{"id":921627,"date":"2026-10-05T15:12:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T15:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/921627\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T15:12:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T15:12:16","slug":"councillor-wants-calgary-to-pause-new-bike-lanes-ahead-of-upcoming-provincial-legislation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/921627\/","title":{"rendered":"Councillor wants Calgary to pause new bike lanes ahead of upcoming provincial legislation"},"content":{"rendered":"

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With the province expected to take more authority over municipal bike lanes in the months ahead, one Calgary councillor wants the city to pause any new bike lane projects in the meantime.<\/p>\n

Coun. Dan McLean will present a notice of motion to executive committee on Monday. <\/p>\n

“We have to be aligned with the province. So what would happen if we put in a bike lane at immense cost [to] taxpayers and then the province says we have to remove it?” McLean said. <\/p>\n

“I’m not against cyclists. I’m not against bike paths or walking paths. But let’s make sure they’re done thoughtfully and at the best expense of the taxpayers’ dollars.” <\/p>\n

Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen has indicated a bill is coming this fall<\/a> that will give the province power to remove bike lanes as it sees fit, and approve or reject new projects. <\/p>\n

Last month, Dreeshen told CBC News in a statement the province “supports bike infrastructure when it is safe, well-planned, integrated into the broader transportation network and does not reduce existing roadway capacity.” <\/p>\n

Cycling advocates have pushed back on the idea, recently delivering<\/a> thousands of postcards protesting what they call government overreach. <\/p>\n

McLean’s Motion <\/p>\n

One of the projects McLean lists as a concern is the redesign of 26th Ave. S.W., which will see some street parking lost to bike lanes. <\/p>\n

Bike Calgary President Doug Clark says bike lanes are needed on that road to prevent cyclists from being hurt or killed. <\/p>\n

“To press pause on something like that is really a waste of money, and really missing an important opportunity,” Clark said. <\/p>\n

Mayor Jeromy Farkas says bike lanes should be a decision for city council to debate as part of budget decisions. <\/p>\n

“I think it sets a bit of a troubling precedent to validate the provincial intrusion into decisions that are being made locally,” he said. <\/p>\n

He says there is room for council to be more transparent about spending decisions generally, including around bike lanes. He says many Calgarians might actually be overestimating how much the projects cost. <\/p>\n

“If you were to completely cancel and refund all of the money spent on bike lanes, even in the last 10 years in the city of Calgary, you wouldn’t even barely be able to afford just one single interchange that’s built in the suburbs,” Farkas said. <\/p>\n

The province has not confirmed when it will introduce its bike lane legislation. The legislature is set to resume sitting Oct. 27. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":921628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[49,2798,48],"class_list":["post-921627","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\/921627","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=921627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/921627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/921628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=921627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=921627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=921627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}