I keep a rolling list of topics for future blog posts in the Notes app on my phone. One topic has been sitting there for quite a while, just two words: “bike lanes.”
Bike lanes are a hit issue on talk radio because cyclists are an easy target for enraged drivers looking to blame anyone and anything for the inconvenience of having to slow down. The car is a symbol of personal freedom, enabling us to go where we want at exactly the time that we want to go there! Even when thousands of people exercise their freedom all at the same time and place… resulting in gridlock.
While canvassing recently, I was surprised to learn that “bike lanes” were the number one issue for a retired gentleman in suburban Central Saanich. Now, the main transportation issues in Saanich North and the Islands are generally access to transit (frequency, reliability and convenience) and ferries (cost, volume and reliability). That was the first time that I’ve heard of “bike lanes” as an issue out here.
Out-rage-ous bike lanes!
I guess I should never underestimate how entrenched the car culture is. The battle of who owns the road rages in our society, and goes back to the “(North) American dream” – you know, the one with a single-family home, green lawn, white picket fence, and a 20 ft. station wagon in every driveway.
According to Claire Brownell, Maclean’s Associate Editor of Reports and Rankings, in an interview on The Big Story Podcast, in her rankings of Canada’s best communities she found that Victoria has the highest percentage of citizens who cycle compared to any other community in the country. It’s still less than 10%, but as safe cycling infrastructure expands and connects further into the outlying neighbourhoods those numbers will continue to grow.
Mayor Lisa Helps and the Victoria city council have been the political target of many who are angered by what they view as the infringement of cyclists onto the publicly owned real estate previously exclusively held for the motor car.
As Mayor Helps pointed out in an interview last week on CBC On the Island, the province is spending $85 million on widening the highway between Sooke and Langford, while the City of Victoria has invested $15 million into an expanded, safe network for cyclists. According to Mayor Helps, the number of users of each transportation network is comparable.
Multi-modal active transportation
The greatest restriction to the freedom provided by the open road is the existence of so many single occupant vehicles clogging the arteries and congesting the roads. In the past, the answer has been to just build bigger roads to put more freedom loving drivers on.
However, space in our cities is restricted. Even though the car culture continues to grip us there is a growing desire for active transportation options, such as cycling and walking, and demand for better transit services across the region. This is definitely the case for the Saanich Peninsula and is a growing priority on all the Gulf Islands in the Salish Sea. I will continue to support and strongly encourage local governments and the province to invest in a variety of modes of transportation, including safe options for cyclists.
Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay
When I first moved to Victoria in 2004, I took a bicycle course, mainly for navigating around the city. I lived in James Bay then, and used my bike a lot. That course taught us to “own the road”, act like you are a car and be visible. It also told us that “you are either a pedestrian or a car but you can’t be both”.
I, as a car driver, I have noticed that, when I have a passenger, that person might say something like “Does that cyclist think he owns the road or something?”
Yesterday, when I was driving downtown, there were 2 cyclists riding across a crosswalk. It looks harmless, but they should have dismounted and walked across–as a pedestrian. If you are acting like a car, you can’t go across a pedestrian crosswalk
I am writing this because I think it would help if car drivers know that cyclists are being told how to cycle on the streets of Victoria, if they take the courses available. Then everyone would know what to expect.
I am amazed that more cyclist are not hurt by crashing into car doors that are being opened as they are going by. Drivers need to always check before opening the door.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A-9RGDFGDE
Such as: http://biketoworkvictoria.ca/bike-skills/
very well spoken
I’ve been tuning into the discussion, mostly on CFAX. I’m on the fence–sometimes literally– on SSI because as a bike rider I could easily land on one if a car hit me on our narrow roads. I think a lot more money needs to focus on educating non-bikers–walkers and car drivers–about these new very expensive and at the same time dangerous bike lanes. When I go to Victoria I see how much is being expected of auto drivers to know things about right of way, opening doors, how to watch the correct stop light. Walkers too have difficulty and I also think bikers now think they have a carte blanche to do what ever they feel like in the bike lanes–including not watching out for themselves and for drivers who are still learning how to navigate this new way of sharing the road. EDUCATION.
Well said, Adam! Also, as demographics evolve, and more options for E-bikes etc, more and more people will opt for cycling, which is often much faster, door to door, than driving (and trying to park). While our parents may have grown up with the mindset that you only ride a bike until you get a driver’s license, then never again, younger folks realize we have transportation options throughout our lives.
I think it’s important to remind people that cyclists are also taxpayers, and our road infrastructure dollars are worth just as much as motorists’.
We would love to see safe bike / pedestrian lanes on the roads of Pender Island. Our roads are windy and narrow, not much of a shoulder in most places . The steep hills often include a hair pin curve, so this is dangerous for all involved.
Thank you for your posts and letting us get to know you.
Cheers
I commuted to work in Victoria from 1978 until retirement in 2001. I now live in Ladysmith and still ride for pleasure. I am somewhat envious of the bicycle infrastructure that is getting built in Victoria…it is becoming a wonderful place to ride (after many years of fighting with traffic on Douglas from the old Crystal Gardens to the old Town and Country Mall….the Goose and related routes are a safe and attractive alternatives) An continuing investment in development and maintenance of bicycle infrastructure will pay dividends in the long run. I only wish our part of the Island would get with the program in a significant way!