Let's give bike lanes some time

It seems I'm arriving late to the discussion about Red Deer's foray into providing bike lanes to improve safety for people who choose to leave their cars at home for some of their daily commutes. The paint was barely dry on 55th Street last weekend and people were already sounding off over the waste of tax dollars for bike lanes that "nobody uses." What did you expect, a line-up of cyclists behind the city crews champing for a mass start?

Asking drivers to share the road is one thing,
but asking people going opposite directions
to share a left-turn lane may be a bit much.

Actually, it's way too early for anyone to pronounce on the usefulness (or lack of it) of this project. We'll all need time to see the bike lanes project as part of a larger strategy for the city to adapt to a future where people choose alternate ways to move around and live their lives. The goal is to keep Red Deer a great place to live, not simply to be a city planned for the most efficient car commutes.

It's only been a week now since the lanes were laid on 55th Street, but because I live right beside it, I've ridden it a couple times already. From a cyclist's point of view, the bike lanes do make the route safer to ride. Commentators decry the onset of gridlock on 55th when school begins (especially when school is out for the day). I, too, avoid that strip of asphalt whenever possible at these times. It's not pleasant to drive, and without bike lanes, it's suicide to ride.

That's why you'll still see cyclists on the sidewalk there today, riding among pedestrians rather than taking their lanes. We all need time to change habits as well as expectations about our commutes.

But that strip along 55th is part of a larger system. It connects (with a strange left turn) onto 48th Avenue, which has a bike lane through to the top of Spruce Drive Hill, designed to take cyclists left from there (with a different kind of left turn) clear through Mountview with safe passage all the way to the city's eastern limits. It's a freeway of sorts, a collector system designed for people to enter and exit from a wide swath of the eastern side of the city. It's a safe route to ride downtown without needing to use the sidewalks.

That was the plan, anyway. And we need to allow some time make the larger plan (safe, useful routes for everyone) to work.

As a daily, year-round bike commuter for more than a decade, I know these bike lanes weren't really made for me. Even though I've been asking for them for years. They are mostly for that growing middle group of people who would like the choice of a healthier, greener, less costly means of moving around in a modern city. People want -- and in many cases, need -- to use bikes beyond the simple enjoyment of a recreational ride on our beautiful hiking/biking trails.

So we're talking about three groups of people. There's my group, those who ride daily anyway -- with or without bike lanes. There's the group who wouldn't get themselves on a bike, no way, not ever. And there's the middle group of people who like to ride some of the time, and who would ride more, if only using cycling could be more useful, pleasant and safe. We all pay taxes, we are all entitled to healthy choices.

There are lots of answers that would serve that large middle group. But we have limited dollars to spend, and this was the answer city planners came up with, in consultation with the community that was asking for answers.

I'm not sure myself if 55th Street bike lanes are a good example of the answer. I drive that street frequently, and I shudder about some of the left-turn lanes on the route -- and I feel for the owners of the Corner Store, if auto access to their business is affected by these changes.

But we all need to cool down a bit, and give this some time. No doubt, city personnel will be monitering the after-school rush on 55th, and along 40th Avenue and on 39th Street. Plus, if people offer reasonable solutions, it will be easy and cheap to tweak the system.

As a rider, I appreciate the near-universal politeness and consideration I see in Red Deer drivers. And I attempt to get through my commutes with a minimum of fuss, whether driving or cycling. But we haven't reached the future yet, and the future indicates an increase in people choosing to walk or ride their bikes for their daily errands. Red Deer's big enough to make room for all of us.

Greg Neiman is a former Red Deer Advocate editor. Follow his blog at readersadvocate.blogspot.ca or email to greg.neiman.blog@gmail.com