Cycling on the South Fraser Perimeter Road

Interesting article written by an ardent cyclist who often travels from Burnaby to Vancouver Island.

John

Hi folks,

Rode from home (Burnaby) to Victoria on Saturday, then back from Victoria to downtown Vancouver on Sunday. On Saturday, I took the South Fraser Perimeter Road from the Patullo Bridge. Just a few impressions:

1. You can't really get on the SFPR from that little road that goes underneath the Patullo Bridge. You might remember that you could take this road that met up with the road that ran alongside the tracks towards the Port Mann Bridge. Well, now this road goes nowhere. To get onto the SFPR, you have to carry your bike down some rocks to get to a weird paved (bike?)path that just ends. But if you go west, you soon come to an intersection that lets you get onto the SFPR west/southbound. So the proper way to get onto the SFPR from the Patullo Br southbound, you get on Scott Rd and take the first right.

2. T he SFPR takes you right to Hwy 17 and the ferry. It's got a wide shoulder all the way and is marked with bike route signs, with one exception. This is the interchange at the junction with Hwy 99. It is COMPLETELY INCOMPREHENSIBLE how one crosses Hwy 99 at this point. I just stayed on the SFPR until I got the bike route signs again. But staying on the SFPR at these interchanges means dodging traffic exiting and entering the highway.

3. It's really high-speed traffic on this route, with LOTS of trucks on Saturday morning, so it's not a very pleasant ride, despite the wide shoulders and relatively uninterrupted route. It does appear to be shorter/faster than taking River Rd, which is still open. If you're in a hurry to get to the ferry, I would recommend the SFPR. It took less than 2 hours to get to the ferry from Burnaby Mtn (we left at 9 am, had to wait for a train at Cariboo, and JUST MADE the 11h ferry).

4. Coming  back , we stayed off the SFPR and took 64th St. to River Rd. We were hoping there would be far less traffic on River Rd due to the SFPR, but that did not seem to be the case.

5. To get to downtown Vanc, we had to take the Alex Fraser Br since the George Massey shuttle does not run on weekends during the winter. This could have saved us about an hour. Well, I guess we could have taken a bus, or Translink could have solved everything just by allowing cyclists to get a free bus ride across the tunnel, but that's another issue...

6. My biggest complaint with the SFPR is the lame signage for the Alex Fraser Bridge. As you approach the bridge, headed eastbound, the bike sign shows a straight-ahead arrow for the bridge. Unfortunately, this is right where River Rd bends to the right. So do you go straight, which means turning left off River Rd, or do you stay on River Rd??? Just past this confusi ng sign, there is another bicycle sign pointing to the left that says to proceed left when clear. So, I assumed that you took the road to the left (which is actually "straight"). I looked at what was up the road had I stayed on River Rd, and it did not look promising, like there was going to be more horrendous exits and onramps that would be hell for cyclists. So we continued up this side road, which was signed for cycling, and then it just petered out alongside the old River Rd. Now what? We somehow took some side streets and ended up on gravel trails alongside the railroad tracks that eventually got us over to Planet Ice and the entrance to the bridge, but I was quite disappointed with the lack of competent signage at this point. I was totally confused.

6. And while I'm at it, one more thing. I sure wish they'd weld the many loose plates on the Alex Frasher Bridge sidewalk. I keep thinking that one of the loose plates will give way and bike and I w ill plunge to our demise far below.

So, another typical uninspired bike facility cobbled together by engineers with little knowledge of cycling... Sure would be nice to have some leading innovation around here. At least they didn't make it a freeway off limits to bikes (although it felt like being on a freeway at times); for that I guess we should be eternally thankful.

Luis Bernhardt

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