Alberta’s bike lane complaint portal to inform fall legislation

An anti-bike lane event hosted by Alberta's transportation minister was met by pro-bike lane protestors. CTV News Edmonton's Connor Hogg was there.

Alberta’s minister of transportation says the province’s new bike complaint portal will help to inform fall legislation.

The portal launched Wednesday asks Albertans to share their concerns about bike lanes in their communities. The portal has been criticized for not including a portion in which to submit positive feedback.

Transportation minister Devin Dreeshen said the last question in the online form is open for respondents to submit up to 500 characters of positive or negative feedback. The question reads: “Describe your concerns with bike lanes and how they affect you.”

“This will help us identify where the most problematic bike lanes are in both Edmonton and Calgary and cities that have bike lanes,” Dreeshen told reporters in Edmonton Thursday afternoon. “It will help us be able to work with both cities to make future decisions.”

The proposed legislation could require cities – mainly Edmonton and Calgary – to complete traffic impact assessments for future bike lane proposals that will then be at the discretion of the province to approve.

It could also see existing bike lanes torn up.

Dreeshen said a “good example of a bike lane” are those in the river valley, near LRT and in public green spaces.

“The problem is when you take a road that’s been designed by a civil engineer to accommodate growth … (and) you arbitrarily have someone that takes away that road or parking that is being designed for ideological reasons to put in a bike lane, that just doesn’t make sense,” said the minister.

He went on to say that Alberta has seen an increase of more than 400,000 drivers on its roads in the last six years, particularly in the two major cities.

“We need to have more road capacity, not less,” said the minister. “To see Edmonton and Calgary reduce the driving capacity for citizens is something that is not the same direction that we want to have as a province.”

Prior to meeting with Dreeshen Thursday afternoon, Mayor Andrew Knack expressed concern about the time the province is spending on local roads when there are several other major transportation projects on the table.

“We have arterial roads that need to be widened in new suburban communities, we have the High Level Bridge replacement, we have the premier’s high-speed rail,” said Knack. “There are a lot of really important transportation projects that impact large numbers of Edmontonians that I think we need to spend our time focused on versus how we’re managing local roads.”

50 Street bike lane debate

The minister was in the Fulton Place neighbourhood Thursday speaking with residents who are both for and against a proposed bike lane down a stretch of 50 Street.

Complaints about loss of parking in the area have flooded both the mayor’s and minister’s offices, prompting the city to revise its plan to retain partial street parking. The revised plan costs more than double – about $4.9 million – than the original.

“I don’t mind the bike lanes,” said resident Bruce Campbell. “Just don’t put them here. The road isn’t wide enough. Put them in the new districts.”

One resident who frequently cycles in the area suggested the city widen the sidewalks to accommodate a shared pathway.

“To me, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to get rid of two lanes of traffic when there are not that many cyclers,” said Jenny Samm.

Dozens of cyclists were biking around the east Edmonton church where the meeting was held.

Several were chanting “bike lanes save lives.”

During a confrontation, one cyclist said they didn’t want to take away the parking on 50 Street.

“I don’t want to take anything away from you, but I also want to have safe ways to get around,” said the cyclist.

Both Edmonton and Calgary have submitted reports on their respective bike lane networks and have been asked by the province to provide additional information to justify existing bike lane infrastructure.

Official Opposition leader Naheed Nenshi said the province should stay in its own bike lane.

“If you’ve got a problem with bike lanes in your neighbourhood, go talk to your city councillor, go talk to your mayor,” said Nenshi. “Devin Dreeshen doesn’t know a thing about bike lanes. He doesn’t live in a city that has bike lanes.”

Dreeshen intends to introduce bike lane legislation shortly after the fall session starts at the end of October.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Connor Hogg and Sean McClune