New LRT line to west side a boon for cyclists
City planning on-street bike routes
Along with a new LRT line, residents in Calgary’s western neighbourhoods are getting another inducement to get out of their cars.
But it’s one that costs the city a lot less than $1.46 billion, and is for the two-wheel crowd rather than the two-rail crowd.
The new on-street cycling routes the city plans to string around west Calgary neighbourhoods like Wildwood and Westgate will feature many of the city’s newest bicycle lanes.
But it’s a multi-gear plan that transportation officials have pitched for community streets, rather than just painted lines. They will be installing a range of devices and traffic changes to make the roads friendlier for cyclists, ranging from the confident commuter to the sandal-clad weekender and those just losing their training wheels.
In a sign of what Calgary’s new cycling strategy could one day bring citywide, the west LRT area will get “bicycle only” turn signs, special signal-changing cyclist push-buttons, new pathways, and even traffic circles and fewer stop signs to impede their pedalling.
It’s the first phase of a cycling upgrade plan for western communities that was pegged last year at $5 million.
Ald. Richard Pootmans argues Calgary is spending proportionally less on cyclists than on motorists.
“The point is that we don’t see this as the panacea for congestion,” he said. “It’s a piece of the puzzle.”
The Ward 6 alderman frames his argument for bike infrastructure as an argument against would-be critics. So does Bike Bike store owner Sean Carter, a Rosscarrock resident.
“I know certain residents are going to be upset because they see perhaps that they’re slowing down cars, but I say so what?” he said.
“What about the rest of us, or my son who has to ride to school through the neighbourhood?”
Carter’s nine-year-old son bikes to Westgate school and back on his own daily, but Dad instructs him to use the sidewalks for now.
The upgrades are designed in part to add to the number of those who cycle to work, with better links to the Bow River pathway. But they are also to entice residents to pedal to the new LRT stations, since only the west line’s terminal at 69th Street will have a park-and-ride. All the stations will have bike parking, and new street signs will guide people to the nearest C-Train platform.
Cycling for doing errands will be encouraged, too. A new pedestrian and cyclist pathway is slated for the line’s 17th Avenue S.W. corridor, which should entice biking to pick up groceries at Westbrook’s Safeway or the Sunterra across Sarcee Trail, Carter said. Bike lanes will take out a few parking spaces, most notably on Spruce Drive, where Ald. John Mar said there’s hope that impact is lightened around the Wildwood Art Centre. But in many cases, lanes will be painted alongside parked cars, as already exists on 26th Avenue S.W., and will soon come in downtown on 6th and 7th Streets S.W.
Elsewhere, there will be shared bike and car lanes, and other enhanced measures, like a sign that permits only pedallers to turn left from 33rd Street onto 14th Avenue near the Westbrook station.
Along busy 17th Avenue and Bow Trail, there will be special signal push-buttons closer to the curb so cyclists don’t have to dismount to get their quicker crossing signals.
While bicycling will still be encouraged among the heavy traffic of 45th Street, the city is also creating “family friendly” routes on side streets in Westgate, Rosscarrock and Glendale. There will be no bike lanes, but on both routes they will switch the north-south stop signs to stop east-west traffic, so that cyclists can enjoy free-flow rides.
“We get a lot of families past our house, so I think it is just formalizing what already exists,” said Westgate community association president Daniel Hassett, who lives on Westwood Drive. “It’s a good route to get us to Edworthy (Park).”
But it could also entice more motorists to take advantage of the stopfree roads, warned Glendale traffic advocate Grant McArthur.
“You’re only encouraging more vehicles into the mix,” he said. “It kind of has something lost in translation.”
Carter lives on 42nd Street, Rosscarrock’s proposed family friendly route. Some of the east-west roads that will be getting stop signs are already “highways,” he said, but he agrees that more safety measures or traffic circles could be added to prevent speeding cars. The improvements are designed to be in place before the LRT opens next March. There are already road markings to help design some of the traffic circles, Carter noted.