After my #bikeYVR journey from my home in Vancouver's West End to the Tsawwassen ferry terminal this last week, I really hope that @MetroVancouver or @TransLink take on a bigger role in coordinating regional biking routes. (This will be a Very Long Thread).

I know @WeAreHub is working on this, but a regional government solution to this maze of jurisdictional messes is required.

For starters: I am a confident cyclist, and I ride an e-bike so I can maneuver quickly in the worst of circumstances. That said, my usual route to the Tsawwassen ferry is to bike or Canada Line to Bridgeport, and take the 620 to the ferry with my bike on the front of the bus.

I have looked into the shuttle thingie through the tunnel and it's confusing and has odd schedules and I think requires booking? I'm also not even clear if it's running now.

In any case, this was my vacation and I had lots of time, so I decided to take the long route and bike the whole way. I also haven't been on a @TransLink vehicle since March 11th and figured, what the heck, I'll extend that streak.

On the way out, I took Cardero->Beach->Pacific->Burrard->Arbutus through Vancouver. Since this is where I live, I was pretty comfortable knowing where to go, though the left turn from Cardero to Beach is now complicated with the temporary bikeway.

There are now no-left-turn signs on Cardero when you arrive at Beach, which I assume are only for cars since bikes can still turn left. The rest of the route was fine, other than the usual complaints about the Arbutus Greenway's intersections, & also this https://twitter.com/nealjennings/status/1294046456345550848

The @CityofVancouver wayfinding is adequate, though frequently lacking when bike routes intersect with anything other than bike routes. This is a theme that continued throughout my journey.

When you get to the end of the Arbutus Greenway, it dumps you in a rather jarring way into an industrial area where you then have to climb a short/steep hill to SW Marine Dr, which does not have a bike lane.

Bicycle wayfinding vanishes altogether here, so you're on your own to find the Canada Line Bridge, which is where I was headed. I later learned from a couple I met on the Thetis ferry that there's a shortcut through a parking lot to an off-road trail, but I've never found that.

Anyway, being familiar enough with this city, I continued on Marine to Heather. I know from living here that Heather leads to Kent, which leads to the Canada Line Bridge. None of the signs indicate that, so good luck figuring that out on your own.

Kent is a shitty but tolerable bike route, and the Canada Line Bridge is a dream. Richmond is a whole other story.

I used Google to plot this route. It recommended River Road to take me to Annacis Island. I followed the bike route signs (which do exist, but provide very little info other than that you can bike on the road), and eventually ended up at a dead end under the Knight St Bridge.

To Google's credit, it tells you to turn right on No 5 Rd & left on Vulcan Way to avoid this. @Richmond_BC, however, doesn't do wayfinding for bicycles at all so the signs on the road don't tell you that. Anyway I found my way out of the dead end through a commercial parking lot.

Anyway, I continued on River Road for awhile, which alternates between shared general travel lane and the occasional bike lane and also a stretch of shared active transport path which confusing and misleading signs about where to bike.

River Road leads to a jog onto Westminster Hwy. Other than a sign with a bike on it in the route for the wrong direction, there's no signage. I used Google again to figure out I needed to turn left. First into the general travel lane, then I figured out the curb was for bikes.

This tiny little sign tells you to go this way for the Alex Fraser Bridge, which I knew was the bridge I had to cross. This was literally the last directional sign I encountered until I got to Annacis Island.

You go down a long off-road bike/walk path, then pass under this bridge. This sign is the only sign anywhere nearby, but I correctly guessed that the footbridge would lead me to Annacis Island, despite the path ahead looking more inviting.

There were some vague signs that got me in the right direction and then led to this four-way intersection (I arrived on the path at the back of the first image, and had the options of going up the ramp or either direction on what I learned later is Boundary Rd).

This intersection was the worst one of both trips. There are ZERO signs of any kind here. Just four different ways you can go. On the way out, I asked a passerby if the ramp led to the Alex Fraser Bridge and they said yes. Thankfully they weren't wrong.

I do wonder if the proximity to Boundary Road at this point led to no signs existing because @Richmond_BC and @New_Westminster can't agree on who should create signs, but anyway I don't know how anyone navigated these areas before smartphones (even with Google I was lost).

So I followed the winding ramp up, and over to Annacis Island. There's a slightly-confusing jog over the intersection across Cliveden Ave, but thankfully @CityofDeltaBC actually understands wayfinding and each time I was confused I'd come across something indicating the right way

The Alex Fraser Bridge is a horrifying nightmare to cycle over. There's one bike/walk path, with concrete barriers separating you from car/truck traffic. There are painted "lanes" down the middle to divide direction but there's no way two bikes can pass at speed in those "lanes."

I rang my bell and said "excuse me" to a pedestrian who was walking ahead of me; they didn't hear me and I had to dismount to pass them. On the return trip I clipped the (terrifyingly low) fences with my pannier a couple times. Also, high winds and big loud trucks.

Anyway, I landed at the South end of the bridge, with plans to wind my way down to Boundary Bay and take the off-street route to my motel from there. The maps made it look complicated, but it was actually a delight!

Despite this convoluted-looking map, there is basically a greenway that goes all the way from the foot the bridge down to Boundary Bay.

The map is confusing, but once I got off the bridge there were signs! With maps!! EVERYWHERE! I think the credit for this goes to @MetroVancouver whose logo appears on the maps, but honestly this part of the journey was wonderful.

The only downside of this route was that occasionally the treatment of the physical path was not great for biking - loose gravel, tree-root-disrupted paving or bricks, and so on.

There are a few stretches where you're on a road, but they're generally very quiet side roads, and the plentiful signage was honestly so delightful after the nightmare of Richmond. I didn't get lost once!

I then continued along the Boundary Bay route all the way to the end. I had a motel booked in Tsawwassen because I didn't want to be rushing to catch the 9:55am ferry out.

Next day I continued, partly along a major road, & then through a bunch of back street routes that Google suggested. @CityofDeltaBC is weird because of its strange grid system that's not a grid system, but it has a bunch of sneaky little walk/bike paths to connect the cul-de-sacs

All went well until I followed slightly-unclear-if-I-should-bike-here path to Tsawwassen Dr & attempted to turn left onto SFPR. The left turn light only activates when a car is on the sensor. Me and the moped user in front of me were not collectively heavy enough to trigger it.

I had to pull onto the sidewalk and press the pedestrian button.

Anyway, from there it's just a painted bike lane which sucks but is tolerable. I think you're supposed to bike through the sidewalk of the bus stops which is awkward and poorly signposted.

It was fine until I got closer to the BC Ferries terminal, where signage kind of disappears and you have to follow a path across all the lanes of car traffic which don't stop for you EVEN WHEN THEY HAVE A RED LIGHT. I then arrived to this sign.

RETURN TRIP. I decided to take a more direct route this time, and take SFPR to Alex Fraser to New West to BC Parkway. I should also add that I looked up my route in advance, both ways, using a combination of Google Maps and regional/local bike maps.

The SFPR, despite being a major highway, is surprisingly welcoming for cycling. There is a clearly marked bike lane, it's as wide as a car lane, and despite all the debris in it, it was passable.

Having planned this in advance, I knew from the map there would be a few tricky intersections, and the Delta bike map is (mostly) helpful for this. I was fine until I got to this sign.

Amusingly, turning right leads to an off-road bike path that leads *directly to the highway*. I wasn't going that way, but I thought it was interesting that somehow the transportation planners just treated those two things like they're basically the same thing.

Anyway, I knew I needed to continue on Hwy 17, but straight ahead there is an off-ramp and the usual "cross here when safe" sign for bikes. I had to look at the map like eight times to confirm that "straight ahead" actually meant "straight ahead BUT DON'T TAKE THE OFF RAMP".

Thankfully I did figure that out, though. The next complicated intersection is with Hwy 99. The signs clearly indicate for you to leave the highway and point you to the bike route, but then they expect you to figure out to turn left onto 72 St.

You then get to this intersection, with no bike signage (given how good @CityofDeltaBC had been with signage until now, its absence was conspicuous). I correctly guessed that bicycles are considered "Authorized Vehicles" and found my way along this very odd little private road.

72 St leads to an Authorized Vehicles Only overpass which then leads onto Burns Dr which leads you back to the highway. Once I found my way it was actually a nice little welcome break from the highway.

The highway then continues on for quite some time, with nothing particularly notable other than that by the time I got near the end I was literally choking on exhaust fumes. We really need to bring back mandatory emissions testing for motor vehicles.

Then this disaster happened (yes, a thread within a thread, sorry not sorry). https://twitter.com/nealjennings/status/1295925129348694020

Once I literally lifted my bicycle over the barriers I ended up on River Road in Delta. I backtracked towards the bridge, followed the signs that both threatened that you were on private property and suggested that it was a bike route back under the bridge.

Once I got far enough along I realised I was on the greenway that I had found on the way out, and it led me straight to the foot of the Alex Fraser.

Back over the bridge, which is somehow less awful once you've experienced it before. There was even a beautiful sunset, which I couldn't stop to photograph because there's literally no respite point on the bridge. Same jog issue on Annacis Island, same good-enough wayfinding.

I then land at this point again (circular thread!) https://twitter.com/nealjennings/status/1296170315014270976. There are, of course, still no signs. Google shows me I need to take Boundary Rd to Boyd St to the Queensborough Bridge. I'm not certain if the road is Boundary Rd but I head on it anyway.

I ask a person picking berries at the side of the road if it is, indeed, Boundary Road and she also claims not to know. I eventually get to an intersection and confirm I'm going the right way, AND, find a surprise greenway! I ride it the rest of the way to Boyd St.

I then turn right onto Boyd Street, onto the bike lane even though it kind of looks like there's maybe an off-road path on the North side of the Street. It's getting dark and there's no signs, so I guess my way along.

From there there are well-placed signs and a bike route over the Queensborough connector. Landing on the other side in New West there were also beautiful signs leading me to the BC Parkway, and the whole journey over the bridge and connecting to BC Parkway was on off-street paths

At this point I'm now on the BC Parkway, which I've ridden dozens of times, though apparently not at night. It is shockingly dark in parts (I have a good headlight but it was often not enough), and apparently riding lightless and bell-less is totally fine with Burnaby/NW riders.

Other than a couple spots (like this: https://twitter.com/nealjennings/status/1296143994842263552 and this: https://www.instagram.com/p/CEDwl_aBS4Q/  ) the wayfinding is good and the route is clear and well-paved. There's a couple weird spots in Burnaby where you end up on a sidewalk with no signs which is confusing (and weird).

The rest of the journey home was quite nice, especially after the earlier ordeals. Things were fine until I got to Trout Lake, where a combination of the "Slow Street" signage and a completely-dark park led me to the wrong path and I landed in a laneway at 12th Ave.

I knew I was on the wrong path because I've biked John Hendry Park dozens, if not hundreds, of times, but it was so dark I couldn't actually find the bike path and there were no signs indicating as much. Thanks @ParkBoard .

Anyway, found my way home via the tail end of the CVG to the seawall (more dark/bell-less bikes!), to Beach Ave where I encountered a van (NOT a city maintenance vehicle) driving in the temporary bike path, and then Cardero where I encountered a headlight-less car.

TL;DR (WAY too long, sorry):
1) Bridges and tunnels are awful
2) Wayfinding is so crucial
3) inter-jurisdictional coordination is really required to improve the Lower Mainland's bike networks.

To add up all the jurisdictions responsible for these routes, we have:
City of Vancouver
Vancouver Park Board
City of Richmond
City of Surrey
City of Delta
Metro Vancouver
BC Ferries
MOTI
City of New Westminster
TransLink
City of Burnaby