May 9, 2011
Letter to Members of the Downtown Vancouver
Association, the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association
(DVBIA) and
The Vancouver Board of Trade
RE: Business impact study of separated
bike lanes and opportunity to attend a workshop -Thursday, May 12 from 5:30 to 7 p.m.
The City of
Vancouver committed to study the effect of the introduction of separated bike
lanes on downtown businesses in October, 2010.
Since then, as you are aware, strong concerns have been expressed, by business
members of our organizations and in the media, about the economic impact on
local businesses of the separated bike lanes along Dunsmuir and Hornby Sts.
To fulfill the
City’s commitment, a study has been commissioned by a partnership that includes
our three organizations, as well as the City of Vancouver and the Vancouver
Economic Development Commission (VEDC), which chairs the partnership. Through an RFP process, the partnership has
chosen Stantec Consulting to conduct the study, in conjunction with Site
Economics Ltd and Mustel Group Market Research.
The study will focus
on the short and longer term effects of the new separated bike lanes on street
level businesses, as well as on commercial property owners and on businesses
located in the upper floors of commercial buildings. It will also make recommendations on ways to
mitigate any negative economic impacts on businesses as a result of the
introduction of the separated bike lanes. The study will also include an
analysis of best practices in other cities that have reduced lanes available to
vehicular traffic in order to accommodate separated bike lanes.
The study will
include multiple opportunities for affected businesses, their employees and
their customers to provide input on their experiences as a result of the new
separated bike lanes. Surveys of street
level and upper floor businesses will be conducted, as well as of commercial
property owners. Similar surveys will be
conducted on Howe and Georgia Sts for comparison
purposes. There will be consultation workshops with a sample of businesses,
intercept interviews of customers and a sample survey of Metro Vancouver
residents. In addition, businesses and
individuals can provide input through Stantec at the email address and
telephone number below.
For the study to be as accurate and
comprehensive as possible, it is important that as many Members as possible
make every effort to participate in the surveys and register their experiences
with the Stantec team.
One important
opportunity for businesses to provide input to the study will be at a workshop
next Thursday, May 12, from 5:30pm to
7:00pm. The workshop will be held at
Stantec’s offices, 11th floor, 111 Dunsmuir Street. If you plan to attend, please inform Stantec
in advance by emailing to
Iona.bonamis@stantec.com
or calling 604-696-8052.
WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO
ATTEND THIS WORKSHOP IF POSSIBLE.
All information
provided to the study on individual businesses will be held in the strictest confidence
by the consultants; only aggregated data will be provided to VEDC and its
partners.
The study findings,
conclusions and recommendations will be reported to City Council and made
public in July, 2011. The consultants
will continue to monitor the impact of the separated bike lanes on businesses
through 2012.
For further
information on the bike lane impacts study, please contact:
|
organization
|
contact person
|
contact details
|
|
Downtown Vancouver
Association
|
Robert (Bob) Glass,
President
|
604-331-6020
rkglass@macdevcorp.com
|
|
Downtown Vancouver Business
Improvement Association
|
Charles Gauthier, Executive Director
|
604-685-7811, ext. 203
charles@downtownvancouver.net
|
|
Vancouver Board of Trade
|
Bernie Magnan, Assistant
Managing Director and Chief Economist
|
604-640-5454
bmagnan@boardoftrade.com
|
|
Stantec
|
Iona Bonamis, Transit Planner
|
604-696-8052
Iona.bonamis@stantec.com
|
Yours sincerely,
DOWNTOWN VANCOUVER ASSOCIATION
Robert Glass
President