A Ride Along the North Vancouver Spirit Trail

On Saturday, we took a spin out to West Vancouver along the Spirit Trail, I've ridden bits of this closer to home but not out to West Vancouver before, its a fun route for the most part. Read on for some images of the bike infrastructure along the way.

After navigating our way through the local street from Lynn Valley where bike facilities are sadly lacking at the moment, we made our way down to Heywood Street and the pedestrian and bicycle bridge across 3rd Ave.

This leads you onto a pathway completely remote from traffic on either side, its very nice, although the remoteness and coverage provided by the trees may be a safety issue in the evening, it is lit, but there are no eyes on the path.

The route then turns onto a shared rear lane which also provides access to driveways, vehicle volumes are so low that this is not an issue.

At the end of the shared lane there is a relatively new connection to one of the local streets, its on a bit of a grade so they put in a few switch backs. I didn't need to ride to the top, but it looked fun!

the shared lane changes to a dedicated multi-use path suitable for all sorts of non-motorized modes.

We then return back to the relatively heavily trafficked Low Level Road/Esplanade, where you see the first of the signature Spirit Trail crosswalks.

I didn't take any images around the foot of Lonsdale, as we past Lonsdale Quay, we came across a bunch of floating homes. I had no idea these were here, but the looked very nice. The path that takes you around the Marina was also a very nice place to ride.

After a short on road section, which had bicycle lanes, we come to the next section of Spirit Trail and we have a choice to make, do we take the fast route, or the slow route? Interestingly, we had been having discussion about such signage on a recent project, this was the first time I had seen it in person. The bike lane has a small painted buffer, but we wanted to ride the Spirit Trail and were in no hurry, we chose the slow route.

As you can see the slow route is great for all ages and abilities, a nice safe place to ride.

Further along when we exit the park area, the path is divided by a wide raised concrete curb, this still feels very safe.

Bollards at street crossings intended to prevent motorized access to the bike path, generally considered to cause more issues for cyclists than they solve.

As you get into West Vancouver, you get an opportunity to look at the Lions Gate Bridge from a different perspective. Somebody took the initiative to paint a centre line on this blind corner, fair play, it helps safety.

Refueling...

On the way back, classic case of... just stick the sign in the bike lane, nobody uses it...

And a brief stop on the way back to enjoy the views of Downtown Vancouver.