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Photos have come out, gracias to the Canada Line Photos blog, that show the City of Richmond have begun rebuilding No. 3 Road - which includes the region’s first (AFAIK) raised bike lane.

The concept is quite simple: to provide physical separation between cyclists and drivers. It’s what every would-be cyclist dreams of having and it’s quite exciting to see it finally being built.

Of course, in the region, we do have greenways, but these are always quite far away from any moving car. There’s never been physically separated bike lanes that are attached to a road. While the Carrall St. retrofit is quite the project in and of itself, it resembles more closely to a greenway than a traditional bike lane.

The raised bike lane is supposed to increase the safety for cyclists from motorists and help keep the lane clean from rocks and other debris typically pushed to the side of the road (where the traditional bike lane is).

It’s a terrific experiment. While I personally have always envisioned bollards, a small boulevard, or even a low level cement separator to separate the bike lane from the road, the concept of a “raised” bike lane may prove to be the key to providing a safer cycling network. Most certainly, it’s a huge leap in the right direction.

Three cheers to staff and council in Richmond. I’ll be watching this experiment closely. Those of us who support physically separated lanes will certainly have a more local example to point towards if this proves successful.

I don’t seem to recall this news hitting the Van-blogsophere, although it seems as though it’s rather old now. Maybe we Vancouver bloggers don’t visit Pacific Centre very much ;)

We all know the endless questioning of why Vancouver has been gipped by Apple for years with the lack of an official store. At one time, it seemed as though the company was planning to redeem our patient waiting with a flagship store, similar to the one in San Francisco. Apparently, it’s going to be *that* cool, but we are getting more than just a typical mini mall store.

We’ve known for a bit now that Pacific Centre had been chosen as the site. The rumour was that it would be in the space formerly occupied by Holt Renfrew. Now, finally, the walls have been put up with the lovely white Apple logo and a link to the Canadian site.

This of course means that construction is officially underway! The walls went up at the beginning of this month. According to the reports, the store will take over two levels!

Now, if the timeline follows that of previous Apple stores in Canada, Vancouver’s could very well be ready in time for summer!

This is all corroborated by Pacific Centre’s website:

We expect the exterior portion of the project to be complete by March 2008 and the interior portion including new store openings by Summer 2008.

We are pleased to share with you that, Apple, Browns Shoes, H&M and Teenflo will be joining the Centre and will reside in the old Holt Renfrew location on the upper level. We expect to announce the other new tenants in the coming weeks.  On the lower level Geox and Jacob are now open.

During the Surrey Mayor’s State of the City address, while discussing transportation in BC’s second largest city, Dianne Watts said:

“I for one am a firm believer that instead of SkyTrain expansion in Surrey we should be looking at At Grade Rail. At Grade Rail is significantly cheaper, easier to build and much more aesthetically pleasing than Sky Train. Surrey cannot wait until 2020 for improved rail transit. At Grade Rail can be completed much faster. I have great confidence in the potential of At Grade Rail, and I am currently having City staff analyze this option so that we can move it forward.”

This is a terrific move on the part of the Mayor. It great to know that she understands the added qualities that LRT presents to Surrey over SkyTrain - not just cost efficiency per km, but also aspects like the streetscape asthetics.

While I understand the reasoning for SkyTrain to UBC and to Coquitlam, I am a vehement supporter of the development of a new rail transit network based on LRT. Surrey is in the perfect position to be the beginning spot for this new network and will set the city apart from the North of Fraser’s transportation planning of the past few decades. It’s saying “We will chart our own path, learn from your mistakes, and build the best rail transit we can”. And that rail transit will be based on LRT!

Hopefully Surrey City Council will take a nod from Vancouver, and continue to push forward on the Heritage Rail Project. It would be a fantastic business case for LRT South of the Fraser if we can have a demonstration up and running in the next few years!

Good job Dianne! You just got my vote for November!