New cycle tracks come to Calgary

You’ve got to hand it to Calgary. This time around, what’s raising the bar for Cowtown is their investment in sustainable cycling infrastructure, with new bike paths and routes threaded throughout the city — on 5 Street, 12 Avenue, 8 Avenue and 9 Avenue, specifically. To cyclists participating in the city’s most recent Tweed Ride, the response to that pending opening, it seems, was unanimous: more, please. Keep it up.

“Any cycle infrastructure is super cool,” said one rider, as quoted by the Calgary Herald. “Calgary already has the best cycle infrastructure. It just keeps getting better.” The sentiment was shared by others, all bedecked in professorial jackets and bow ties, some in flapper-era dresses, others riding old-timey penny farthing bikes. For all of them, the Tweed Ride—which, effectively, became an opportunity to try out the new routes before they open, with the pilot project officially kicking off on June 30—was a test ride, even if the attire wasn’t quite what a cyclist might be seen wearing during the middle of summer.

One of those cyclists was Blanka Bracic, a city transportation planner. To Bracic, group events such as the Tweed Ride and the new cycle tracks themselves share something significant in common: by providing a common, dedicated space for cyclists—whether that space is literal, as in the cycle tracks, or figurative, as in events like these—the popularity of cycling may, and likely will, be boosted. It would be a further progressive achievement of which Calgary could very rightly be proud of.

“I think with more bike infrastructure,” Bracic said, “more people might try biking, because they see how it might fit into their daily life.”

Not everyone was so enthusiastic, however. Some drivers decried the reduction of street space that results, while others, many cyclists, noted that other bike paths throughout the city —especially the more picturesque riverside routes—might make the newer additions unnecessary.

“With a path running parallel to the river,” said one Tweed Ride participant, quoted by the Calgary Herald, “I’m never going to use the cycle tracks. I’ll be interested to see if it keeps people off the sidewalks. That’s my pet peeve.”