After a heated debate, the new Vancouver city council has reversed an earlier decision to designate two bike lanes on the Burrard Bridge this spring.

Back in July, the previous council had voted to close two lanes to motor vehicle traffic, and turn them over to cyclists.

The change had been slated to take effect in April, 2006 for a one-year trial period.

• FROM JULY 19, 2005: Bridge bike lanes get green light

Cyclists and pedestrians currently share the narrow sidewalks on both sides of the bridge – with cars and trucks taking up the six driving lanes between downtown Vancouver and Kitsilano.

On Tuesday, after almost six hours of listening to speakers and debating among themselves, Vancouver councillors voted 6-4 not to close the two lanes to drivers.

Council has also asked city staff to prepare a final design report for widening the existing sidewalks to accommodate bicycle traffic

• LINK: Earlier city staff report detailing various options (1.64 MB .pdf)

Expanding the bridge would cost about $13 million.

It had been considered back in July when council made the original decision to close the two lanes. But councillors had said they wanted to wait until they had the results of the lane closure experiment.

Bike lanes were tried, briefly, back in the 1990s – but the experiment was ended following strong opposition from motorists.