I hear you on Powell st, a beautiful separated lane then you're tossed into a narrow, fast road.. Pascal takes Adanac to and from work, then at Hastings and Cassier you take the road /path to the bridge. Much safer but more hilly...
Thanks for the tip! I did that once when coming from 29th Ave skytrain, but maybe it's worth doing even though we're coming from Gastown (Oscar works there). It's such a shame that there is such a gap there for 4 blocks or so. We're right in rush hour too, so I'm not stoked about just biking on Powell...
It really is frustrating, like you said it's only 4 or so blocks! I think you can cut up just before Commercial and there's a parallel street, but I usually just elect to go on the sidewalk.