‘Bike boulevard’ for value or vanity?

Laurence Solomon, in his Financial Post article entitled “Rip Out the Bike Lanes Before More Innocent People Get Hurt,” claims “because bike paths are fashionable, municipal politicians compete with each other to remake their cities as ‘world class cycling cities,’ often at great expense to serve a small segment of the population (typically just one to two per cent of commuters who cycle) that for the most part lacks the ability to ride safely.” All promoted by politicians and planners who build bike lanes as vanity projects.

In my opinion the expense of the 7 Avenue bicycle boulevard was to satisfy a few bicycle riders, neighbourhood proponents and municipal employees.

The bicycle boulevard with its trafficcalming devices, traffic diversions and plethora of signage was not worth the expense given the cost/benefit. Other than the 18 or so blocks along 7 Avenue, cyclists must share the road with other vehicles. Cyclists must take responsibility for their own safety by learning and obeying the rules of the road, maintaining their bicycles, and making sure their bicycles are roadworthy with lights, reflectors and brakes, etc.

I would argue that the money (I’ve heard in excess of $2 million) would have been better spent on providing education for the bike-riding public, stricter enforcement of existing rules of the road, and advertising programs to promote the sharing of the roadways between cyclists and motorists.

After reading reactions to the “bike boulevard” in the Lethbridge Herald’s Roasted and Toasted section, and notwithstanding Mr. Smith’s letter to the editor in which he sees the changes to the Avenue as “progressive,” I would judge the reactions to this construction as primarily negative. In talking to people I have met, their reactions vary from seeing the project as ridiculous, annoying and expensive to actually viewing it as potentially unsafe.

As predicted, motorists have been seen to be cutting around and over traffic circles, driving over boulevards to avoid traffic calming devices and using the adjacent alleyways as roadway alternatives, all providing a less safe environment for cyclists as well as pedestrians and other motorists in the area. I urge city officials to re-evaluate this expensive vanity project and restore 7 Avenue South to the beautiful and historic boulevard it once was.