In April, a group of False Creek South residents joined City staff from planning, engineering and the bike share project office in a walkabout to examine potential sites for Mobi Bike docking stations. Mobi Bikes—the City of Vancouver’s bike share operator—are continuing to add docking stations across their service area to ensure users have an effective network (docking stations every 200-300 metres is recognized as the optimal frequency).

 

Despite being one of the most popular destinations and corridors for people travelling by bike, False Creek South has surprisingly few Mobi Bike docking stations, and the ones that do exist are among the most popular in the city, such as the station located at Anderson and 2nd at the entrance to Granville Island.

The walkabout was prompted by a resident concern about a proposed station on the seawall near Foundry Quay. City staff then worked with the False Creek South Neighbourhood Association to organize a walkabout with nearby residents to identify alternative sites.

“I appreciate the City’s efforts trying to include us in the decision-making process”, said Maria Roth, a False Creek co-op member who attended the walkabout. Roth said upwards of nine potential docking sites were noted during walkabout, all with their own trade-offs.

Depending on how many bikes the modular docking stations expect to hold, they can require several metres and will claim a slice of public land. In a city where more trips are now made by foot, bike and transit than by car, appropriating parking spaces, as opposed to green space and sidewalks has been the preferred trade-off.

 City staff could not provide information on selected locations, but hope to have stations in place at some point over the summer.
To learn more about Mobi—Vancouver’s bike share program—visit mobibikes.ca