Horse riders in Burnaby say they’re being pushed to the side by the city’s plan to pave a gravel trail for cyclists that riders and horses have been using daily for more than fifty years.
City council approved the move to convert the trails along the south side of Burnaby Lake Regional Park last month, but riders with the Burnaby Horsemen’s Association — which has its stables at the eastern edge of Burnaby Lake — continue to speak out against it.
One of those riders is Vicky Gilker, whose horse Tommy is one of 59 horses cared for at the Burnaby Lake stables.
“I was pretty upset about it,” she said.
Horses can’t safely walk on pavement without special boots, and even then they must go slowly or else they may slip and seriously injure themselves, the horsemens’ association says.
Horse riders say Burnaby Lake is the only place in the city they’re allowed to go on trail rides.
“It’s supposed to be a park here. It’s not supposed to be a commuting path. It’s supposed to be for people’s pleasure and enjoyment,” Gilker said.
Safer bike route needed
But cyclists and the city say paving the Freeway Trail and the connecting Avalon Trail is necessary.
The City of Burnaby is expanding its cycling network and bringing more cyclists off the roads and onto dedicated trails. A Burnaby Lake trail has now become a multi-use cycle path, and the city is trying to pave it to make it safer and more accessible for riders. As Pink Wong reports, horse riders in the park say they’re being squeezed out.
The horse riders have been using the trail for more than 50 years, and until two months ago, cyclists weren’t permitted on the path. However, that changed recently when the city made it into a multi-use trail.
Plans to convert the gravel into pavement, which is safer for cyclists, are underway. Part of the trail was paved several years ago, another section has been approved for the same, and yet another is undergoing a feasibility study by Burnaby city staff.
Jasper Tam commutes between the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT) and Loughheed Town Centre once or twice a week, and says a new cycling route is badly needed.
“Currently, there’s no real safe alternatives to getting to the Lougheed area sort of from near the city hall [and BCIT),” he said.
The current route he uses — and which Google Maps recommends — is along Lougheed Highway, a busy vehicle thoroughfare with a 70 kilometre per hour speed limit. When Tam, who volunteers with HUB Cycling to help improve Burnaby biking infrastructure, cycles there, he rides on the shoulder of the road.
In theory, he says, the alternative is the Central Valley Greenway along Winston Street. But, Tam says, it’s also not safe because there’s no physical barrier separating the narrow bike lane from the rest of the road and it is regularly closed for sewer repairs.
Tam says cyclists who commute often use road bikes or hybrid bikes, which usually have tires designed for use on pavement. Cycling on gravel risks puncturing the tires on such bikes and there’s a higher risk of slipping and crashing, Tam says.
Burnaby Coun. Pietro Calendino says the paving is vital to the city’s commitment to provide a throughway to fit with Metro Vancouver’s Regional Greenways Plan.
“Cyclists would like to have a direct route between Vancouver and New Westminster,” he said.
Horses ‘landlocked’ in city
But the horse riders say they and their animals have nowhere else to go. If the city follows through and paves both trails, riders calculate it will reduce their trail capacity by 54 per cent.
“Basically, if they pave the trails … we can no longer go on those trails and basically we’re kind of landlocked here with a very limited little network of trails,” said Helene Littmann, who moved to Burnaby around 10 years ago so she could board her horse Splatt at the stables.
Metro Vancouver says it’s taking feedback on trail use plans as it develops a new park management plan with Burnaby.
The horse riders’ association is still hoping to find a way to keep trails open for horses.