then, but now I’d be nervous riding those same streets again… We need more bike lanes.
What you point out in the video is something I've often found to be true in the suburbs: cycling is possible, but whenever you hit a stroad (which is often), things get tense because it's usually just you and a painted bike lane (or nothing at all) and drivers get quite close without really caring. Some even have this weird animosity toward bikers (I'm looking at you, massive pickup truck dude who never hauls anything) and will actively try to mess with you.
Great video! I live in Langley and it's nice to see more separated cycling lanes popping up. 216th street in Walnut Grove is about to get separated bike lanes. I hope more people start using them. Our main east/west artery in the neighborhood (88th avenue) doesn't even have a painted bike lane.
Most back yards have a few bicycles rotting away in them. That's because most people want to ride, so they buy a bike, and after riding a few times, they realize they hate near death experiences.
Even if the traffic safety problems were solved it's still too unsafe to ride your bike anywhere because the pervasive bike thefts. I heard a story from a retail employee about how one of their customers had their bike stolen when it was locked outside in only a 15 minute duration inside the store. And recently someone smashed open a locked windowed door at my place of work to unsuccessfully attempt to steal my ebike. It happened on a Thursday around 2pm, on a workday, during store opening hours. I don't even own a lock so I won't get tempted to lock it outside. I literally only park it inside locked buildings and even that isn't enough of a deterrent. I get people on the street yelling at me about how they would like to "have my bike" (in a "I would like to steal it" way not a "Hey cool where can I buy one" kind of way). I only commute to and from work with it, but it would be nice to be able to park it at a store and shop some day....
First time watching one of your vids. As a lifelong Fraser Valley resident, seeing you brave Fraser Hwy on a bike is more than enough to earn a sub from me.
Houten was designed from the ground up to make all local trips much easier to do by bike, while out-of town trips are better by car. There's also a train connection to Utrecht 4 times an hour from two stations. Even here in the Netherlands it's a bit of an anomaly. Frankly, I think it's fantastic.
Thanks for this video. I can relate to it a lot. I live in Melbourne Australia, and I ride an electric scooter (not a bike, sorry) and I greatly enjoy it. But the biggest issue is the lack of dedicated paths. We add lanes & lanes & more lanes to our freeways and devote very little time and money to our paths. Also, I love that thing about the 'Bike Bus' that is very cool!
Very happy to see a new video! I agree with the survey results that not having the skill and knowledge and the safety issues being a deterrent to ride a bike as an alternative for some trips. Painted bike lanes are not enough, I would want either a large division between the bike lane and cars or a completely separate bike lane. Especially if it's surrounded by trees.
I usually don't take my bicycle inside the big city. Suburbs and small villages are great to get around with the bicycle. So you don't need the car for local traffic that is beyond walking distance. And of course, riding your bicycle in nature is the most fun.
Gradual replacement of trips is so crucial. I moved to a city that had bike infrastructure. It took me six years of gradually replacing everything with walking, cycling, and transit. The last two years my car sat in my paid parking spot, because I was still worried I might need the car for safety. When I sold that car, I didn't want to have to turn around and buy another. I wanted to sell it and know I was okay without it. Great video.
lovely video. In your section about why we should accomodate biking, don't forget all the people without driver's licenses need to get around too! (kids, seniors, disabled, intoxicated, etc...)
Thanks for another great video, Uytae. This is such an important topic. In an effort to use my car less, I am shopping for an electric bike to get my aging body up the local hills. I agree that protected bike lanes need to be the norm if we ever expect families to ride bikes. The Galloping Goose bike trail is a fabulous experience and I wish that we had the equivalent here in Surrey. I think it would be an interesting topic for a video to explore the growing impact of electric bicycles on transportation as they can flatten the hills and enable seniors like myself to continue cycling.
As someone who used to commute to City Centre by bike from South Surrey, I can say there are great bike lanes in Surrey. There's a BC Hydro right of way near 128th Street and others that run west to east from City Centre to Langley. The problem from what I experienced is quick, safe, and easy access to these routes. Way finding, protected lanes, lighting and more routes connecting North to South Surrey would be very helpful.
Awesome Uytae! My wife will start her biking commute to her new job in Halifax from the Dartmouth suburbs next week so... wish her luck. Great music choices btw :)
As someone who learned to bike in Ghent in his early 20s. You don’t need bike lessons. You need safe lanes and medium housing density, 2 to 3 story buildings. Fun thing is that the more ppl bike the cheaper it gets to maintain your bike. I rented one for 3 mo for about 10$
One thing that unites many suburbs is very wide streets, which makes adding wide, well protected bike lanes a lot easier than in denser cities with older narrow streets. I believe in great cycling infrastructure everywhere (and I think we should sacrifice parking in city cores to get it) but the argument could easily be made that the suburbs are the best place to start.
You are right cycling in the suburbs is not a lost cause. As the cost of car ownership continues to increase cycling will become more popular and support for safe cycling infrastructure will increase. In Ottawa improving roads and parking takes precident over safe cycling infrastructure. Safe cycling infrastructure is put in when major roads are repaired. We are unlikely to see a safe interconnected cycling network in Ottawa for another 50 years.
While we can all advocate for bike infrastructure, I think your point of "get people to safely try cycling" is the smallest but most important step to increasing cycling participation. And more participation leads to visibility and important publicity around pro-bike culture and infrastructure. I think you say this, too, and it's so important.
The space that needs to be taken from cars to create robust and safe cycling infrastructure is MINUSCULE. It's just that the political opposition to doing so is fierce and multifaceted. Creating quality bike infrastructure isn't physically hard, it's just politically intense. People forget that even in the Netherlands, you can still get anywhere easily by car and that most NL families still own a car. Great music choice for Fraser Highway, it captures perfectly how I feel on the rare occasion that I have the misfortune of having to bike on a "stroad".
I would like to have separate bike lane / bike path away from traffic preferably a nature bike path for everyone to enjoy all around the USA! Happy biking !
What drives me crazy is that most of the time we've got to literally BEG our cities for proper bike lanes. (I mean, we've got to beg for any public infrastructre generally, it seems, but that's another story.) This is something that they *could* implement if they wanted to. And in my opinion it is crucial infrastructure. But most municipalities don't want to. Instead they prefer to pour money into super highways that somehow only make traffic worse. It's baffling. Cities are for PEOPLE, not cars!
I don't mind wending my way through suburban residential streets, but most suburban developments are islands with no outlets from one neighborhood to the next. What they need are little connecting paths between the neighborhoods so that I can get to my destination without having to get on a busy thoroughfare.
The city of Surrey has a “bike to work week” . One Saturday I was cycling from south Surrey to Caps on Scott rd and while cycling along hwy 10 I came across a big sign mounted on a trailer advertising bike to work week. The problem was that it was positioned in the bike lane forcing cyclists into the busy traffic to proceed around it. It says a lot about the city of Surrey and their understanding of cycling.
I’ve previously biked to work in suburban southern California. Although the painted bike lanes on arterial roads are unsafe, the quieter residential streets one or two blocks away are quiet and easy. Those are the real “bike lanes”. Instead of major physical infrastructure, I think funds should be invested in apps that study driver data and determine the safest routes. Even if the route is a bit more circuitous, many e-bike users will not mind the extra distance.
Over in the UK, during Covid, a lot of the local government did a great thing to bring in lots of new bike lanes, where they made it a painted bike lane (because that is fast) but they also nailed a bunch of things they call "bicycle wands" into the ground. Ultimately, it's not a great deal of extra protection, but motorists who are happy to swerve into a bike lane to get past another car do not want to have a bunch of bike wands smashing into their car and scratching up the paint. It is the fear of "I might damage my car" that gives the cyclists more protection, as motorists will actively avoid the wands, while they might not be so careful to keep their left tire (that is the passenger side over here) away from a painted line. Moving on from that, there are local authorities putting in more substantial non-permanent features, such as blocking off rat run roads (backroads used as cut-trough routes) with big car-sized boxes full of plants, and leaving gaps that serve as bike filters. This turns a long residential street connecting two A-roads or B-roads, that is being misused by motorists who do not live in the area and who are not visiting the local people, into two or more "Local Traffic Neigbourhoods" (LTNs). It then becomes safer for the people living in the LTNs, within the city to let their children cycle on the local streets. It's still not perfect by itself, as it does not deal with the traffic on the main roads, but it turns a rat run into cul-de-sacs for cars, while the modal filters keep it as a continuous route for bikes and pedestrians. And here is where cities like Surrey could have a look at suburban cul-de-sacs, to see if any of those dead-end-roads point towards anything useful. With a small amount of land purchase, what is a cul-de-sac now could connect on to something else, with a shared bike a pedestrian pathway. And then you have yourself a through route for bikes that does not turn into a rat run. You may not be able to rehabilitate all the cul-de-sacs. If houses are lined up badly and you would have to knock down a bunch of houses, to break through, it may not be worth going to war with home owners who might otherwise want their kids to be able to cut through to somewhere useful, like the local school. However, what you can do is get out the message to city planners and developers that any new housing developments MUST be built with cut through bicycle routes in mind. If two housing developers who want to build on back-to-back lots have no incentive to line up their roads, you will get cul-de-sacs, where houses would need to be demolished to create a connection. But if housing developers have a legal requirement to only build cul-de-sacs that function as bike filters, the first developer will leave a bit of unbuilt land to comply with the law and the second developer will get their architects to move around house plots, in order to gain planning permission for their estate. Essentially, an organisation like TransLink, is focused on public transport. And they are going to have to prioritise the long-distance cycle routes, and make them into things where lots of local people use part of the route (just like people use part of a bus route or a train line). But if you get developers who want to build cul-de-sacs to automatically cooperate and start making cul-de-sacs into LTNs with bike filters to get through, you can radically decrease the distances that cyclists have to ride to get around impassible roads. With TransLink focusing on stations, rehabilitation of existing cul-de-sacs, to create bike cut through routes, should probably prioitise things like local schools. If you already have your bike bus scheme, and you can move some or all of the route to schools, from bigger roads to smaller roads, with a number of modal filters, you will start to create a new generation of Canadians who start to look at road maps backwards and who take their focus away from the big roads and freeways and go on fun rides to see if they can discover any cut-through routes that they do not yet know about. And if you start to create a new generation of Canadians who think-in-terms of bike travel, those kids will grow up, go to university and get jobs in the city planning department and they will arrive with plans to "rehabilitate roads that annoy them", already in their heads.
Out here in Burbank California, we have an active cycling community, but often lack great infrastructure. Sure, there are a few segments here and there that have painted bike lanes, and there is a pretty nice walking/biking along the LA river, but much more needs to be done. I have heard it said that the city council of Burbank is still largely dominated by older citizens who do not want to see more biking infrastructure. Inevitably, a new generation will eventually take over and we can expand what most people are likely looking for. In terms of "chicken and egg," it is definitely the infrastructure: that needs to come first.
I grew up in a low density suburban New Jersey town. I routinely rode a bike in the suburban streets in residential areas. Riding a bike in wide suburban streets in residential areas with low car traffic. I felt safe, because it was low car traffic and residential areas. It's not residential areas that were the problem. The problem was when you hit stroads or had to cross highways, like Rt 130 in NJ. That was the problem.
This is a very good video. It would be nice to show cost of bike lanes vs traffic lanes and highways - it might help show why even for auto owners its a good cost ratio.
I wish biking was a common thing everywhere, and I've made a what I find to be a shocking realization, but also not too shocking, but I find biking in rural areas so much better than in cities/towns (In NA). Where I'm at, I'm in a somewhat rural area, but not all that rural and it's about 40mins to the nearest town on bike. When I ride my bike to a specific place in that town, I can navigate rural back roads and just pop up right behind the store or stores that I'm wanting to go to without having to ride on any busy or main road at all. I always imagined cities would be way better for biking even with a lack of biking infrastructure, but I've definitely changed my mind on that.
As much as I love channels like Not Just Bikes and RM Transit, I feel they sometimes get stuck in the critique that suburbs and stroads are dreadful for cycling. They truly are (lol), but your insight here proves that it can also be done with a bit of political will and neighbour cooperation.
Such a timely video! With families feeling the crunch of the rental housing market for 3 bd apartments within the city, this offers hope that with a little research, one can still find a neighborhood that finds that balance with a cargo e-bike. I imagine an e-bike would have helped your ride even more so glad you used an "acoustic" for an easier, more accessible option to getting started.
Surrey is basically my San Diego suburb. We are only just now getting some reasonable bike infra, like a buffered bike lane on a busy residential road that spans the entire city. I just ride on that bike lane and hop on sidewalks on the stroads.
Great video! Some sweet drone shots here. I love cycling around Vancouver, but when you hit those lane with just the painted line...yeah, it feels like a miracle you make it out unscathed.
Going into Victoria there are a couple of bike counters. Whenever I went through there at about 6 or 7 pm, the counter is usually about 2,200 cyclists for the day in one direction.
![จบจนได้ ! | Black Myth: Wukong #007 [ตอนจบ?]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/DSqvWndF0sw/mqdefault.jpg)
![[Watch Party] RoV Pro League 2024 Winter | with Moowan ( Bacon Time Vs Talon )](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/CCEDhu6dPN8/mqdefault.jpg)
Painted bike lanes are great for Nimbys, they can always point at them and say "See? Nobody actually wants to bike here." Meanwhile I, and many of my neighbors would love to commute exclusively on bicycle if it weren't so dangerous and poorly designed.
Paint only bike lanes should be banned and only protected or fully separated bike lanes allowed
Also as a cyclist, I often avoid these bike lanes because they are full of rubbish, large drain holes, water etc. then I get cars honking at me because I’m not in the bike lane despite it being for more dangerous than the road
@@JHA854unfortunately this is also the case with separated bike lanes when they're underfunded
What's sad is that the designers of the bike lanes know they're shit but they're forced to build them to appease the budget allocation, biking in The USA literally looks like a death sentence, no wonder nobody does it. Every bike lane should be clearly marked, colour coded and separated from the road via a barrier, preferably a tree line but even then it's so noisy on American roads which would be a deterrent but I suppose this solves itself with the adoption of bikes, public transport, EV's and perhaps hydrogen powered vehicles.
In every video of someone biking in The USA you see illegally parked vehicles in the bike lane, drivers acting like it's not even there, the bike lane passing through a junction, etc. All of these problems are solved if you separate it from the main road.
Painted bike lanes are not bike infrastructure, they're car infrastructure. They offer no protection for cyclists. Their entire purpose is to get bikes out of the way so cars can drive faster and more dangerously.
Uytae out here taking his life in his hands cycling Fraser Highway to deliver premium About Here content
Can't believe I used to ride this regularily as a teenager. Uytae rode some of the same chunks that I used to commute on.
My immediate thought when he said he'd be biking in Surrey: "No! He's too precious!"
It’s the type of stroad I ride on to work 😭😭
Fr who needs horror films when you can just watch someone bike along that tiny little lane with SUVs and buses going by 😭
it's nuts hey?
Ottawa loves painted bike lanes on streets with 80km/h speed limits. Terrifying experience.
Like the South Fraser Perimeter highway here in Surrey/Delta. Terrifying as the average person is actually driving 110+ km/h.
I thought bike riders enjoy it.
@@ninjanerdstudent6937 Some of us don't have death wishes and just want to get around while exercising.
@@fernbedek6302 I see. Please tell me more.
Lol I live in the midwest US and most of the roads I'm riding on are country roads where people drive 60+mph(100+kmh) no bike lanes, or even painted stripes in the middle or anything. Also not many cars, but I still never ride without a mirror
I always appreciate the optimistic tone of these videos. That positive energy goes a long way when you're living in North American suburbia.
I cycle that path you took in Surrey 4 days a week to get to work--I can confirm that I've almost died several times. The cycling path on Fraser highway between 148th and 156th is just unforgivably bad.
😟
Also, cycling infrastructure isn't the "million dollar question" it's actually cheap, really cheap. Cars are the million dollar (but generally billion dollar) answer.
You could build bike infrastructure across the entire lower mainland (and a good chuck of bc) for the cost of the port mann bridge.
The skytrain across the same area as the port mann which carries a similar number of people cost about $64.2 million in 2023 dollars, port mann cost $1058 million in 2023 dollars (doesn't include the upgrades to the highway either side of the bridge).
That's 16x more.
Repairs for car roads are more expensive cause cars destroy the roads more.
Also, the expense of the more car accidents.
Watch Not Just Bikes on how more expensive and subsided highways and suburbs are.
Not Just Bikes has a video on how Japanese trains move millions of people per day.
Mayor of Copenhagen: "we built a lot of bike infrastructure after WWII because we couldn't afford car infrastructure."
After doing more research, trust me humanity is doomed. We are headed for probably mass death in about 50-100 years so trust me this is the least of our worries. Humans are just stupid, selfish creatures.
Our best hope right now is to minimize the damage humans will cause and to try and protect as many species as we can so that after the carnage the Earth can maybe heal. I don't think humans will go fully extinct but we are probably about to go through some DARK times.
As a resident of Surrey, the first time I biked to a mall for a quick errand, the bike was stolen within 15 minutes in front of the main entrance 😂
This is EXACTLY what I'm talking about! Getting people safely to their destinations is only half of the problem!
@@lizzehWatch Shifter on how to prevent bike theft.
One is putting bike racks in visible areas.
I think Japanology had a video on biking with a giant underground bike locker.
It's good if work places had bike lockers.
Criminals make plans on people based on observing people's daily consistent schedules.
There needs to be good train or bus infrastructure so people aren't left stranded if their bike is stolen.
CityNerd said he biked to Walmart and they wouldn't let him in cause he had a backpack. They told him to put it in his car which he didn't have.
We need to stop discrimination against nondrivers too.
I prefer walkability so I and poor people don't have to deal with bike theft or train fees or schedules.
@@user-gu9yq5sj7c Another option is folding bikes that you can bring with you.
In my neighbourhood, they've swapped the order of the bike lane & parking lane on a couple of streets (so from the outside to the middle it's sidewalk => bike lane => parked cars => then car traffic lanes). It's made a real positive impact on how safe & comfortable it is to bike & walk down those streets. I hope this catches on.
This is happening in some areas of Toronto but only in some areas. Maybe in suburbs they could swap the position of grassed boulevards with the scary painted bike lanes. I know it would be expensive to retrofit, but if it were done in new developments at least.
@@not_old_yet Given how little sidewalks are used why not just join the sidewalk, grass strip, and the gutter lane into one proper width mixed use path.
@@leathandris6734 That would be ideal. On the really wide roads with wide boulevards, it would be nice to retain a strip of green, maybe with trees. Beside the multi-use (What a lovely dream!) ☺️
@@leathandris6734 I hate mixed use paths. Pedestrians are much slower and less directionally stable than bikes.
That's how most of the protected bike lanes are designed in NYC.
Now if only Ken Sim would stop trying to delete our cycling infrastructure in Vancouver. Not everyone has a meeting room that they can stick a peloton in. 😂
We need to vote him out. Unfortunately the voting rate at local elections is very low
@@420greatestqueen I mean, he still bleeds
Kens Sims audacity to turn a boardroom into a private dojo almost seems like it could be in an episode of parks and recreation.
@@420greatestqueen Most people don't realize that their local mayor and city council have more effect on their daily lives than who's PM and running the country at the federal level. Unfortunately, local politics don't get enough attention. I'm hoping Sim gets booted from office in the next election! So far his term as mayor has been a disaster, but incumbents have a big advantage so there needs to be a strong candidate and a well-organized team to oppose him.
Can we just make Uytae the mayor already
It’ll be great to see the new dedicated cycle route along Fraser Hwy in a few years once the Surrey Langley SkyTrain opens
The Surrey painted bike line highway experience= the entire southern United States, especially Florida
As a born and raised Floridian, I would only ride on sidewalks or bike paths. I'm not sharing any road with the local drivers.
In the extremely suburban Lakewood Ranch development in Florida there are some very good multi-use paths that are separated from traffic. Unfortunately the network doesn’t nearly cover the whole area.
as a former floridian moved to NC, i miss florida bike lanes
I recently moved from Tampa to Winter Haven. While Tampa isn't great for bikes, Winter Haven is actively hostile. We don't even get painted bike gutters, and city ordinances prohibit riding on sidewalks in "business districts" (meaning anywhere more than 50% of the street frontage is devoted to business).
You've got a bike lane?! Lucky bastard
babe wake up a new About Here video just dropped 🥳
Levi! Come to Canadian Civil Alive!
Petitioning FutureProof to make a video about how fixedgear bikes and the ultimate future-proof vehicle with how simple they are and how good they are for your longevity and health. Even if the world ends, bikes would still be king.
Overused comment
@@YungStinkyWinky "Even if the world ends"
Where would you get new tires?
I live in a suburb and I can either walk 15 minutes to my closest grocery store or ride my bike less than 2 minutes. I wish I could cycle more but there aren’t any bike lanes
Heyyy just like me! ... And countless thousands of others.
My closest grocery store is about a 30 minute walk or a 10 minute bike ride with moderate hills
good for you... My wife and I go to the grocery store once a week. We get 3-4 bags of grociers and 1-2 gallons of milk. Can't put that on a bike. I'm 6'-4" 230lbs, and bench 250lbs. No way I'm carrying 3-4 bags of grociers and 1-2 gallons of milk 5,10,15 blocks. The great thing is, I DON'T HAVE TO! I have a car for that. It's wonderful. You should really try it. The freedom a car gives you is truly amazing. Can't recomend it enough...
@@bikebudha01 You could easily fit that on a bike.
@@antonioiniguez1615 really, I have 5 bikes, and couldn't fit that on any of them...
Galloping Goose as a 90s kid was S-tier
That's where I learned to ride on two wheels! It's such a great bike path.
Really sucked when it wasn't paved lol
Nice and it's still S tier
I'm fortunate enough to live a few blocks outside of Mueller in East Austin. The bike lanes are wonderful not only because they're SAFE, but because they're USEFUL. I can use them to get groceries, see a movie, have dinner and drinks with friends, get a haircut, or stop at Mueller park for a jog. Coming from a North Austin suburb (where I still tried to bike to the nearest grocery store whenever I could) it was a night-and-day difference in how it felt to cycle. It's not perfect (the bike lanes don't extend beyond Mueller and the neighborhood is surrounded by nasty stroads), but I can see the potential for something really special if/when other connecting infrastructure is built.
fellow Austin urban cyclist here (also originally from North Austin/Cedar Park, moved to Central Austin). I love that neighborhood and I love its bike lanes. it really is quite unfortunate how it's a little bit of a bubble, whenever I want to go to the area I have to cross I35 via 51st and it's just never pleasant.
better than my small city in Alabama most everyday places are in a 5 mile radius with no bike lanes
@@Sporcle1 ugh I hate that crossing. Drivers get so unpredictable at the roundabout. It's further south on i35, but I've heard good things about crossing at the rock shop near Wilshire Blvd. The neighborhood streets that connect from there to Mueller are comfortable to ride.
@@scruf153 No doubt, it's nice to have anything at all. But the nature of infrastructure networks means they get exponentially better the more they connect, so it's good to push for more!
I love the insight into Saanich! I would've never expected a place like that to have stellar cycling infrastructure
Greater Victoria is extremely bike friendly. It helps that you see bikes on the roads wherever you go.
@@titosrevenger City of Victoria is really good and keeps getting better. Saanich is not bad and is getting better too. Unfortunately Oak Bay is still stuck in the 1950’s.
The majority of the Capital Regional District is pretty pro-bike. One of the reasons I moved there from Edmonton, but in its defence, Edmonton is also very pro-bike, and has the longest continually running bike coop in North America, I believe. I think it started in the mid 80s
@@ottarobe Hey now! Oak Bay has those painted lanes on Foul Bay and Fort. :D
@@ottarobetrue!!
Saanich also has concrete barriers separating traffic from bike lane along Tillicum, Mackenzie (which are connected by the Goose / Lochside) and are working on more advanced separation along Shelbourne at the moment. What I especially like about the design of these corridors is that not only are they direct routes but they avoid hills! Mackenzie is the gentlest route to UVic, but coming from downtown, you either had to take a long route via the Goose/Lochside or ride up some hills / weave through a neighbourhood of slower streets with a lot of on-street parking - and still have to hit a big climb or two. The separated lanes being built on Shelbourne will be a game-changer because it's flat all the way and will connect with Mackenzie.
Uytae putting life and limb at risk to bring us more dope ass About Here videos.
Great video! A few years ago I talked to an American who had absolutely no hope about any changes in US infrastructure and basically gave up. And yet here we are, people are hard at work trying to make a difference. I'm cheering you all on from the Netherlands. Even though it will take a very long time (as it did in the Netherlands, it took decades of hard work from the engineers to get where we are now), keep it up and eventually may your hard work pay off. I really enjoyed the vid too :)
As a subscriber and Fleetwood (Surrey) local who, just this year, began biking for my commute; I must say this video is quite the surprise! Delightful to watch, and factually sound all the way through!
You cleanly covered the 3 main positive points I wanted to say about cycling in Surrey, so I feel I should expand upon 2 of them (for the benefit of the viewer):
1) Hub Cycling is not merely a good educational resource, they're also a fantastic advocacy group! I recommend donating to them if you live anywhere in Metro Vancouver and want to see more cycling infrastructure in your area.
2) Surrey Central has indeed quickly become a great place to bike around, but it's also poised to be a major hub of public and active transit in the future! It currently connects several of the bus lines in Surrey to the (soon to be expanding) Skytrain network, and has multiple new high rises being built right now. (It's still in need of a good bike shop tho)
The positive growth we're seeing in Surrey (and North America as a whole) is thanks in no small part to channels like this; who are able to articulate the facts regarding transportation and infrastructure in such a way that everyday people feel compelled to speak up for positive change in their cities. So thank you, for all the hard work and quality videos!
Besides the current infrastructure, I expect the other great hurdle Surrey needs to overcome to improve cycling is the open swaths of farmland flanked by steep hills along the Serpentine River. Despite being a very oft-used stretch to drive over (thanks to businesses in Langley), and having protected bike lanes, the geography keeps it unfriendly to cyclists.
I expect the growing popularity of capable e-bikes will help this somewhat, but what I'm most looking forward to is the forthcoming skytrain development which will span right across!
I enjoyed your real world cycling test in this one, and learning about Saanich! It’s great to see more protected bike lanes being built and planned, but I feel that the success of Saanich shows how those kind of separated greenways can be better catalysts for getting people on bikes than cyclelanes next to noisy roads. It’s just such a better overall experience.
As someone who works in this field, you were so brave for biking alongside traffic in Surrey 😭I got scared for you
I cycle in those place everyday in Alabama
With e-bikes volume is increasing in my rural suburbanized college town. Hills were a major factor.
But, biking to parks, do errands, or work means you have to reconnoiter because the necessary bike infrastructure like safe riding lanes, bike racks, etc., might not be available.
Yep. A recent study here in Germany found that the "short bike ride" for an e-bike is up to 15 km, in some cases even 30. So "to far to bike to the grocery store" doesn't exist any more - only bike-unfriendly roads.
I am considering to get an ebike too, but I don't think city of Coquitlam/Burnaby will change soon.
I LOVED the 90’s sitcom opening credits and theme song!
One thing I'd add whenever possible is separating the bike lanes with trees. Not only we need more trees and all, but the shade provided helps so much in those summer months. Riding from Vancouver to Porty Moody and the worst heat getting to Port Moody was from the asphalt, not the sun. Also yes, separated bike lanes please... Riding on the shoulders on Bernet Hgw with cars flying by at 80~100kmh feels awful, but gets much better as you approach downtown with slower traffic and way more bike lanes in good conditions.
I live in Scarborough and bike through the intersection you showed every time I go to work. The small chunk visible in the photo (and a much longer stretch perpendicular to it) are going to be upgraded to separated bike lanes within the next year or so. I attended a public consultation for it just a couple weeks in a building visible in the photo!
I found watching this video shocking and really surprising! I live in the UK and cycle around my city all of the time. It’s super normal to cycle around the suburbs here and we have some bike lanes but our cycling infrastructure is no way as good as places like the Netherlands. I’m excited and hopeful that you guys in North America can get more into cycling as it can improve the quality of life tenfold. I love that I get to be outside, exercising, I love the adrenaline of cycling. And it helps me get faster to places, especially as driving and trying to park can be quite inconvenient where I live.
This one video says everything. A great video to show stakeholders.
In schools we teach students valuable life skills like reading, writing, math, exercise, etc. It would be cool to see Bicycle Education incorporated into the curriculum too!
It's better than a concept for a while. Here's a program called safety town in the USA. I volunteered one year for it when I was in highschool. But yes, Street knowledge is not knowledge. That's sacred to driver's education.
I would. I argue that we don't do enough Street/drivers in children's education.
We do it a bit here in Québec, there's a programme from Vélo Québec called Cycliste averti, but it depends on Foundations funding it.
We have that in Germany
add urban planning to that list. kids should know about developing our cities a lot younger than we currently expose them to, if at all.
When you do the drone shot over the old railway bike path and you show that they didn't bother connecting it to all of the amenities around when it's literally right there, a few meters away...
This definitely feels like it could be describing my suburb. A decent amount of cycling infrastructure, but absolutely no cycling NETWORK.
A bunch of MUPs that don't connect to each other. Then a bunch of unprotected bike lanes that disappear at every. single. signaled. intersection. Precisely one road with an actual separated bike lane on one short stretch, and a parallel MUP for one other shorter stretch (at the opposite end of the road).
It's cycling infrastructure for short and extremely local recreational cycling, not for actually getting anywhere. It's under a 5 minute bike ride to my nearest grocery store, but not a remotely safe one....
The absence of biking infrastructure is especially painful considering just HOW MUCH WASTED SPACE THERE IS! You could easily, EASILY have dedicated bike paths criss-crossing the suburbs but NIMBYs are just too stuck up to see any resemblance of change…
London, there have been 3 tests to see which mode of transit was the fastest. Every time bike came out fastest and car slowest, while metro and buses flipping between each other.
Best channel on TH-cam
Glad you enjoyed my neighbourhood! Saanich, while it has a ways to go, is going to be a great place for cycling in the future. We just need to start reducing the 4 lane stroads cutting through the areas where dense housing will be in 25 years, and putting in AAA cycling infrastructure.
The repurposing of the train line into Galloping goose trail is such a massive win for cycling infrastructure. That trail has become a cycling destination for tourists, a daily commuter route and a casual bike ride for locals. I know many people have visited the cities along the route judt because of that path. Wish we could see more of that foresight in other cities. Build the infrastructure and the cyclists will come!
The Goose connecting to Lochside is also amazing in that you can get from downtown to Sidney by bike and it's flat the whole way... nice to have a defunct rail line, which not every city has, but good for them to make use of it and the old E&N line for this purpose. Some places do leave in defunct rail infrastructure.
While I'm all for safe cycling routes, you could argue it a lack of foresight to not plan for reinstated rail lines on the old right-of-ways, and it certainly was a lack of foresight to abandon them in the first place. Safe and connected cycling is great but it's even better when it can connect to high quality rail transit
Its nice to see so many people eager to bike in those communities!
You also need bike racks where one can lock the FRAME of the bike to a secure structure at the destination. Most bike racks only allow one to lock one of the tires, making it extremely easy to steal a bike.
Ironically, when i lived in saanich, i gave up on biking, because the route to UVIC was pretty bad.
But they've done so much in the last 6 years or so.
I had a friend who rode the galloping goose from saanich to esquimalt, across the inlet, and i was jealous.
Now i ride to work sometimes, but crossing the alex Fraser bridge isn't all that stress free.
The Goose is such an awesome path. Especially connecting to Lochside. Biking to the ferry has never been easier. If only the Lower Mainland would put cycling infrastructure on their side
Minor correction, the trail North of Uptown is Lochside until you get to the fork at switch bridge. From there the other directions (south and west) are the Galloping Goose.
Indeed, the very quietness and spaciousness of the suburbs make them fundamentally much better for cycling than city centers. Not for walking, but for cycling. Sweden is OK but not amazing at urban and inter-urban bike infrastructure, but our suburbs and suburban towns are ALWAYS absolutely packed with greenway (away-from-street) bike paths. After years of hating the boring swedish suburbia I have really come to appreciate this aspect of them.
Wales in the UK has a 20mph speed limit in urban areas. It has massively reduced road casualties and made cycling far more accessible.
Great video Uytae, all city councils need to see this.
You've covered the largest of the issues preventing more cycling to get to nearby destinations, well done.
I think one of the next most significant of the issues is theft. The majority of destinations provide no way for visitors to lock their bikes and if they do, it's often inadequate and just an afterthought (South Surrey Home Depot, I'm looking at you...). The city and businesses can help by providing decent bike lockup options - I love what they've done in some parts of West Van as an example.
AWESOME video, as usual. A must see for all city planners and politicians.
As someone who commutes to work in the suburbs all it would take for the suburbs to be more viable is for businesses to bring back their bike racks. I'd prefer other things as well, but bare minimum I need a place to keep my bike. It would be nice if some of the larger stores had secure bike lockups. It would be nice if there were more bike lanes. Separation from car traffic would be optimal. But bare minimum if I go somewhere I need to put my bike somewhere and currently I only know of one grocery store that has a small bike rack, it's out of the way and kind of sketchy and I don't want to use it. Bring bike racks inside where staff can easily see if there's someone with an angle grinder.
I do want to say one thing though, those places shown as not great for cycling, with painted bike lanes that shares with cars...it's really not that bad. The editing makes it seem chaotic and scary but I honestly don't feel unsafe at all. I was really worried after I decided to start cycling to work but once I actually got going it was fine. The places I do feel unsafe are large roads without a bike lane, but I avoid those.
So I want to encourage people who are considering cycling to work, or anywhere, to do it. It's likely scarier in your head than in reality. Pick a route you think works best and do a test run.
I’m a cyclist who works in Saanich (and lives less than 100m from the border of Saanich). Cycling really is the best method of commute for me. Driving a car would mean that I’d have to go around the massive Cedar Hill Golf Course, which has several busy intersections around its corners, whereas a bike path lets me cut through it and saves me probably 25% of the time. Taking the bus is far worse because the only routes require me to walk to the end of the block and take two buses that ultimately make a V shape, taking around 30 minutes, when I can get to my work in 12 minutes by bike. I have to cross some busy streets, but there are designated crossings.
There are some cracks in this perfect cycling utopia, though, and most of them are centred around Shelbourne Street, a main thoroughfare that is currently closed for construction. That’s led to people taking residential roads as detours, which has made some roads that are usually safe to bike on seem a lot more treacherous. There are also some places where the bike lane just inexplicably ends, such as patches on Cedar Hill Road (one of the roads that people are using instead of Shelbourne). But overall, I can’t complain. It really is easy to get by by bike in this city.
Thanks for the video!
If we’re being technical, Utyae, the trail from Mackenzie to Uptown that you took is actually the Lochside Regional Trail, which meets up with the Galloping Goose Trail at Uptown, which was your destination. But the point is valid that these regional trails make cycling a much more pleasurable experience in Saanich than in Surrey!
In Surrey, I used to bike everywhere. I didn't have a car, and I was biking anywhere from 120-200km a week, (lots was on Fraser highway that you rode in this video). One day I was riding to lunch, and I got hit by cars twice, then on the way home a flat tire about 12km away from home... Now flat tires are a common occurrence in Surrey, but getting hit by cars twice in one trip was really the deal breaker. I bought a car and just drive everywhere now, it was really eye opening that I was not safe and that the risk I was taking was much greater than I had remembered... We still bike for recreation but just on trails or completely separated/protected bike lanes... It sucks but I'm not going to ride if I'm literally risking my life just trying to get into the office
Wonderful information! The suburbs is exactly where bikes thrive the most, cities as you pointed out can be nicer walking and using the bus due to how cramped it can be.
Back in my college years, I cycled along busy streets without bike lanes…. I was lucky then, but now I’d be nervous riding those same streets again… We need more bike lanes.
What you point out in the video is something I've often found to be true in the suburbs: cycling is possible, but whenever you hit a stroad (which is often), things get tense because it's usually just you and a painted bike lane (or nothing at all) and drivers get quite close without really caring. Some even have this weird animosity toward bikers (I'm looking at you, massive pickup truck dude who never hauls anything) and will actively try to mess with you.
Great video! I live in Langley and it's nice to see more separated cycling lanes popping up. 216th street in Walnut Grove is about to get separated bike lanes. I hope more people start using them. Our main east/west artery in the neighborhood (88th avenue) doesn't even have a painted bike lane.
Most back yards have a few bicycles rotting away in them. That's because most people want to ride, so they buy a bike, and after riding a few times, they realize they hate near death experiences.
Even if the traffic safety problems were solved it's still too unsafe to ride your bike anywhere because the pervasive bike thefts. I heard a story from a retail employee about how one of their customers had their bike stolen when it was locked outside in only a 15 minute duration inside the store. And recently someone smashed open a locked windowed door at my place of work to unsuccessfully attempt to steal my ebike. It happened on a Thursday around 2pm, on a workday, during store opening hours. I don't even own a lock so I won't get tempted to lock it outside. I literally only park it inside locked buildings and even that isn't enough of a deterrent. I get people on the street yelling at me about how they would like to "have my bike" (in a "I would like to steal it" way not a "Hey cool where can I buy one" kind of way). I only commute to and from work with it, but it would be nice to be able to park it at a store and shop some day....
One approach is a folding bike, which you can bring with you. Zizzos cost $200-400.
First time watching one of your vids. As a lifelong Fraser Valley resident, seeing you brave Fraser Hwy on a bike is more than enough to earn a sub from me.
Love the bike bus idea, my daughter is only 1 but I’ll look into something like this in my neighborhood of Colorado when the time comes
Houten was designed from the ground up to make all local trips much easier to do by bike, while out-of town trips are better by car. There's also a train connection to Utrecht 4 times an hour from two stations. Even here in the Netherlands it's a bit of an anomaly. Frankly, I think it's fantastic.
Thanks for this video. I can relate to it a lot. I live in Melbourne Australia, and I ride an electric scooter (not a bike, sorry) and I greatly enjoy it. But the biggest issue is the lack of dedicated paths. We add lanes & lanes & more lanes to our freeways and devote very little time and money to our paths.
Also, I love that thing about the 'Bike Bus' that is very cool!
Very happy to see a new video!
I agree with the survey results that not having the skill and knowledge and the safety issues being a deterrent to ride a bike as an alternative for some trips. Painted bike lanes are not enough, I would want either a large division between the bike lane and cars or a completely separate bike lane. Especially if it's surrounded by trees.
It's such a depressing fact that over 2/3rd of Canadians live in urban sprawls.
Richmond is surprisingly good to bike around. So much potential there. (And it's flat!)
I usually don't take my bicycle inside the big city.
Suburbs and small villages are great to get around with the bicycle. So you don't need the car for local traffic that is beyond walking distance.
And of course, riding your bicycle in nature is the most fun.
Gradual replacement of trips is so crucial. I moved to a city that had bike infrastructure. It took me six years of gradually replacing everything with walking, cycling, and transit. The last two years my car sat in my paid parking spot, because I was still worried I might need the car for safety. When I sold that car, I didn't want to have to turn around and buy another. I wanted to sell it and know I was okay without it. Great video.
If there were protected bike lanes, I would use an ebike or my electric unicycle to get around a little more often.
lovely video. In your section about why we should accomodate biking, don't forget all the people without driver's licenses need to get around too! (kids, seniors, disabled, intoxicated, etc...)
Thanks for another great video, Uytae. This is such an important topic. In an effort to use my car less, I am shopping for an electric bike to get my aging body up the local hills. I agree that protected bike lanes need to be the norm if we ever expect families to ride bikes. The Galloping Goose bike trail is a fabulous experience and I wish that we had the equivalent here in Surrey.
I think it would be an interesting topic for a video to explore the growing impact of electric bicycles on transportation as they can flatten the hills and enable seniors like myself to continue cycling.
As someone who used to commute to City Centre by bike from South Surrey, I can say there are great bike lanes in Surrey. There's a BC Hydro right of way near 128th Street and others that run west to east from City Centre to Langley. The problem from what I experienced is quick, safe, and easy access to these routes. Way finding, protected lanes, lighting and more routes connecting North to South Surrey would be very helpful.
Awesome Uytae! My wife will start her biking commute to her new job in Halifax from the Dartmouth suburbs next week so... wish her luck. Great music choices btw :)
As someone who learned to bike in Ghent in his early 20s. You don’t need bike lessons. You need safe lanes and medium housing density, 2 to 3 story buildings.
Fun thing is that the more ppl bike the cheaper it gets to maintain your bike. I rented one for 3 mo for about 10$
One thing that unites many suburbs is very wide streets, which makes adding wide, well protected bike lanes a lot easier than in denser cities with older narrow streets. I believe in great cycling infrastructure everywhere (and I think we should sacrifice parking in city cores to get it) but the argument could easily be made that the suburbs are the best place to start.
Holy shit! Fraser hwy looks so scary. And I ride parts of Kingsway in Van. Another great video, Uytae. Thank you for all your hard work
Love seeing the Saanich props. Lochside trail is also amazing.
The demand is there! We want to cycle! Please cities like Surrey and Laval, give us the option to commute by bike/foot safely and enjoyable! Please!
what a gorgeous bike frame you have
I quite enjoy this guy's videos 👏👏 good channel 👍
You are right cycling in the suburbs is not a lost cause. As the cost of car ownership continues to increase cycling will become more popular and support for safe cycling infrastructure will increase. In Ottawa improving roads and parking takes precident over safe cycling infrastructure. Safe cycling infrastructure is put in when major roads are repaired. We are unlikely to see a safe interconnected cycling network in Ottawa for another 50 years.
While we can all advocate for bike infrastructure, I think your point of "get people to safely try cycling" is the smallest but most important step to increasing cycling participation. And more participation leads to visibility and important publicity around pro-bike culture and infrastructure. I think you say this, too, and it's so important.
The space that needs to be taken from cars to create robust and safe cycling infrastructure is MINUSCULE. It's just that the political opposition to doing so is fierce and multifaceted. Creating quality bike infrastructure isn't physically hard, it's just politically intense. People forget that even in the Netherlands, you can still get anywhere easily by car and that most NL families still own a car.
Great music choice for Fraser Highway, it captures perfectly how I feel on the rare occasion that I have the misfortune of having to bike on a "stroad".
I would like to have separate bike lane / bike path away from traffic preferably a nature bike path for everyone to enjoy all around the USA! Happy biking !
The best part of the video is the comparison ride of the 2 places. Its similar to a 2018 video comparing Vancouver and Halifax.
I've been enjoying the bike lanes around Surrey central! Great improvements
What drives me crazy is that most of the time we've got to literally BEG our cities for proper bike lanes. (I mean, we've got to beg for any public infrastructre generally, it seems, but that's another story.)
This is something that they *could* implement if they wanted to. And in my opinion it is crucial infrastructure. But most municipalities don't want to. Instead they prefer to pour money into super highways that somehow only make traffic worse. It's baffling. Cities are for PEOPLE, not cars!
I don't mind wending my way through suburban residential streets, but most suburban developments are islands with no outlets from one neighborhood to the next. What they need are little connecting paths between the neighborhoods so that I can get to my destination without having to get on a busy thoroughfare.
The city of Surrey has a “bike to work week” . One Saturday I was cycling from south Surrey to Caps on Scott rd and while cycling along hwy 10 I came across a big sign mounted on a trailer advertising bike to work week. The problem was that it was positioned in the bike lane forcing cyclists into the busy traffic to proceed around it. It says a lot about the city of Surrey and their understanding of cycling.
I’ve previously biked to work in suburban southern California. Although the painted bike lanes on arterial roads are unsafe, the quieter residential streets one or two blocks away are quiet and easy. Those are the real “bike lanes”.
Instead of major physical infrastructure, I think funds should be invested in apps that study driver data and determine the safest routes. Even if the route is a bit more circuitous, many e-bike users will not mind the extra distance.
Over in the UK, during Covid, a lot of the local government did a great thing to bring in lots of new bike lanes, where they made it a painted bike lane (because that is fast) but they also nailed a bunch of things they call "bicycle wands" into the ground. Ultimately, it's not a great deal of extra protection, but motorists who are happy to swerve into a bike lane to get past another car do not want to have a bunch of bike wands smashing into their car and scratching up the paint.
It is the fear of "I might damage my car" that gives the cyclists more protection, as motorists will actively avoid the wands, while they might not be so careful to keep their left tire (that is the passenger side over here) away from a painted line.
Moving on from that, there are local authorities putting in more substantial non-permanent features, such as blocking off rat run roads (backroads used as cut-trough routes) with big car-sized boxes full of plants, and leaving gaps that serve as bike filters. This turns a long residential street connecting two A-roads or B-roads, that is being misused by motorists who do not live in the area and who are not visiting the local people, into two or more "Local Traffic Neigbourhoods" (LTNs). It then becomes safer for the people living in the LTNs, within the city to let their children cycle on the local streets. It's still not perfect by itself, as it does not deal with the traffic on the main roads, but it turns a rat run into cul-de-sacs for cars, while the modal filters keep it as a continuous route for bikes and pedestrians.
And here is where cities like Surrey could have a look at suburban cul-de-sacs, to see if any of those dead-end-roads point towards anything useful. With a small amount of land purchase, what is a cul-de-sac now could connect on to something else, with a shared bike a pedestrian pathway. And then you have yourself a through route for bikes that does not turn into a rat run.
You may not be able to rehabilitate all the cul-de-sacs. If houses are lined up badly and you would have to knock down a bunch of houses, to break through, it may not be worth going to war with home owners who might otherwise want their kids to be able to cut through to somewhere useful, like the local school. However, what you can do is get out the message to city planners and developers that any new housing developments MUST be built with cut through bicycle routes in mind. If two housing developers who want to build on back-to-back lots have no incentive to line up their roads, you will get cul-de-sacs, where houses would need to be demolished to create a connection. But if housing developers have a legal requirement to only build cul-de-sacs that function as bike filters, the first developer will leave a bit of unbuilt land to comply with the law and the second developer will get their architects to move around house plots, in order to gain planning permission for their estate.
Essentially, an organisation like TransLink, is focused on public transport. And they are going to have to prioritise the long-distance cycle routes, and make them into things where lots of local people use part of the route (just like people use part of a bus route or a train line). But if you get developers who want to build cul-de-sacs to automatically cooperate and start making cul-de-sacs into LTNs with bike filters to get through, you can radically decrease the distances that cyclists have to ride to get around impassible roads.
With TransLink focusing on stations, rehabilitation of existing cul-de-sacs, to create bike cut through routes, should probably prioitise things like local schools. If you already have your bike bus scheme, and you can move some or all of the route to schools, from bigger roads to smaller roads, with a number of modal filters, you will start to create a new generation of Canadians who start to look at road maps backwards and who take their focus away from the big roads and freeways and go on fun rides to see if they can discover any cut-through routes that they do not yet know about.
And if you start to create a new generation of Canadians who think-in-terms of bike travel, those kids will grow up, go to university and get jobs in the city planning department and they will arrive with plans to "rehabilitate roads that annoy them", already in their heads.
Out here in Burbank California, we have an active cycling community, but often lack great infrastructure. Sure, there are a few segments here and there that have painted bike lanes, and there is a pretty nice walking/biking along the LA river, but much more needs to be done. I have heard it said that the city council of Burbank is still largely dominated by older citizens who do not want to see more biking infrastructure. Inevitably, a new generation will eventually take over and we can expand what most people are likely looking for. In terms of "chicken and egg," it is definitely the infrastructure: that needs to come first.
I grew up in a low density suburban New Jersey town. I routinely rode a bike in the suburban streets in residential areas.
Riding a bike in wide suburban streets in residential areas with low car traffic. I felt safe, because it was low car traffic and residential areas. It's not residential areas that were the problem. The problem was when you hit stroads or had to cross highways, like Rt 130 in NJ. That was the problem.
I wish there was a Gallopping Goose in every city!!! Another awesome informative video uytae
This channel has become one of my favorites. Great stuff. Keep it up!
The bike bus was so cute!!!
This is a very good video. It would be nice to show cost of bike lanes vs traffic lanes and highways - it might help show why even for auto owners its a good cost ratio.
I wish biking was a common thing everywhere, and I've made a what I find to be a shocking realization, but also not too shocking, but I find biking in rural areas so much better than in cities/towns (In NA). Where I'm at, I'm in a somewhat rural area, but not all that rural and it's about 40mins to the nearest town on bike. When I ride my bike to a specific place in that town, I can navigate rural back roads and just pop up right behind the store or stores that I'm wanting to go to without having to ride on any busy or main road at all. I always imagined cities would be way better for biking even with a lack of biking infrastructure, but I've definitely changed my mind on that.
I love this channel, especially now that I’ve moved to Vancouver
Absolutely fantastic video here. Thank you.
As much as I love channels like Not Just Bikes and RM Transit, I feel they sometimes get stuck in the critique that suburbs and stroads are dreadful for cycling. They truly are (lol), but your insight here proves that it can also be done with a bit of political will and neighbour cooperation.
Such a timely video! With families feeling the crunch of the rental housing market for 3 bd apartments within the city, this offers hope that with a little research, one can still find a neighborhood that finds that balance with a cargo e-bike.
I imagine an e-bike would have helped your ride even more so glad you used an "acoustic" for an easier, more accessible option to getting started.
Surrey is basically my San Diego suburb. We are only just now getting some reasonable bike infra, like a buffered bike lane on a busy residential road that spans the entire city. I just ride on that bike lane and hop on sidewalks on the stroads.
Great video! Some sweet drone shots here. I love cycling around Vancouver, but when you hit those lane with just the painted line...yeah, it feels like a miracle you make it out unscathed.
Going into Victoria there are a couple of bike counters. Whenever I went through there at about 6 or 7 pm, the counter is usually about 2,200 cyclists for the day in one direction.