Cyclists clamouring for protected path at busy Port Moody intersection

Andrew Hartline has a decision to make every week. 

On a family e-bike, Hartline, a Port Moody resident and co-chair of HUB Cycling Tri-Cities, uses the Guildford Greenway to take his children to piano lessons in Coquitlam. The greenway currently features separated bike lanes from the Coquitlam border to Johnson Street. 

But to get there, Hartline must briefly pass through one of Port Moody’s most dangerous intersections: Guildford Way and Ioco Road. 

The intersection steps away from the Murray Street multi-use path, forcing him to decide between riding on a painted bike lane for less than a kilometre or on a sidewalk. 

“That 700 metre gap is really sticky,” said Hartline, who rides on the sidewalk after using the multi-use path, fearing vehicle traffic without a protective barrier. “As a grown-up cyclist, I’ll ride on the road. . . . As a parent, as soon as my kid is on the back of the bike, I get much more cautious and worried with traffic passing close by.” 

It’s a relatively small gap in active transportation that Hartline says is dissuading other residents from picking up cycling. 

He also contends that it’s hampering Port Moody’s ability to create an active transportation hub in the centre of the city as new developments, like Coronation Park, promise to bring more people to town. 

“It should be this nice place for Coronation [Park] people to walk across the street to get shopping and recreation, but instead it’s this kind of relic of 1990s era urban planning where all they care about is car throughput,” Hartline said. 

On Nov. 19, Port Moody city council unanimously voted to re-evaluate an estimated $2 million plan to add cycling infrastructure along Guildford Way, connecting protected bike lanes at the Coquitlam border to the Murray Street multi-use path. 

The decision was made due to the potential impact on vehicle traffic at Ioco Road and Guildford Way, which is already one of the busiest and most dangerous intersections in the city. 

There were more than 200 vehicle collisions — 81 that resulted in injuries — recorded at the intersection between 2016 and 2022. 

Although all Port Moody councillors reiterated the importance of safety at the intersection, adding more cycling infrastructure and maintaining traffic flow proved to be a tricky balance to strike. 

At the meeting last month, staff suggested adding a bi-directional lane, where cycling traffic moves in both directions on one side of the road, on the north side of Guildford Way from Ioco Road to Ungless Way. The lane would eventually separate into east and westbound lanes at the Coquitlam border. 

Other changes included replacing slip lanes on Guildford Way and Ioco Road with traffic-controlled lights. 

All said, the changes were projected to increase wait times for motorists at the intersection by 82 and 79 seconds in the morning and evening, respectively. Council feared the wait times would clog up an intersection that is also expected to serve as a major thoroughfare for new developments in Port Moody, Anmore and Coquitlam. 

“Those are all going to put incredible pressure on this intersection,” said Coun. Kyla Knowles. 

Port Moody council directed staff to report back with more detailed traffic modelling and concept options at a later date. 

Last year, Coquitlam removed painted bike lanes in favour of protected ones on its side of Guildford Way to Johnson Street. (The protected bike lanes are currently being extended to Pinetree Way.)

Colin Fowler, co-chair of the HUB Cycling Tri-Cities, told the Dispatch at the time the project would encourage Tri-Cities residents to cycle, as Guildford Way is a major artillery in the community that is notorious for speeding drivers. 

“A line of paint is not reassuring when RCMP are regularly catching people going 80 or 90 kilometres an hour on that stretch,” Fowler said last year.

Other cyclists have raised concerns about the protected bike path, arguing the new pathway makes it harder to pass other riders.

Hartline supported staff’s idea of creating a bi-directional bike lane at the Guildford Way and Ioco Road intersection. 

Ultimately, he said, the intersection is the missing piece for a potential seven-kilometre cycling route along Murray Street and Guildford Way that could connect schools, recreation complexes and parks. 

“You have Rocky Point Park, Coquitlam Crunch, Lafarge Lake,” Hartline said. 

“Getting them all hooked up is extremely valuable to me.”