An example is the apparent increase of accidents along Burrard Street. I think that this is due to the popularity of the Burrard Bridge lane, where a large number of riders choose not to take the safer route on Hornby as they continue their trip, but choose to travel on the Burrard Street route. Although Burrard Street does technically have a bike lane, it is a small lane between street parking and traffic, designated only by painted lines with no barrier.  What should be considered in this instance is how bicycle traffic is directed from the north end of the bridge to the separated lane on Hornby Street, as it is not a smooth transition.

 

As this study only looks at a very limited section of cycling safety dynamics, there are limits to the insights to be gained. Level of enforcement for both motorists and cyclists needs to be considered to regulate the higher volumes of cyclists, as does the experience and knowledge of cyclists as novice riders my not understand all of the possible dangers and rules involved in cycling. Another area of interest would be the used of lights and helmets by cyclists.  The data used does have limitations as the accident data only represents incidents with vehicles and does not address issues with other cyclists or pedestrians. It is also difficult to understand flows of riders in the city as volume data is difficult to collect when types of traffic cannot be separated. So although I can hypothysize as to why there are accidents continuing on Burrard Street it is difficult to make accurate judgements without further understanding the cycling patterns outside of easily countable bikeways.This creates many challenges with creating a better picture of cycling safey in the City of Vancouver