British ColumbiaVancouver Park Board commissioners will review a multi-year study into mobility options at Stanley Park on Monday. It recommends a new TransLink bus route for the park and reignites the possibility of a bike lane on Stanley Park Drive.Study of mobility options in Vancouver’s biggest park will be debated Monday by commissionersAkshay Kulkarni · CBC News · Posted: Sep 13, 2025 7:22 PM EDT | Last Updated: 6 hours agoBike lanes are pictured on Stanley Park Drive in February 2023. Vancouver’s biggest park could see a number of changes, including the return of the bike lane, as commissioners review a multi-year study into mobility options. (Ben Nelms/CBC)Vancouver Park Board commissioners will review and vote on a multi-year study into mobility options in Stanley Park on Monday, which recommends moving forward on a new bus route in Vancouver’s biggest park.The Stanley Park Mobility Study, based on consultations with numerous groups, started in June 2022 and its results were published this summer. It proposes several changes that could make the park car-free or car-light, and reignites the possibility of a separated bike lane on Stanley Park Drive — a piece of infrastructure installed during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, but removed in 2023 despite much protest.However, the study’s most prominent component is a bus route that would take users to the park’s biggest attractions, says Park Board Commissioner Tom Digby.Third Beach in Stanley Park is pictured from West Vancouver in May 2023. The main recommendation from staff in the report is to advance a new bus route through the park, which could come into operation in 2027. (Ben Nelms/CBC)”For years, people have been asking, ‘How do I get from Waterfront station to … the totem poles, or even up to Prospect Point, the fabulous lookout that looks over the Lions Gate Bridge?'” he said. “You can’t get there unless you have a private vehicle or your own a bicycle these days,” he added. “So TransLink has offered to put bus service around that.”The route highlighted in pink on this map is what is proposed by Vancouver Park Board planners, and if the study is passed on Monday, work would begin on the route to begin operation in 2027. (Vancouver Park Board)If passed, park board staff say they will work with TransLink on a bus route that would loop around Stanley Park Drive. It would go into service in 2027 at the earliest.The study proposes that initiatives like car-free days, and more substantive changes like separated bike and bus lanes, be worked on over the next few decades.Monday’s motion asks commissioners to endorse the mobility study and move forward on a bus route. But it largely does not commit money to the study’s other major proposals like a bike lane, frustrating those who advocate for cyclists. Jeff Leigh, the president of advocacy group HUB Cycling, said his group was extensively consulted for the mobility study. He characterized its recommendations as “very lukewarm,” as many of the proposed changes would take more than 20 years to implement.The bike lane on Stanley Park Drive was introduced in 2020 and largely removed three years later, in a contentious decision. Though there have been overtures to create a permanent bike lane in the years since, cycling advocates argue it’s more important now than ever. (Ben Nelms/CBC)Leigh argues that a protected bike lane along Stanley Park Drive should be an immediate priority.”The temporary bike lane that was around the park [from 2020 to 2023] … didn’t just increase cycling, it increased the use of the park,” he said.The decision to remove the temporary bike lane along Stanley Park Drive in 2023 was shrouded in controversy, with Vancouver’s integrity commissioner finding that six of the seven Park Board commissioners at the time secretly met and decided how to vote on the motion.Tourism groups and businesses in Stanley Park had argued that the bike lane was impeding access to the park for people with disabilities and many others who needed vehicle access.But Leigh believes those issues were surmountable.”[The separated bike lane] was very popular, it had fantastic uptake and there were issues that could be dealt with in terms of the tour buses and so on by making it permanent, and building permanent infrastructure.”Bike lane proposalDigby, a Green Party commissioner, says that the study — which heard from a range of groups, including the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations — largely reflected a desire to reduce the number of cars going through Vancouver’s biggest park He plans to propose an amendment to Monday’s motion to add a permanent separated bike lane to the section of Stanley Park Drive that goes over Prospect Hill.”It should not impact any businesses and it should not lead to any traffic backups outside of the park,” he added.Park board commissioner Tom Digby of the Green Party says he will try and move an amendment that brings back the bike lane on Stanley Park Drive near Prospect Point. (Nav Rahi/CBC)Other major parks in North America, like New York’s Central Park and San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park are largely going car-free, and Digby said it’s time for changes to Stanley Park. Its current, two-lane road was built more than 100 years ago, when Digby says cars speeding through the park were more acceptable.”Really, it’s not going to be a sustainable option going forward into the … next 50 to 100 years.”ABOUT THE AUTHORAkshay Kulkarni is an award-winning journalist who has worked at CBC British Columbia since 2021. Based in Vancouver, he is most interested in data-driven stories. You can email him at akshay.kulkarni@cbc.ca.With files from Liam Britten
New Stanley Park bus route, bike lane possible as park board reviews mobility study
