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Why are protected bike lanes so important on bike routes? It would have saved this man's life.

This happened in Calgary today. It's a bike route, but just painted lanes between parked and moving vehicles as you can see from the pic. Next year they are building protected lanes at this location to replace the paint, which would have prevented this death.

Unprotected routes also significantly impact ridership as people don't feel safe.

Screenshot_20250711_145745_Samsung Internet.jpg
 
Why are protected bike lanes so important on bike routes? It would have saved this man's life.

This happened in Calgary today. It's a bike route, but just painted lanes between parked and moving vehicles as you can see from the pic. Next year they are building protected lanes at this location to replace the paint, which would have prevented this death.

Unprotected routes also significantly impact ridership as people don't feel safe.
Near the intersection where the incident took place.
Screenshot 2025-07-13 at 8.23.43 PM.png


Unfortunately, there are a lot of similar areas in Edmonton. Looking at you, 82 Street, or 105 St in the SW. The painted lines give cyclists a false sense of security or give motorists an excuse to put cyclists out of sight, out of mind, while they speed by. Apparently, a lot of drivers think that the paint serves as some invisible barrier and they can pass within less than the legally required distance. The lanes are often directly in the door zone, with horrible pavement conditions. Most of them seem to have been put in at a time when the average vehicle size was much smaller than today, evidenced by the fact that so many street parked vehicles have their tires over the lane. They may as well be taken off the bike infrastructure map because sometimes they can be more dangerous to ride in than nothing at all.

Screenshot 2025-07-13 at 8.26.20 PM.png

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Should have been transformed like 132 Ave.
I pushed Hamilton and knack hard on this.

Key reasoning given was the volume vs 132ave is a lot heavier. Therefore 95ave is treated more as an arterial like 178st where a MUP is on the side. Vs 132 as a smaller collector can more appropriately have raised crossings, traffic calming, etc.

Idk if I agree. But their reasoning. I did push them hard to get the 163rd street slip lane removed. So I’m happy to see that. But 170th they didn’t because it’s too big of a road (their words)
 
I pushed Hamilton and knack hard on this.

Key reasoning given was the volume vs 132ave is a lot heavier. Therefore 95ave is treated more as an arterial like 178st where a MUP is on the side. Vs 132 as a smaller collector can more appropriately have raised crossings, traffic calming, etc.

Idk if I agree. But their reasoning. I did push them hard to get the 163rd street slip lane removed. So I’m happy to see that. But 170th they didn’t because it’s too big of a road (their words)

Dreeshen was just on Calgary radio show talking about 132Ave as a "major thoroughfare" being cut down to justify his opposition to the enhanced bike and walking infrastructure, which is so not the case.

Similar to parking minimums, too many of our roads seemed to have been planned for that small segment of time they are the busiest and then for the much larger remainder of time the volume is low.

Now that I live in dt with a good view of of 101st/104Ave as well as a few other streets filtering into dt from the north and east, I can't believe how quiet these roads are during the day - and not even that busy during morning commute - which given all the construction going on is something.
 
Can you imagine if the UCP started to require off street parking at the provincial level?
Obviously reading into a hypothetical here - but generally provincial meddling in land use ends up flopping. Nova Scotia attempted to pass a Coastal Protection Act which would help to reduce homeowner insurance premiums by mandating setbacks based on the risk of tide flooding. It rolled around gathering support for 6 years, then they scrapped the project, instead making a pamphlet for municipalities. They called it an "information-based approach".
 
I submitted the idea of Bixi or something similar to my Councillor and got the response of, "there is too much animosity towards biking in Edmonton to proceed with something like this", we'll continue our strategy of capital work though. Too bad they don't see the connection of integrating actual bikes and corresponding infrastructure into the planning akin to Montreal, NYC, Toronto, etc. Having bikes readily available at major landmarks would be such a positive for tourism in Edmonton.
 
Last reminder about Citynerd fundraising event (for Paths for People) tonight at UofA if want to join.

Joining Ray (citynerd) are three other panelists (housing, transit and active transportation) MC'd by Taproot.

Some discussion items:
Recent BILD report - how should Edmonton grow?
Recent BRZ vote/direction and upcoming election.
Sidewalks/MUP vs seperate infra for bikes.
What is Edmonton doing well in urbanism and what does it need to change or pivot?
What are city's best and worst examples of urbanism?

To register:
 
Last edited:
Last reminder about Citynerd fundraising event (for Paths for People) tonight at UofA if want to join.

Joining Ray (citynerd) are three other panelists (housing, transit and active transportation) MC'd by Taproot.

Some discussion items:
Recent BILD report - how should Edmonton grow?
Recent BRZ vote/direction and upcoming election.
Sidewalks/MUP vs seperate infra for bikes.
What is Edmonton doing well in urbanism and what does it need to change or pivot?
What are city's best and worst examples of urbanism?

To register:
Do you know if this'll be recorded and posted online for folks who can't make it?
 

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