Concrete barries: a ridiculous idea

DEAR EDITOR:

According to Kirsten Dixon, the city’s General Manager of Infrastructure, the existing bike lanes have been on South Main Street for many years, but now city staff are proposing concrete barriers on either side of the street to create separated bike lanes.

The new concept will remove some parking from South Main and may impact other buildings, including one longtime store, the South Main Market.

Now for my take on this ridiculous idea. All of a sudden, the bike lanes that have served so well all these past years, are considered unsafe and need to have concrete barriers, taking away first of all the easy traffic access to the South Main Market.

Do they give a rip of the welfare of a business that has served the public for so many years and just want to be able to keep up the service?

And the needed parking for trucks unloading produce across the street from the South Main Market will be taken away by concrete barriers.

Not to mention parking on the west side of all South Main will be probably unaccessible. Correct me if I’m wrong on any of this.

Now the powers to be sound as if no matter how the public feels, they are going to go ahead with this bike lane, revised with concrete.

I feel the majority would like to see the South Main concrete barrier bike lane idea scrapped. However, if there is no way that the city staff will not listen to reason in this, then I wonder, if you must put the changed bike lane through, then why not put the bike lane with its concrete barriers in the middle of the South Main Street and have the 2-way traffic on either side?

That way, I think the traffic access to the South Main Market and the trucks having access to parking across the street would be able to continue on the way they have and also parking all along the west side of the street would be available. Mike Bugyi Penticton