The corner of Bute and Haro, outside the Beaconsfield apartments.

BUTE STREET BLUES
Cars, Bikes, & Pedestrians
On A Collision Course?

by John Streit / Photos by James Oakes
Steve Hubley has been one busy guy during this pandemic. Along with being the building manager at the historic Beaconsfield apartments at 884 Bute Street (completed in 1910 and one of the oldest buildings in the West End), he has been actively trying to find out from the City of Vancouver what exactly is going on in his part of the neighborhood, specifically with the Haro and Bute Infrastructure Upgrades.

The City has been replacing critical water infrastructure plus improving and adding safety features along sections of Haro, Bute, Denman, Gilford, and Chilco streets. Phase Two is underway at Bute and Haro and is expected to last into the spring of 2022. That includes improvements to the Haro Street Bikeway which connects the West End Community Centre, businesses on Denman and Robson, along with the Bute and Gilford mini-parks.

During construction, some residents including Hubley have noticed large sections of street parking starting to disappear. He's calling for the continuation of permit parking on both sides of Haro Street from Thurlow to Bute.

"I spoke with the fire department and asked them if it was too tight to drive with parking on both sides of the street. They said 'no, it wasn't a problem at all.' That's what I'm trying to advocate to the City. We need parking on both sides of the street. There used to be parking on both sides of the street between Bute and Jervis but they decided to bump the sidewalk out and put trees in front of the senior’s center and we lost a whole bunch of parking spaces," he says.

Access to the Bute plaza is clearly marked as a bike lane.

Hubley has been in frequent contact with the City’s engineering department, writing letters and having conversations with staff. "We need that parking because there are a lot of apartment buildings that are grandfathered, including ours, that don't have underground parking. I told the City that it's all nice and dandy to have more trees and no cars but realistically, there are people living here who need a place to park," he says. He feels if West Enders have available parking at their building, then their street permit should be $1,000 per year. "It really should be for people who need that space. There are a lot of empty parking lots."

The City of Vancouver’s Engineering department tells The West End Journal, that just west of Bute, it is completing changes to Haro Street including replacing traffic circles with corner bulges and raised crosswalks, in addition to traffic calming and green infrastructure. East of Bute to Thurlow, it appears much of that temporary street parking will be reduced to one side of the street again to make cycling safer on the Haro Bikeway to Smithe Street.

In a 2019 letter to the City’s Transportation Planning Department, Jeff Leigh with HUB, the cycling advocacy group, expressed support for the Haro Bikeway. “We consider Haro to be an important cycling connector for residents of and visitors to the West End. In the future, we would like to see a protected bikeway along Robson Street that allows people cycling to access the businesses there. For the connection to the Stanley Park Causeway, we expect that some may choose to use Haro, but many will choose a parallel route further north, avoiding the elevation changes along Haro. That said, improving Haro to AAA standards will improve cycling conditions within the West End.” He adds that removing parking on one side of the street reduces the risk of ‘dooring’ for cyclists.

Hubley also daily sees countless drivers cutting through the West End, increasing pressure on the lanes and streets near the Beaconsfield. “What they're (City of Vancouver) trying to do is shut off certain parts of the West End to make sure people don't cut through. The problem is not the people who live here but the people going through the West End, that's what's causing the traffic problems."

For example, he feels the “Local Traffic Only, Road Closed” signage on Haro at Thurlow is not working. “I've seen hundreds of people trying to drive down that road. And then they get there and can't get through or are just following their GPS. So for the City, cutting off the arteries is just causing problems in areas where there shouldn't be traffic."

Haro is now a one-way street west to Jervis.

Traffic finds its way down Stovold Lane.

A busier Thurlow during the pandemic has been funneling drivers west up Stovold Lane. With no stop signs in Vancouver alleys, residents including Hubley have noticed a hazard at Bute near the plaza. "The City is not allowed to put a stop sign there because it's not listed as a road. Haro Street has been closed due to City construction, but traffic is like water and drivers will try to find their way through as much as they can. And right now, the access is through Stovold Lane."

Some years ago in response to residents’ concerns, the City installed speed bumps, two pylons and extended the Bute Mini-Park paving stones to slow traffic at Stovold Lane. More recently to address ongoing concerns, a yellow pedestrian/cyclist crossing sign (not in the line of sight for drivers, according to one resident), was also put up in the alley. Near misses are frequent for the many pedestrians who use the shady, tree lined sidewalks including children on-route on to the Lord Roberts Annex and playground at Nelson Park and seniors walking to Haro Park.

The City of Vancouver Engineering Department tells TWEJ it’s considering other solutions. “Although we have plaza blocks across the city, the uniquely wide alleys in the West End can lead to challenges at plazas and other similar spaces. Visually, the roadway can look wider, and appear to be the through road, even though the bylaw automatically requires traffic along an alley to stop before crossing an intersecting street and sidewalk. With a permanent redesign, we can reinforce this design by raising Bute and its sidewalks while narrowing the alley, and this is an item we expect to engage on. Since Bute Street crosses a significant number of alleys in this way, we expect the lessons learned through this and other potential alley changes to have broader application across the West End.”

The corner of Bute at Barclay... looking south. Vehicles speeding down Barclay often fail to stop at the stop sign.

Carol Reardon lives in the area and feels Stovold Lane has improved recently but could use another upgrade. "The combination of the speed bumps and the bulge at the Bute Mini-Park has made a huge difference. The tricky part is for pedestrians who are walking along in front of 888 Bute and want to cross into the mini-park, and the cars that are coming down the alley which don't necessarily stop. I'm always very mindful of it. I basically stop and make sure no vehicles are trying to cross there. But I don't know if other people do that. I guess they could put better markings there to alert everyone, sometimes they paint things green."

Issues with drivers not stopping aren’t just limited to the lanes on Bute Street.

A couple of years ago, Reardon was t-boned while driving just a half block away from Stovold Lane at Barclay. “I was just driving to work in the morning, came out of my building, and turned onto Bute. There is a stop sign on Barclay, but I find people speed on that street quite a bit. So, I had the right-of-way but the person who was coming up from Thurlow didn't stop so they just smacked into me."

Luckily, Reardon says she feels fine today.

She likes the idea suggested by a friend of speed bumps on Barclay between Thurlow and Bute. “To really slow people down. That would be helpful. I don't know how the City would react to that, they might think it is overkill. At a minimum, something can be done about the visibility of the stop sign so that drivers coming up Barclay realize they are obligated to stop."

The City’s Engineering Department says it is working on launching a COVID-delayed “multi-phase engagement process” soon about Bute Street’s future. “Through the West End Community Plan, Downtown Public Space Strategy, and public engagement on nearby projects, we have heard the interest in and potential for changes along Bute Street. The West End Public Benefits Strategy and the Capital Plan have identified the Bute Greenway as a priority project, particularly in the context of an increasing number of West End residents and demand for a diversity of public spaces. We see this project as particularly important in the context of recent Council direction, such as the Climate Emergency Response and Road Space Reallocation target,” the City says.

Jeff Leigh with HUB says Bute is on the COV’s upgrade plan for the capital budget cycle ending in 2022. “Bute was promoted by HUB as needing improvements to reduce conflicts. One issue is the curb cuts at the diversions, which are often narrow as the diversions were implemented many years ago,” he says. He adds that raised crossings would help pedestrians and cyclists.

Further south at Bute and Nelson streets, parents of children at the Lord Roberts Annex have been freaked out for years at crossing that busy and complex intersection. There are no zebra crossings, speed bumps, flashing red lights on stop signs, or any other safety features you would see at school crossings in other parts of Metro Vancouver. Just faded lines and some antiquated signage indicating it’s a school zone.

The City of Vancouver says this is also on its radar. “Pedestrian and cycling safety and priority when crossing Nelson Street near Lord Roberts Annex will be a focus for us. We expect the exact treatment to depend on broader project changes, including traffic patterns in the area, but expect raising and visually highlighting the crossing will be part of the concepts,” it says.

Cycling through the Bute and Robson pop-up plaza, which is part of a dedicated bike lane.

If you head north down Bute towards Robson, you’ll find another emerging pedestrian/cyclist/vehicle conflict zone at the pop-up plaza in front of Breka Bakery and Cafe.

The bike lane cuts through the middle of the often busy public space, making the former street a little tricky for both the cyclist and the people having a coffee and apple fritter on the temporary and very movable street furniture. A children’s play area has been created near where E-bikes whiz by. A Mobi bike rental station has been built. This, as more vehicles barrel down Rosemary Brown Lane in both directions because of COV construction closures on Haro. Volunteers with the group that activates and produces events at the plaza on weekends are sharing stories of “countless near misses.” As a result, they’ve put up a bright orange “dismount” sign in the bike lane aimed at cyclists. It’s a message that is generally ignored.

The City of Vancouver calls the plaza at Bute and Robson an “interim design.” “Public engagement and ongoing monitoring are helping us to learn what the issues are, and inform permanent design solutions at this location. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the City has also implemented several pop-up plazas across the city, where we have been able to test different approaches to delineating space for cycling. These ongoing learnings will help to inform design solutions for delineating cycling and pedestrian uses to minimize conflict at Bute-Robson and other future permanent plazas,” it says.

A cyclist walks his bike through the busy Bute plaza.

For now, the City’s traffic calming efforts continue in this corner of the West End. The COV website describes the work as “a balance where we aim to reduce short-cutting along local streets, bike-ways, and the neighborhood as a whole while minimizing access changes for local residents. By reducing short-cutting and motor vehicle volumes on these streets, we are improving comfort and safety for people of all ages and abilities who are walking and cycling.”

Steve Hubley appreciates the communication he has had with the City of Vancouver about the Haro and Bute Infrastructure Upgrades, particularly with Brian Gould, Senior Transportation Design Engineer. “The City is open to listening and that's a positive. But I also feel that before this project happened, they should have been talking to people like me. Why not go around to the buildings that are actually on the street where you're going to do this impact. They weren't really clear about what they were proposing. My wife actually said 'more trees' not realizing they'd knock out 15 parking spaces."