Broadway Detour Update

A block of Broadway is closed for 4 months to accommodate construction for the new subway. With the closest parallel road being 10th Ave, one of the busiest bike routes, there’s been significant conflict and safety concerns.

Back in February we put up a blog post and collaborated on a video about the detour, documenting our efforts to improve protection on the route for vulnerable road users. We advocated for improvements, and the city made some of them.

Since then 3 more cyclists (that we know of) have been hit on the detour route, some of the measures the city implemented after our advocacy were walked back, and we’ve begun sounding the alarm again. We met with staff from the Rapid Transit Office last week to discuss our ongoing concerns, with 3 primary goals:

1. Advocate for immediate changes that could improve 10th Ave for the remainder of the detour, which is expected to end in late May.
2. Learn about plans for any upcoming road closure detours along Broadway as construction continues, and urge that 10th Ave be better protected for these.
3. Raise our concerns about the baseline conditions of 10th Ave, which already fails the City’s standard for “All Ages and Abilities” bike routes even in the best of times.

Here’s a quick summary of what we learned at the meeting:

• Our advocacy is making a difference: With the noise that we’re making, we’re having an impact. City staff made clear they are watching our social media channels and paying attention to the feedback we’re getting. Even if they don’t implement all the changes we’re hoping for with the current detours, we’re hopeful that future detours along the Broadway Subway construction will involve more proactive thinking around protecting cyclists on 10th Ave.
• Data availability is an issue for everyone: The Rapid Transit Office doesn’t have any better access to cyclist crash data in the detour area than we do. They are relying on residents reporting crashes to them directly (they don’t even have direct access to 311 reports), or through the Vancouver Police Department, and so are we. They knew of some crashes we didn’t know about and vice versa.
• Shared responsibility makes these projects really complicated: For the Broadway Subway work there is a split of responsibility, with the Province responsible for the actual construction detour and the City responsible for the knock-on effects. For example if you are traveling eastbound on Broadway, when you get to Ontario you’ll see a no left turn sign that belongs to the Province (part of the construction detour) and a no right turn sign that belongs to the city (part of protecting 10th Ave). While these teams talk ‘every day’ there are a lot of people involved and coordinating is a challenge.
• There’s yet another stakeholder – Chard Properties: At Ontario and Broadway the City installed temporary barricades (after our advocacy) to prevent drivers from traveling southbound on Ontario. With a developer working at Ontario and Broadway (separate from the subway project) city staff delegated responsibility to Chard’s construction crew to replace the barriers whenever they’re not on site. This has not been working well, but there doesn’t appear to be any consequence for that other than more calls from city staff to the developer.
• Protections on weekdays only: While the original plan was for Ontario at Broadway to be blocked for drivers 7 days a week, it was walked back to weekdays only. The city cited competing concerns from groups like ours and local businesses, and that weekday rush-hour was what they observed as the most dangerous time for cyclists on 10th. Since the construction crew is responsible for setting up these barriers, we’re not sure who is supposed to remove them Saturday mornings or put them back Monday mornings.
• We all agree the no left turn sign on Main is not ideal: When the city first introduced a left turn ban from Main onto 10th for the detour, they blocked off the dedicated left turn lane with signage and cones. We liked this – but apparently it was only ever planned to be temporary while they waited for their new custom sign. They were disappointed by the comically small font size on the sign too, and it sounds like this won’t be repeated.
• Consultation about 10th Ave is upcoming: The City’s 10th Ave Improvements work is ongoing, with construction for the block between Fir and Granville expected in 2027. Stay tuned on their webpage for the next input opportunities. We find that often the city has great upgrade ideas but an intolerably slow pace.

What we’re planning to do next:

1. We will continue to track and report whenever the barrier is missing at Ontario and Broadway and advocate for the city to resume responsibility for this. If you spot the barricade missing when it should be there (any weekday), please take a photo and send it to RapidTransitOffice@vancouver.ca and cc us at contact@visionzerovancouver.ca. Or if you’re on social media, feel free to just DM it to us and we can take it from there. Staff on this team do not have access to 311 reports so please send it directly to them or us.
2. We’re setting up a meeting with the Mount Pleasant BIA! We’re going to look together at where we can find common ground on our asks and get behind the same suggestions. Wherever we’re on the same page, we think we’ll have a very strong case. Whether or not we get any action during the remaining time of this detour, we’re excited to team up and see where we can find alignment.
3. We’ve left staff some simple suggestions for immediate implementation and will follow-up to see which, if any, they take us up on. These include adding “No access to 10th Ave” to the variable message signage on Main St., better controlling the barriers at Ontario and Broadway to ensure they are consistently in place, and using cones to quickly widen the one-way modal filters in an effort to increase compliance.
4. Finally, we’ll be keeping a close eye on future detour plans and hoping to review protection plans for 10th ave prior to their roll-out.

Ontario St. should be clearly barricaded to drivers (such as either of these photos) on weekdays. If you see no barricades on weekdays, take a photo and send it to RapidTransitOffice@vancouver.ca and cc us at contact@visionzerovancouver.ca.