Things are changing on the Prairies.
In Calgary. Look familiar?
From Calgary Cycle Chic
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And in Saskatoon, from the StarPhoenix:
Sean Shaw was clearly surprised by the reception he received at council this week.
After years of cycling advocates having to grovel and argue for seemingly every square inch of pavement they were allowed, the co-ordinator for Better Bike Lanes for Saskatoon Cycles hadn’t finished his five-minute pitch for temporary dedicated bike lanes downtown before he realized that his remarks were being warmly received.
As the city’s manager of community services Randy Grauer told me after the meeting, there has been a cultural change in Saskatoon when it comes to supporting what he hates to hear called “alternative” commuting.
… public reluctance to accept expanded cycling facilities has been reflected in the cold shoulder some councillors have given to every request for more money, better services, or a piece of the pavement assigned to bikes.
That coldness was clearly absent Monday and, according to Saskatoon Cycles chair Cathy Watts, it was also absent at a committee meeting a couple of weeks ago when the issue of experimental dedicated cycling lanes was discussed. It was that meeting that convinced Grauer a fundamental shift in attitude had occurred. …
Whether Saskatoon Cycle’s advances this week will withstand the political backlash when drivers see the loss of a few parking spots and a clearly delineated cycling lane along 24th Street and Fourth Avenue is yet to be determined. …
That Saskatoon could move from that reaction to, for example, Coun. Randy Donauer’s enthusiastic acceptance of dedicated bike lanes after seeing them in action on a recent visit to Vancouver seems a remarkably fast evolution. …
It is to the credit of advocates such as Shaw and Watts, to civic administrators such as Grauer, and to courageous councillors that Saskatoon has evolved as quickly as it has. Let’s hope they have the courage to persevere.
Calgary will announce more cycle track (aka separated bike lane) routes on February 6.
http://www.calgary.ca/Transportation/TP/Pages/Cycling/Cycling-Route-Improvements/City-Centre-cycle-track-network.aspx
They also recently published a yearbook for cycling initiatives:
http://www.calgary.ca/Transportation/TP/Pages/Cycling/The-Bicycle-Program-Yearbook.aspx
Thanks for the link, Augustin.
As the handbook notes and the pic above shows, two-way cycle tracks work best on one-way streets, to avoid traffic conflicts. Similar to Dunsmuir’s. Unfortunately, planning staff were unable to convince engineering staff to do the same with the one-way Carrall Street Greenway/Bikeway in the early 2000s. I think the design and outcome probably would be different if undertaken today, with a much more innovative staff in the COV’s traffic/transportation department.
I agree but I’m not sure how it applies to Carrall… it’s a 2-way street most of the way…
Thanks for the link to Saskatoon – it really has been a sea change here in a very short time. Of course, we are still a few steps away from seeing cycle tracks in the downtown but with luck they will be there in May. Here is a link to the project that we ran to push for these changes — http://www.betterbikelanes.ca
Calgary Transit will begin to buy their new buses equipped with bike racks…150 buses. The cycling advocates wonder which priority bus routes these will run. But it’s a good start:
http://metronews.ca/news/calgary/915690/all-new-calgary-transit-buses-to-come-equipped-with-bike-racks/
Long overdue..when Banff has had bus bike racks for several years and it’s a much smaller population there.
After living and cycling in Vancouver (8 yrs.) and Toronto (14 yrs. where my daily work cycling commute was from Scarborough to downtown financial Toronto area.), it appears even some long time cycling Calgarian have tolerated for so long lack of safe road cycling infrastructure (outside of its wonderful park pathway system) and have been toughies for long enough, the idea of even bus bike racks for even some long-time cyclists, will require an attitude change by them:
Cycling infrastructure needs to be all-inclusive for newbies, wannabes who really want to cycle but on some days, can’t put up with some dangerous intersection areas, etc. in the city or just can’t deal with some lousy weather days. (Do we, cyclists all want to cycle -20 to -24 degree C. for distances over 20 km. one way with a 40+ km.headwind?? Dry prairie weather allows some clear pavement but there’s rutted snow areas out in the suburbs…)
Prairie cities also have a tendency…for unlimited urban sprawl growth. There’s very little natural barriers to stop the amoeba growth. So building in cycling infrastructure long term is necessary along with a good transit system.
They haven’t rubber stamped the cycling lanes in Saskatoon yet, but they’ve approved a study to be completed and presented to city council before the spring. Hopefully all goes well and they have them in place for this spring/summer.