Mobility choices for good urbanism

Dismantling the downtown dedicated bike lanes would be a giant leap backwards (SP, Nov. 3). Saskatoon’s dedicated bike lanes have been called under-utilized, confusing and expensive. But these criticisms miss the whole point. Dedicated bike lanes were never meant to convert car drivers to the bicycle. They were intended as safe spaces for those choosing to cycle.

Any road pattern change is confusing, even to cyclists, but humans have great capacity to learn and adapt. To focus solely on dedicated bike lane costs for cyclists without talking about road building and maintenance costs for car drivers is, well, deceiving.

We ought to be thinking cars and bikes — as well as public transit, walking and wheelchair mobility. That’s what great cities do, and that’s what the Active Transportation Plan is attempting to achieve. Successful transportation systems operate on moving people, not just cars.

By 2015, Montreal had invested in 234 kilometres of bike lanes, Toronto 128 km, Vancouver 62 km, and Calgary 43 km — and these numbers are growing, not shrinking. Saskatoon already exceeds most Canadian cities in bike trips to work. We are a bike city. Adding dedicated bike lanes has proven to reduce accidents, increase cycling safety and thereby increase ridership.

Civic leaders who support bike lanes, including dedicated bike lanes, are not only supporting cyclists, they are supporting healthy, active transportation choices for their citizens as well as good urbanism. Robert Patrick, Saskatoon