{"id":37258,"date":"2024-11-04T10:00:39","date_gmt":"2024-11-04T18:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/?p=37258"},"modified":"2024-10-29T12:42:47","modified_gmt":"2024-10-29T19:42:47","slug":"cycling-in-the-suburbs-doesnt-have-to-suck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2024\/11\/04\/cycling-in-the-suburbs-doesnt-have-to-suck\/","title":{"rendered":"Cycling in the Suburbs Doesn\u2019t Have to Suck"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large\" src=\"http:\/\/spacingmedia.com\/spacingvancouver\/wp-content\/uploads\/features\/indepth_feature-VAN.gif\" width=\"600\" height=\"72\"><\/p>\n<p>Sure, Vancouver\u2019s seawall is the popular place to bike, but that doesn\u2019t mean the suburbs can\u2019t be too \u2014 with a few fixes.<\/p>\n<p>In the latest episode of the popular&nbsp;<em>About Here<\/em>&nbsp;video series on urban solutions (180,000 YouTube subscribers and counting), creator Uytae Lee takes a set of two wheels into the land of \u201ccars, cul-de-sacs and Costcos.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn the surface, it\u2019s easy to think that cycling would just never be possible in neighbourhoods like this,\u201d he says in the opening, \u201cbut the evidence actually suggests that might not be true.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The obvious problem is that lots of infrastructure is dedicated to cars and that the landscape is too vast.<\/p>\n<p>But Lee challenges us to look again. Wide roads might be built for cars, but they actually make for a roomy cycling experience. Suburbs might be monotonous, but that means everyone\u2019s got schools and shopping close by. And looking at resident surveys from sprawling cities like Surrey, it\u2019s not distance that\u2019s preventing people from hopping on a bike, but worries about safety.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fCyvIMn48s4?si=yWL9y3_0l6Ibe0TW\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>In the video, Lee cycles routes in two cities to sample the experience: Surrey in Metro Vancouver and Saanich on Vancouver Island.<\/p>\n<p>The inner streets of both are lovely and calm, a kind of Spielbergian setting that would be familiar to the cycling kids of&nbsp;<em>E.T.<\/em>&nbsp;or&nbsp;<em>Stranger Things<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>But on the main roads, with cars, buses and trucks? Separation is key to safety.<\/p>\n<p>Surrey\u2019s Fraser Highway has only painted lines to protect cyclists. Lee\u2019s commute here proved treacherous, with drivers and a giant 503 bus speeding right into his lane. (In the words of one YouTube commenter: \u201cUytae out here taking his life in his hands cycling Fraser Highway to deliver premium&nbsp;<em>About Here<\/em>&nbsp;content.\u201d)<\/p>\n<p>In Saanich, on the other hand, cyclists on the main road are protected by a physical barrier. The path even feeds into the Galloping Goose Regional Trail, once a freight railway built during the First World War and now a green and picturesque cycling route that takes you from the suburbs into Victoria.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thetyee.ca\/Culture\/2024\/07\/29\/AboutHereCyclingSurrey.jpg\" alt=\"A line of minivans, buses and other vehicles take up space in a painted cycling lane.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Surrey: Eek! Screencap from the &#8220;About Here&#8221; video.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/thetyee.ca\/Culture\/2024\/07\/29\/AboutHereCyclingSaanich.jpg\" alt=\"Unimpeded by vehicles, a couple of cyclists make their way down a protected cycling lane in Saanich.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Saanich: Ooh! Screencap from the &#8220;About Here&#8221; video.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Paying for this infrastructure and finding the political support for it can be difficult, though, says Lee.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps the biggest hurdle is to accept that there\u2019s no such thing as a natural place for cars. A good cycling network can happen even in the suburbs, offering people another option to get around.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOur cities don\u2019t have to look like Amsterdam or Copenhagen to be good for cycling,\u201d says Lee.<\/p>\n<p>Check out the video above for&nbsp;<em>About Here<\/em>\u2019s usual mix of data, snappy solutions, and Lee\u2019s delightfully geeky passion for improving our cities.<\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<p><em>Christopher Cheung is a reporter at&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/thetyee.ca\/Bios\/Christopher_Cheung\/?utm_source=spacing&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_content=chris\">The Tyee<\/a>, where this story originally appeared.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sure, Vancouver\u2019s seawall is the popular place to bike, but that doesn\u2019t mean the suburbs can\u2019t be too \u2014 with a few fixes. In the latest episode of the popular&nbsp;About Here&nbsp;video series on urban solutions (180,000 YouTube subscribers and counting), creator Uytae Lee takes a set of two wheels into the land of \u201ccars, cul-de-sacs<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2024\/11\/04\/cycling-in-the-suburbs-doesnt-have-to-suck\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;Cycling in the Suburbs Doesn\u2019t Have to Suck&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8385,"featured_media":37267,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11228,11230,11232,25,36,39,11235],"tags":[11828,12018,11434,37,350,12019,214],"class_list":["post-37258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bikes","category-community","category-features","category-infrastructure","category-streetscape","category-traffic","category-urban-design","tag-about-here","tag-biking","tag-saanich","tag-suburbs","tag-surrey","tag-uytae-lee","tag-vancouver-2"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Cycling in the Suburbs Doesn\u2019t Have to Suck - Spacing Vancouver<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/vancouver\/2024\/11\/04\/cycling-in-the-suburbs-doesnt-have-to-suck\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cycling in the Suburbs Doesn\u2019t Have to Suck - Spacing Vancouver\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sure, Vancouver\u2019s seawall is the popular place to bike, but that doesn\u2019t mean the suburbs can\u2019t be too \u2014 with a few fixes. 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