Some new bike lanes come with parking bans to give space for bikes on the side of the road. In other spots, the city has realigned curbs, or just painted lines on the road to indicate that space needs to be shared.
This year the city built 21 kilometres — mostly on Saddleback Road, 106th Street and 91st Street — at a cost of $1.6 million and bring Edmonton’s total bikeways to 151 kilometres, about 30 per cent of their goal. Construction projects for next year are still being identified, but will likely be on the north side of the city.
What do you think of their efforts so far? Do you like the bike lanes? Have you tried using them? What would you like to see?
Update: Karly Coleman, a Can-bike trainer, worries cyclists will assume those thin white lines on the road are enough to keep them safe. More education is what’s needed, she said.
“Bike paths make people feel very safe, which is what’s driving the construction of bike paths in the city,” she said. But education actually does a lot more to keep people from getting hit. She sent me these bike safety links:
Bicycle Safe – how not to get hit
Update : We need to create a safe place for bicycles, argued Coun. Ben Henderson at a media update on the bike lanes today.
“I think this helps clarify what the rules are,” he said. “This is as much for the riders who were afraid to go out there because they didn’t know where they were supposed to be.”
His biggest worry is for the cyclists who are choosing to ride on the sidewalks, which is illegal and dangerous because it’s confusing for the drivers, he said. Bikes need to abide by the rules of the road.
Maps of the city’s new bike routes can be found here.
Update: Here’s a link to the article that ran in the newspaper Tuesday reporting on the bike lanes and these comments.
