{"id":804595,"date":"2026-07-16T01:09:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T01:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/804595\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T01:09:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T01:09:16","slug":"alberta-government-launches-web-portal-taking-complaints-on-bike-lanes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/804595\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta government launches web portal taking complaints on bike lanes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

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Estimated 4 minutes<\/p>\n

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The Alberta government is asking the public to report their concerns about bike lanes in a new web portal.<\/p>\n

The webpage went live on Wednesday morning with a form users can fill out to share concerns about bike lanes around Alberta. <\/p>\n

The results are intended to inform future policy decisions after Alberta Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen said a bill is coming this fall<\/a> that would give the province more power to review or remove bike lanes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Dreeshen said he expects the form\u2019s results will help target bike lanes that receive a high number of complaints.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing able to rank the most problematic bike lanes will probably be easy for us to do, whether it\u2019s traffic congestion in certain areas or negative effects on businesses,\u201d Dreeshen said.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“It seems very directed towards a certain outcome, and that is the issue I see with the whole thing,” Schmidt said.<\/p>\n

The webpage is accompanied by a “reportabikelane@gov.ab.ca” email address for the public to contact provincial officials directly on the subject.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Cyclist safety and bike lane locations<\/p>\n

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\u2019s looking for from the cities.<\/p>\n

In May, Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas said<\/a> he\u2019ll 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf cyclists are concerned about the interaction between car and bicycle, separating them by having bike lanes that don\u2019t take away from where cars are, that\u2019s the most safe way to have bike lanes,\u201d said Dreeshen.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s LRT routes travel through their downtown cores.<\/p>\n

He added the province is “always hoping” to meet with cycling groups to discuss safety concerns.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I think about the amount of effort being put into this issue, I think there are much bigger issues on Albertans\u2019 minds right now,\u201d Schmidt said.<\/p>\n

Council response<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guarantee you there\u2019s too many bike lanes in Calgary,\u201d McLean said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re so wide, they\u2019re taking out parking, they\u2019re taking out extra traffic lanes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ward 7 Coun. Myke Atkinson, who represents downtown Calgary, said building safe transportation infrastructure encourages more people to use it. <\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

He added that overseeing safe and efficient travel around Calgary \u2014 whether it’s through cycling, walking or taking transit \u2014 is local government’s job.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo offence to someone who lives in rural Alberta or northern Alberta or Edmonton or Red Deer, but they don\u2019t have anything to do with how people get around in the city of Calgary,\u201d said Atkinson.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 4 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":804596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48],"class_list":["post-804595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary","tag-ca","tag-calgary","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/804596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}