Page 52 - 05_July-Aug 2024

HATE BIKE LANES?
READ THIS NOW.
BY STEVEN SANDOR
N
akota Isga councillor Andrew Knack regularly holds “community conversa- tions” in his ward. The public is wel- comed to a school gym or a community league hall for a conversation about a
So, I am not a bike-lane user. But what I do care about is bang for our tax-paying bucks. If there’s a return on the City’s investment, then we all benefit, cyclists or not. So, we need to look at bike lanes like we do the City’s decision to spend more than $225 million for Rogers Place. The reasoning was that Rogers Place was good for downtown, that it would attract new development and business to the core, so it was worth it.
We should apply the same measuring stick to bike lanes. In a truly pragmatic sense, is there a return on the $100 million?
The 102nd Avenue corridor in Wîhkwêntôwin features a bike lane, and it’s seen a host of new high-density residential and retail projects completed in the last five years, with more to come. The 27- storey MacLaren and the two-phase, seven-storey Mercury Block anchor the community. Henry Edgar, CEO of Autograph, which developed both of those projects, told us in January that bike lanes were a factor in deciding to build on 102nd Avenue.
“You’ve got elm trees and bike lanes and bricks- and-mortar retail,” Edgar said. “Ultimately, all of that contributes to a sense of safety when you’re walking around in the evening. We feel really confident about the success of our developments in this area.”
Just down the street from Autograph’s buildings is the hole where the 185-unit Jameson will soon stand. Robert Horvath is the principal at Vancouver-based Open Sky Developments, which is building the project. He said construction should begin in late 2024 or early 2025.
pressing issue, and other councillors and representa- tives from other orders of government are invited.
I attended a fiery one in 2023, with Mayor Amarjeet Sohi onstage. Multiple times, community members stood up and ranted about bike lanes, asking “how dare the City allocate $100 million to them?” Resident after resident stood up and declared that the bike- lane budget was the make-or-break issue that would determine the 2025 election. People stood up and told the mayor that they looked forward to the day that he wasn’t the mayor, anymore. There was applause, there were catcalls, and Knack had to ask for the attendees to remain civil.
It was a prime example of how the construction and maintenance of bike lanes have become so divisive in our city. When city council raised taxes by 8.9 per cent in 2024, bike lanes were once again a prime target for the public’s wrath. If the snow isn’t shoveled on time, bike lanes are blamed. If the buses run late, it must be the damn bike lanes. If there’s a traffic jam, well, just look at the bike lane over there!
City council, despite inflationary pressures, pro- tected the $100 million allocated to the expansion of the bike lane network. And it is repeatedly brought up as its greatest sin.
But, is it? I am not a cyclist. In fact, my balance is so awful, I have a hard time staying upright on a bike.
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