Don Hollingshead

The Alberta government recently opened an online portal for public to report concerns about bike lanes.  This provincial public engagement is framed as a complaint portal rather than a place where Albertans can weigh in on bike lanes in general. 

Our municipal planners are doing their best to design a city that moves people instead of mainly people-using-automobiles.

Evidently residents and business owners who opposed bike lanes in front of their residence or business and have lost their municipal battles have appealed to the province.

Currently, it is unlikely the province shares their largest cities’ visions for the value of bike lanes, wanting instead to focus on traffic flow and parking concerns.  Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen says that “there have been complaints to his office about neighbourhoods being taken over and people loosing their parking or having their daily commutes getting worse”.  Dreeshen says the province supports well planned bike lanes but that it needs to make sure that Alberta’s roads can handle the needs of a growing population.

Of all the cycling conferences I have attended where cycling infrastructure is discussed, I have yet to meet anyone attending from the Alberta Ministry of Transportation.

Municipalities are the right agency to design, engage with the public and decide on where bike lanes should go. The process of retrofitting street design and modification is fraught with many conflicting interests. Municipalities have the expertise and resources to marshal when coming to these decisions.  Creating connected and useful bike lane networks requires compromise.  Taking away parking in front of a business or residence has serious consequences and the engagement process must be transparent and fair.

Alberta’s charter cities (Calgary and Edmonton) have introduced an urban planning concept known as Complete Streets which attempts to balance public with local private interests to yield a street network that serves active transportation (cycling/walking/scootering etc.) with transit, and driving.

A few isolated bike lanes do not constitute a network.  Calgary has a reduced residential speed limit (40 kph) on minor city roads with no speed limit signage (residential).  Such roads are already almost de-facto bike lanes according to the Dutch who do not generally build bike lanes (or other cycling infrastructure) on roads with speed limits of 30 kph or less.

Instead of soliciting bike lane complaints, perhaps the province should revisit the Alberta Bicycle Infrastructure Design Guide project that it shelved 7 years ago and work with Urban Systems (engineering consultants) and the project partner towns and cities (Calgary, Edmonton, Canmore, Red Deer and Rocky View County) to formalized some bike lane implementation guidelines acceptable to all.

For more background, see Should Cities Build More Bike Lanes in Alberta Views magazine and Provincial Bike Lane Portal Sparks Concerns From Calgary's Cycling Community in the Calgary Herald.

Why Bike Lanes?

A number of EVCC’s urban ride routes feature bike lanes and you will no doubt have come across them either cycling or while driving in Calgary. 

However you see bike lanes, and whether you have the opportunity to use them or not, bike lanes:

• are an on-street safe haven from traffic for cycling citizens who either can’t drive (e.g., too young) or for those wishing an alternative to driving (e.g., for exercise or for economic reasons) 
• are a pretty clear sign from our municipal government that bicycles are welcome on our streets and avenues—that bicycles are a legitimate means of transportation 
• can encourage grid locked motorists sitting in their SUVs to consider becoming one of the bicycle commuters passing them in the adjacent bike lanes
• create a welcome buffer zone between pedestrians on the sidewalk and motor traffic on the road
• offer some separation from traffic for commuters on their last kilometer or so from the river pathways to the office

 Which Streets should have bike lanes?

Several provincial municipalities are experimenting with bike lanes.  More extensive bike lane networks exist in Edmonton and Calgary with more legal leeway because of their charter cities status. 

According to page 36 of the Calgary Complete Streets Policy, bike lanes should be installed on all collector streets carrying more than 3,000 vehicles/day.

A segregated cycle track is required when:

·         trucks constitute more than 10% of traffic volume or

·         design speed of road is 60kph or greater or

·         when two-way traffic volumes exceed 20,000 vehicles per day or

·         when the speed differential between autos and cyclists is great (e.g., up hills).

Final words from Doug McCulloch:

“My rides often include bike lanes and quieter streets as well as pathways.  As a recreational rider I plan my personal and club rides to take advantages of the amazing pathway system but almost every ride includes some bike lanes to connect communities or business districts. 

I think we are missing out if we only talk about bike lanes as commuter lanes - recreational cycling is an important part of an active city and the safety provided by properly constructed bike lanes encourages people to get out and move about our city.    Just like soccer fields, bike lanes and pathways are a part of Calgary’s recreational wealth.”