Edmonton city councillor looking to move bike lanes

Edmonton city councillor Mike Walters wants many of the Ward 10 bike lanes moved, some which were only installed this past September.

The city has agreed to not install any new bike lanes during 2014, but Walters plans to approach administration and ask for money to move some in his ward. He says many of lanes installed in the city, specifically some in the newer suburban neighbourhoods, were placed there without enough forethought and planning. Walters points point to lanes on 40th Avenue, Saddleback Road and 106 Street, specifically.

The councillor claims the city wanted to get as many kilometres of lanes as they could with available funds, but didn’t consider that some lanes might be misplaced in areas with low installation costs but without the need for bike lanes.

Walters told CBC that bike lanes in his ward were the “single biggest issue” during his fall campaigning when he was canvassing door to door. He wants to ask administration to  step back and find out what works and what doesn’t in building a cycle-friendly city. He supports building a strong cyclist network in the city, but doesn’t think it was implemented as best it could have been.

“It falls on city council to find a bike strategy from the centre out,” said Walters. He believes goal of a bike strategy should be to increase ridership; Walters doesn’t think the current strategy in Edmonton is doing so.