I hope you don't say that to your patients! :lol

yes please tell them all to say mei. bunch of fucking geezers taking up resources...

I'd only want to say that to the rude/ungrateful ones lol. Generally the old people are pretty nice.

Boooooo 2026 Tfsa is only $7000, brokies

Gregor Robertson gets a lot of grief around these parts (and I'm increasingly skeptical that he gets the housing crisis based on his public comments) but he was bold and right to push hard to get bike lanes built in Vancouver. Robertson failed at some things but unlike most mayors he actually had a vision for what the city could be and pushed to make it happen and some of the changes have paid off.

This comes from a LinkedIn post from the Dutch Cycling Embassy's International relations manager: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/cbrun...xH5oTm_qmx6jiE

I would like to put a huge asterisk on that though. When he built the bike lanes, ebikes wasn't a thing yet. There's been a huge biking boom the last few years because of covid and the general availability of ebikes. The progress of ebikes have been HUGE since 2018 until now.

We got some groupons in 2018 for ebike rentals for shits and giggles. We started around Olympic Village and went around Stanley Park and back, and the ebikes were completely out of juice. Nowadays you can easily get 60-100km depending on how much you spent and significant number of people are using them as their choice for commuting.

I've rode many years and let's be real, Vancouver with it's hills is terrible for people with bikes. I still stubbornly ride my mountain bike around the city, carrying my kid because I'm a masochist, same reason why I insist on driving a manual. I see a lot of people using ebikes doing drop offs and pick ups at school now because it is now realistic. Without those ebikes you can probably easily take at least 30% of bike traffic off the road.

Aside from the obvious difference between housing being a far bigger and more difficult problem than bike lane is, it is also important to keep in mind that it is a far easier task to get re-elected as mayor than it is to not get fired as the federal housing minister. Cabinet shuffle is pretty much a given for any federal gov at some point, esp after a re-election (assuming the Liberals can get re-elected at the next federal election, which is in itself a tall order).

Moonbeam didn't build out the bike lane infrastructure in 1 term. I dunno how successful his grand vision for housing will be, but realistically speaking, I don't think he will be given enough time to remain the housing minister to hammer out even just the full medium term version of his housing strategy before he leaves the post for one reason or another.

yeah fuck those bike lanes, as soon as the weather gets cold & rainy, they'll be empty.... thanks for nothing fuck face robertson!

https://www.waiyeehong.com/images/la...012906_LRG.jpg

Confession time: When we were in HK, we found a store that sold these and we Guangdong hoarded a handful of these.

At the checkout, the cashier lady asked us if we were from Canada, and shook her head in shame at us. :drunk::badpokerface::okay:

Yes and no - in 2019 (basically pre-ebike) bikes were 9% of all trips in Vancouver and it was the pandemic that sank the numbers and only in the past year did bike traffic surpass 2019 numbers. e-bikes certainly have helped the numbers go up but the numbers were already there before COVID. (https://vancouver.ca/files/cov/2023-...n-snapshot.pdf)

The difference between Vancouver numbers and other cities is also huge - Translink's data (different data set) shows that over 5% of Vancouverites commute by bike which is MILES ahead of flat cities like Richmond (~1.2%) and Surrey (~.5%). It's also miles ahead of next door neighbour Burnaby (~1%) (Page 19 : https://www.translink.ca/-/media/tra...ouver-2024.pdf)

Granted, it's likely a lot of Vancouverites live close enough to their jobs to bike but the difference is staggering but also not surprising considering the quality of the bike network.

FWIW, Translinks report says that cycling peaked in 2016 and we've been recovering since COVID - again, e-bikes are helping but the numbers were there before e-bikes.

There's also a bunch of data in the Translink doc showing how much better the perception of safety is with bike lanes in Vancouver versus other cities - 49% of people surveyed felt Vancouver was safe for bikes while Burnaby/NW clocks in at 36%, Surrey/Langley at 39%, and Richmond/Delta at 44%.

I miss cycling in Vancouver. I used to ride my bike to almost anywhere. I think between 2014 to 2015, I only managed to put on 1,500KM on the 996. I rode my bike more. :fuckthatshit:

The numbers only do so much in explaining the reasons.

I lived in Royal Oak before, I biked to DT a handful of times for for a commute. The ride in is great, mostly downhill and I can get to work in less than 30mins even on a mountain bike. The ride back home is absolutely brutal as it's almost all uphill. You cannot bring a bike onto the train during rush hour which imo would deter a significant amount of people from trying.

Never lived in Richmond before, but 1) riding in Richmond, nuff said, 2) I don't fancy my chances of trying to cross the bridges, 3) the climb from South Van up towards DT. The bridges going into DT imo are a lot friendlier than the ones going to Richmond as I've crossed the Burrard, Cambie, and the Viaducts before via bike.

Past Burnaby I don't think the distance makes much sense to ride. Coming from Surrey seems like a shit show on a bicycle tbh. If I don't like the idea of crossing Knight Street or Oak Street bridges (crossing on/off ramps or being forced off the shortest route) I REALLY don't fancy riding on the Paltullo. I thought the Skytrain bridge from New West to Surrey was open to bike and foot traffic, but Google tells me to take the Pattullo.

No amount of pedal assist is going to make a 2h bike ride commute good compared to just an hour and a bit on the Skytrain.

I wish I had seen you decked out in Team Italiia spandex

It's never too late :hotbaby:

riding in richmond recreationally is actually pretty good, riding in richmond for commuting.... wouldnt want to do that lol. especially if i worked or lived in one of the busier parts.

yeah theres no skytrain path like there is like on the canada line, but with the new patullo i think it will actually be pretty awesome since its only a 4 lane bridge for now, i'd imagine that there would be tons of extra room for non car travel. too bad i don't live in new west anymore and have almost no reason to ever take the patullo to work now. used to drive on it every day, now maybe a few times a year.

Riding in Richmond for recreation is okay, but to commute within Richmond and you work in and around a major road is a tough one. :fuuuuu:

i used to hop on my bike from like 5 and cambie and ride to my work on 5 and shell, so technically i did do it. lol

I generally find that drivers in the GVRD know how to drive around cyclists.

Here in the GTA... :inout:

I haven't had any issues riding my bike in Richmond ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Granted my ride is short, still no issues. Richmond being so flat makes it easier too, you just need to be aware of your surroundings. To be fair, I did have a co-worker who was hit on his bicycle on the way to work one time but he's also a clumsy caveman so I didn't entirely believe his story.

We've also got plenty of people commuting around on ebikes, scooters, etc along our "downtown" core. We quite often see people coming in for minor injuries but it's usually their own damn fault for doing something dangerous and/or not wearing a helmet.

Let's go for a ride next time you're in town.

Richmond is the best for cycling ... many times it's raining in Vancouver and somehow, it's sunny in Richmond. As well, flat as a pancake, more bike /multi use lanes (like the one on Steveston Hwy). And honestly, some pretty views along the West Dyke (badhobz fav photo spot), South Dyke, Iona, North Dyke/Terra Nova.

What if you don't show up?

always that possibility ...

I'll show up .. in a car.

I'll bring along my janky $75 mountain bike from fb marketplace lol

Wouldn't you say that infrastructure is a necessary component to industry adoption and creation?

I just left an AI industry event and one of the reoccurring themes is that typically, industries in Canada wait for mom+dad (the government) to implement new technologies before SMEs invest into it. Further to that SME adoption works as a POC for enterprise or multi-nationals.

I'd argue it's double layered - ebike adoption might not be as strong if we didn't have the bicycle infrastructure to support that traffic. In this instance, government did what they were supposed to - they rolled out infrastructure and rolled out grants to promote adoption. But it's all too typical across Canada where we have this learned helplessness and lack of urgency.

Sent from my CPH2655 using Tapatalk

It's basically too cold to scooter already, you probably need a Canada goose.