I agree – I would not dream of taking an inexperienced cyclist on most of that route. I was also completely fooled by “Connector Route”!

Don’t get me wrong: I wouldn’t be taking my wife—or even my 15-year-old son—along River Road, because they simply don’t have enough experience. There are some pretty deep ditches on the side of the road where one might end up if surprised by an eighteen-wheeler rushing past.

I imagine that the City of Richmond expects the dotted line on their map to scare off casual cyclists, but then they label it as a “Connector Route” on the map legend. That doesn’t sound so scary to me. TransLink’s map labels the most questionable section as “off-street unpaved”, which gives me pause when riding a commuter bike.

River Road is labelled as a “major street, shared lane (sometimes with shoulder)” with “no special treatment” on TransLink’s map, which is a little more helpful than “connector route”.

I don’t know if there is an actual difference in definition, but to me “off-road” implies rough, unfinished terrain like one would tackle with a dirt bike or muddy Land Rover. “Off-street” would be a separated urban path like (most of) the CVG.

In Richmond, the two terms appear to be interchangeable.

What is the definition/difference betweeen off-street and off-road? I have not come across this distinction before.

Hi Graeme. Yes, I saw a couple of guys on River Road who looked very comfortable and were going like the wind. If you’re very fit and very brave, I think it must be fun, because it’s flat. Westminster Highway also flat, but of course you need to be even braver.

Like you, one of our main beefs was that because there is so little signage, we were always worried we were lost. Didn’t help that we also forgot our GPS that day! But we weren’t too worried because we had a map. As it turned out, it was only because my wife happens to know Richmond well, and has some kind of strange internal GPS in her head, that we were able to find our way at all. But anyway, on the off-street bits, there was the worry that someone would pop up and arrest us for trespassing, or fine us for being on a “sidewalk.”

I used to occasionally bike from New West to work on No. 6 Road, so biking along River Road was like visiting an old friend. The difference is that I am in much better shape now, so it was a relatively quick ride, even with a bit of a headwind. I’ve never tried Westminster Highway.

Also on that trip (which started in Burnaby and crossed into Richmond on the Canada Line bridge) I ventured on the bike path towards the north of No. 3 Road. I ended up losing the scent of the trail, and took a bit of a dodgy path through some parking lots to get myself oriented back to where I started.

I’d like to explore Richmond further sometime, but I’m thinking that maybe I should wait ’til things are a bit more in order.

Mmm well, as they say, nothing is ever good or bad, but thinking makes it so. I am glad you had a good time, but I still have to say we were both terrified most of the time.

I don’t remember the Westminster Highway bike lane/trail being physically separated from traffic, and it isn’t in my photo – so I think perhaps we are thinking of different parts of the highway?

And I remain an optimist – amazing improvements have happened in the Vancouver cycling infrastructure, so anything is possible … although I concede I know nothing about the municipality of Richmond :)

I did the same trail this summer on a Saturday-it wasn’t perfect but few things in life are-and the tunnel under the sawmill added a bit of spice to the ride even as the fence was collapsing(!)

You fail to note that the Westminster Highway bike lane/trail is actually physically separated from traffic.

As to the municipality of Richmond responding to your concerns don’t hold your breath-they are a typical suburban clown show-the right hand rarely knows what the left is doing.