The Planning Institute of British Columbia (PIBC) has awarded TransLink the Gold Award in the category of Research & New Directions in Planning for our Rapid Implementation Design Guide for Bikeways in Metro Vancouver.

The award is part of the 2023 PIBC Awards for Excellence in Planning, which recognizes and honours the best in professional planning work undertaken by PIBC members.

The Rapid Implementation Design Guide for Bikeways in Metro Vancouver is the first of its kind and has the potential to support game-changing improvements in active transportation. Aimed at local governments and other road authorities, the design guide lays out all the steps — from planning, to design, to implementation and beyond — to put low-cost protected bike infrastructure in place fast.

For most people, the biggest barrier to cycling is a lack of access to safe places to bike. Traffic separation is one of the biggest tools we have to promote safe biking and rolling.

TransLink and HUB Cycling’s State of Cycling report rates less than half the infrastructure in Metro Vancouver as “comfortable for most” — with only 132 kilometres falling into the categories of dedicated bike infrastructure. Conventional traffic-separated bike lanes are great, but they can be slow to complete (around four years) and expensive to build ($3 million per kilometre!).

We created the guide with support from Urban Systems, an interdisciplinary community consulting firm.

Our recently issued Visualizing Rapid Implementation Bikeways in Metro Vancouver provides examples of bikeways from across the region that have been built using rapid implementation or “quick build” methods. It serves as an extension and visual tool to the Rapid Rapid Implementation Design Guide for Bikeways.

The PIBC is the professional association of planners in British Columbia and Yukon and is affiliated with the Canadian Institute of Planners (CIP), which is the national association.