City needs safe route for cyclists

Dear editor: This is an exciting time for cyclists in the Okanagan as communities are investing heavily in cycling infrastructure such as the rail trail from Vernon to Kelowna and protected bike lanes in Kelowna.

We in the south got off a fast start with the KVR Trail and now it’s time to take it to the next level. Soon you will be able to ride from Vernon all the way to the south end of Vaseaux Lake before the rail trail ends.

Now is the time for Penticton to create a cycling network which will allow cyclists a safe way to cycle in our town.

There was a great article in the Guardian called “How to Copenhagenize your city,” and we could learn from this.

Copenhagen in 2016 had more bicycles (265,000) entering the city than cars (252,000). The main reason cycling is so popular is that it is the quickest way to get downtown with the cycling infrastructure provided. It takes 37 minutes to get downtown by car and only 13 minutes by bike.

It was very interesting to look at the reasons for cycling: 56 per cent was because it is quick, 19 per cent exercise, six per cent inexpensive and only one per cent was environmental.

We are a ways from that, but now is the time to build cycling corridors which are safe for cyclists and scooters and also provide depots for safe cycle storage at destination hubs.

For example Atkinson Road would make a great cycling corridor. It would connect to a fork at Duncan Avenue. One branch would go behind Safeway and connect to the KVR path and lead downtown. The other would go along Duncan to Okanagan College and then on to the SOEC.

Now these will need to be real bike lanes. They need to have barriers to traffic to increase safety, they need to be well lit and there should be bike traffic lights which allow cyclists to get a lead on cars in an intersection.

Imagine riding your bike to the John Fogerty concert on a beautiful summer night along a well-lit bike path. You then