Lunchtime cycling OKed on Stephen Ave.
Bicycles will be allowed to join the slow daily parade of lunchtime amblers on Stephen Avenue, when the downtown cycling route pilot launches without any time restrictions on riding down the pedestrianonly strip.
Downtown businesses never wanted to share Stephen Avenue Walk with cyclists, but they were expecting at least a ban on pedalling during the busiest hours, between 11 a. m. and 2 p. m. Mayor Naheed Nenshi and transportation general manager Mac Logan had both suggested limits made sense during lunch and major events like Stampede.
But as planners finalized the rules for bike- only lanes throughout the core and ending the daytime bike prohibition on Stephen Avenue, they decided to give bikes all- day rights to start the one- year trial program, and modify later as necessary.
“They’re going to treat it as a true pilot,” said Kimberley Nelson, president of Bike Calgary.
“Why start off with all these rules and restrictions when you don’t know what beast you’re dealing with yet?”
Currently, cyclists along Stephen between 6 a. m. and 6 p. m. get fined. The no- car gates will be modified to let bikes pass through at all hours starting in June, though authorities will still crack down on bikes using the avenue’s sidewalks, which most pedestrians stick to during much of the day.
Lunch hour, however, is different. On sunny days, vendors line the broad sidewalks as their visitors gather round, and the Yodeling Sausage truck has a lineup that spans the avenue.
For several blocks, there’s Deerfoot- like congestion of business suits, construction workers and lunch- break exercisers with their eyes shifting between their smartphones and the slow- moving couple in front of them.
“Not having any rules during lunch time is a huge concern for us,” said Maggie Schofield, the Calgary Downtown Association’s executive director. “And that’s not what the discussion was.”
Several retailers and organizations that Schofield’s group represents, including the Telus Convention Centre, had urged against letting bikes intermingle with pedestrians. She calls the lack of time restrictions “unnecessarily reckless,” and likely to cause collisions. Her group bars delivery vehicles on the avenue as early as 10: 30 a. m. to avoid interference with the lunch crowd.
To Nelson, safety fears are overblown, and most cyclists wouldn’t want to ride through the crowded corridor at lunch anyway.
“Bikers don’t fare well when there are hordes of people,” she said. “Nobody wants to hit another human being.”
Schofield agrees that “really wellbehaved” cyclists won’t want to use Stephen Avenue when it’s wall- to-wall pedestrians. But there’s no guarantee all will behave. In the cycling route pilot, it’s the only safe east- west corridor in downtown, for riders that don’t want to compete with motor traffic.
Retailers had also hoped for a cycling ban during Stampede and other high- traffic, vendor- heavy events. The city’s cycling co- ordinator could not be reached by deadline.
Construction will also begin this month on the temporary barriers and signals for the barrier- separated bike lanes that will also open in June: 5th Street S. W., 12th Avenue, and the stretch of 8th Avenue west of the pedestrian mall.