This is a strange one. I like the bike lanes west of Stephen Ave, but hate trying to ride on Stephen Ave (would rather deal with traffic on 9th than people on Stephen Ave). So should they just move this to a different street? I prefer bike lanes on 2 way streets as drivers tend to only look in the direction cars come from on 1 way streets (going west on 12th I see this every evening). Maybe taking a lane from 9th or 6th is a better option and 8th can be left to everyone else.
The conflict between fast cycling and pedestrians on Stephen is artificial and triggered by the prioritizing vehicle capacity on the major one-way avenues back in the original cycle-track debate. At the time, every alternative avenue was deemed to have too large of impact to vehicles so Stephen was the only place left. So sharing the only pedestrian street (with cars too let's not forget) was the compromise.
Not to say bicycles and pedestrians can't interact or that bicycles weren't always present on Stephen Ave - they can share space infinitely better than either bikes or people can with cars. While Stephen sees some time of day conflicts between cyclists and with pedestrians, especially in peak summer lunch crowd, it's hardly a dangerous environment. I will always take Stephen regardless of the crowds as no other route is anywhere close as safe or direct in the core to go east-west. Most cyclists won't bother trying to reach the river or Beltline until 5th Street because it's super dangerous to do so - again, the car-sewer east-west avenues are the problem here. If they weren't so unsafe, it would be easier to get off Stephen sooner to cross them.
No need to ban bicycles or police it aggressively (this is both pointless and ineffective), just give cycling a legitimate East-West alternative that doesn't feel / isn't suicidal. Put a safe, direct and efficient two-way cycletrack on both 9th Avenue and 6th Avenue (with a few N-S connections at MacLeod, 2nd etc.) and the lots of the fast cycling traffic will magically evaporate to the other areas. Meanwhile the slower, local cycling to destinations on Stephen can still participate in the street.
12 Avenue SW is the case study for exactly this - it has it's design issues but is super popular because it's reasonably safe and direct compared to all alternatives, despite it being a one-way car sewer for parts.
Indirectly, the 12 Avenue SW cycle track helped change the feel of the street for the better due to more separation for pedestrians from the higher-speed cars and cars generally go slower. That's all with just trashy flexi-posts and limited/no cycling priority - give 9th Avenue the full concrete curb treatment and wide cycling lanes with decent priority and Stephen won't have any issues of fast cycling, real or perceived.
