Re: Reader calls on council to make bike lanes a priority, Letters, oakbaynews.com
The writer is quite correct in her assessment around the hypocrisy of our current council and its approach to cycling infrastructure. Their priority is to have themselves endlessly photographed on bikes, but meanwhile do nothing to make safer cycling for everyone.
About 10 years ago, after much blood, sweat and tears on the part of hundreds of supporters and a petition signed by over 3,000 people, the municipality finally painted bike lanes on North Henderson Road.
But they also designated vehicle parking in the bike lanes every day from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., and 24 hours a day on the weekends. Oak Bay is the only jurisdiction in North America that permits vehicles to park in bike lanes. This, despite the Oak Bay Active Transportation Study (2011) prepared for the municipality by the Boulevard Transportation Consulting Group whose strongest recommendation was to remove the parking and make the lanes available to cyclists at all times.
Several Sundays mornings ago I witnessed two young children cycling and swerving into traffic around three cars parked in the Henderson Road bike lanes. Would the mayor and council be sorry to see their own child or grandchild injured or killed in this way?
And finally, the Complete Streets policy, unanimously approved by council in 2012, has likewise been ignored. Shame on them.
Lesley Ewing
Oak Bay