Scenes from the Canada Line bike and pedestrian bridge opening!
Scenes from the Canada Line bike and pedestrian bridge opening!
We had a short but sweet opening ceremony over at the Canada Line bike and pedestrian bridge this afternoon.
Cyclists and pedestrians joined in a ceremonial first walk across the bridge. They were led by TransLink CEO Tom Prendergast and Vancouver Deputy Mayor Geoff Meggs from the north side, accompanied by police bike patrols, and meeting with Acting Mayor Ken Johnston of Richmond in the centre.
The walk continued to the south side, with speeches and a ribbon cutting ceremony on the Richmond side. Then the bridge was opened up to bike and pedestrian traffic! Go ahead and ride it – it’s now open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Turnout was nice: I’d say there were about 100 people there, including members of the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition (VACC), Better Environmentally Sustainable Transportation (BEST), and Richmond’s Spirit Runners!
We also had a host of other dignitaries on hand too – Vancouver South MP Ujjal Dosanjh, Richmond MP Alice Wong, Richmond Centre MLA Rob Howard, Richmond city councillor Bill McNulty, and Vancouver city councillor Raymond Louie. (Hope I didn’t miss anyone there!)
Plus BEST and the VACC brought a lovely carrot cake for everyone to share, at a table they set up with info about cycling and more.
Check the Buzzer’s Flickr account for more photos of the opening ceremony.
And for more info about the bridge, check out this earlier post, which includes a map of the bridge location (and more details on how to get there in the comments).
OK, here’s one more photo of the opening day, with the Canada Line train in the background!
So there WAS cake. I knew I should’ve gone. :P
Hehe, if I knew there was cake I would have snuck out of work! Looks great, I hope to give it a ride this weekend!
So where’s the pedestrian/bike bridge? How do you get to it? Transit’s website has become so terribly cluttered that it’s not only difficult to navigate but horribly annoying.
It’s nice to see our hard earned dollars at work in maintaining appearance but not functionality.
[…] service to shut down [CBC] A province’s hopes riding on the Canada Line [The Globe and Mail] Scenes from the Canada Line bike and pedestrian bridge opening! [Buzzer Blog] No turnstiles for SkyTrains until 2012 [Stephen Rees’s Blog] CANADA Our cities and […]
Hi Sammy,
As I mention in the post above, you can find a map in this earlier post on the bridge. The official maps haven’t yet been drawn, so this is what we’re using in the meantime. Check the comments of that post for very specific details on how to access the bridge approach from either side.
Just one question from this article… Since the bridge is owned by TransLink, is it solely the responsibility of the Transit Police to patrol it?
I just hope it doesn’t become the next homeless camp. The views from that site are priceless!
Is the bridge pathway open 24hrs? Or is the bridge closed at dusk and cleared?
;-): The bridge is open 24/7!
Derek: I’ve asked Transit Police, and here’s the answer.
[…] The bridge formally opened on August 14, 2009: here’s the Buzzer blog post about the opening. […]
I walked almost three hours just to go across this bridge. The view was worth it! Out of curiosity, however, are there any other bridges that go from Richmond/Sea Island to Vancouver that are pedestrian friendly?
Check out the No 2 Bridge for Richmond & Sea Island. Oak Bridge was retrofitted several years ago with a small improvement. Arthur Laing is the only bridge that is nasty to cross for pedestrians.