A distinctive curved-roof bike shelter near the intersection of Yates and Douglas streets has been removed because it was underutilized, says a Victoria city spokesperson.
Crews took down the seven-year-old shelter on Monday morning.
It was one of the few standalone street bike-parking spots sheltered from the elements in downtown Victoria.
But city spokesperson Colleen Mycroft noted that there is a free bike-valet service two blocks down the road at Pandora Avenue and Broad Street, where cyclists can park their rides all day.
“So you can imagine people would take their bikes there,” she said.
Mycroft said the Yates street corner is receiving a refresh as part of the city’s downtown revitalization program, which will include new curb paint and updated street signs.
Planters could potentially be installed as well, but that decision would be up to nearby businesses, Mycroft said.
The bike shelter will be put in storage and moved to another location at some future point, she said.
Corey Burger, policy and infrastructure chair of Capital Bike, a cycling advocacy group, said while the bike valet is a fantastic central resource, there needs to be better bike parking in other areas of downtown, as well.
Burger said he could think of “endless” new locations for the bike shelter, citing a 2018 Capital Bike survey that indicated a strong need for bike parking in many downtown areas.
It was not surprising to learn that the Yates bike shelter was underused, he said.
“It’s not really the bike shelter. It’s more that Douglas [area] could be a much better people space,” he said, noting there is no bike lane on Yates Street.
“Moving that might make sense in the short term, but in the medium term, the city needs to make those streets better to bike on as well.”
The 250-square-foot bike shelter was designed by Victoria-based Cascadia Architects, built and engineered by Abbotsford-based StructureCraft, and installed in 2016 as part of a $180,000 pilot improvement project of Douglas Street funded by the Downtown Victoria Business Association, Downtown Victoria 2020 and the city.
Intended to be a concept project that would be easily replicated in other cities and locations, the curved wood structure was hand-built by carpenters in Delta and designed so it could be easily shipped on a flatbed truck and set up in as little as 40 minutes.
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