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The Alberta government is asking the public to report their concerns about bike lanes in a new web portal.
The webpage went live on Wednesday morning with a form users can fill out to share concerns about bike lanes around Alberta.
The results are intended to inform future policy decisions after Alberta Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen said a bill is coming this fall that would give the province more power to review or remove bike lanes.
On Wednesday, Dreeshen said he expects the form’s results will help target bike lanes that receive a high number of complaints.
“Being able to rank the most problematic bike lanes will probably be easy for us to do, whether it’s traffic congestion in certain areas or negative effects on businesses,” Dreeshen said.
To submit a response, users must select an issue they have with bike lanes from a drop-down menu that includes reduced parking, cost for taxpayers, lanes not being used, reduced business or residential access, or increased congestion and commute times.
The drop-down menu does not include an option for users to instead select that they support bike lanes, which Calgary Ward 8 Coun. Nathaniel Schmidt questioned after the page went live.
“It seems very directed towards a certain outcome, and that is the issue I see with the whole thing,” Schmidt said.
The webpage is accompanied by a “reportabikelane@gov.ab.ca” email address for the public to contact provincial officials directly on the subject.
Despite Schmidt’s concern, Dreeshen pointed to the form’s open-ended question about how bike lanes affect you as a way residents can still provide positive feedback.
Cyclist safety and bike lane locations
The province has asked Calgary and Edmonton to provide information on how individual bike lanes affect local communities, traffic, businesses and emergency response times. But Dreeshen said he has not received the level of detail he’s looking for from the cities.
In May, Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas said he’ll push back on legislation that makes roads less safe for cyclists. On Wednesday, Dreeshen argued cyclists’ safety can be protected by building bike lanes where they make sense.
“If cyclists are concerned about the interaction between car and bicycle, separating them by having bike lanes that don’t take away from where cars are, that’s the most safe way to have bike lanes,” said Dreeshen.
Dreeshen pointed to pathways off of roads as well as LRT routes as examples of where bike lanes can make sense. Both Edmonton and Calgary’s LRT routes travel through their downtown cores.
He added the province is “always hoping” to meet with cycling groups to discuss safety concerns.
Schmidt, who represents the Beltline neighbourhood in central Calgary, said he hears a mix of positive and negative feedback from his constituents about the bike lanes in his ward, rather than a high volume of complaints.
“When I think about the amount of effort being put into this issue, I think there are much bigger issues on Albertans’ minds right now,” Schmidt said.
Council response
When Dreeshen discussed introducing new legislation on bike lanes earlier this year, both Farkas and Edmonton Mayor Andrew Knack pushed back. Farkas said he believes there are more important priorities for Albertans, and Knack argued Edmonton has been methodical about where it builds bike lanes.
But Calgary council is not unanimously opposed to the province’s new portal, as Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean said he believes most people want more discussion about bike lanes.
“I guarantee you there’s too many bike lanes in Calgary,” McLean said.
“They’re so wide, they’re taking out parking, they’re taking out extra traffic lanes.”
Ward 7 Coun. Myke Atkinson, who represents downtown Calgary, said building safe transportation infrastructure encourages more people to use it.
But the problem with Calgary’s bike lanes, he said, is that the network is incomplete, making some areas more difficult to navigate when there are gaps to travel between bike lanes.
He added that overseeing safe and efficient travel around Calgary — whether it’s through cycling, walking or taking transit — is local government’s job.
“No offence to someone who lives in rural Alberta or northern Alberta or Edmonton or Red Deer, but they don’t have anything to do with how people get around in the city of Calgary,” said Atkinson.