Road space is limited and the demand for it is high, so continues the tug-o-war of whether there should be more bike lanes or less; that will be the topic of discussion during a meeting between the province Alberta and the City of Calgary on July 30.
Alberta Minister of Transportation and Economic Corridors, Devin Dreeshen says he’s concerned when municipalities use taxpayer dollars to reduce road capacity at a time when our province is investing billions to expand it.’
Meanwhile, Mayor Jyoti Gondek says she’s curious to find out exactly what Dreeshen is interested in knowing about the city’s mobility plans.
In 2015, Calgary introduced a pilot project of a downtown cycle track network along 12 Avenue and 5 Street SW. A year later, it was made permanent.
CityNews took the streets to hear what Calgarians think about bike lanes, and the opinions were mixed.
“Here, it’s a huge commuter city… lots of trains, lots of cars, lots of busses… I don’t see a big need for [bike lanes.] I personally don’t ride a bike, I don’t know anyone else that does,” said one woman.
Another passerby agreed.
“They’re a pain in the butt,” he said. “They disrupt traffic and I’m not convinced they were worth the money we spent on them.”
$56 million was approved by city council eight years ago to continue building Calgary’s network of pathways and bikeways with a long-term plan to expand the network throughout the next 60 years.
One Calgarian thinks the piece of infrastructure is necessary.
“Yeah, I’m all for them,” he said. “I think Calgary needs to work on its sprawl problem and start making things accessible to those with less mobility.”
Some are concerned with how bike lanes have evolved since the pilot project from 10 years ago, as the lanes are now being filled by skateboarders, roller-bladers, pedestrians, scooters, and of course bikes.
One suggestion is to create a sort-of multi-use lane.
“As cities change over time, we have to be able to adapt, right?” one man said. “Nothing that’s set in stone that once we made this a five-lane one way that it had to stay that way.”
Bike Calgary president, Doug Clark, says he thinks the two parties can reach a consensus on the issue.
“If we can have some level-headed rational, practical discussions between municipal and provincial government I’m sure they’ll figure out a way,” he said.