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Cycling and Active Transportation in Edmonton

CplKlinger said:
Has anyone heard more about this? This is news to me.

"According to the city, the Government of Alberta plans to create its own legislation relating to cycling infrastructure"

I hope they're not going the Ontario route...

lethbridgenewsnow.com

New bicycle regulations approved in Lethbridge

LETHBRIDGE, AB - Lethbridge City Council has approved a series of changes to the way bicycles are regulated.At...
lethbridgenewsnow.com lethbridgenewsnow.com
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Unfortunately, I've checked this out and was told the province is exploring similar legislation to Ontario for either fall 2025 or early 2026.
 
TAS said:
Unfortunately, I've checked this out and was told the province is exploring similar legislation to Ontario for either fall 2025 or early 2026.
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Does that entail there'll be no more summertime temporary MUPs on Victoria Park Road and Saskatchewan Drive as of 2026?
 
Gronk! said:
Does that entail there'll be no more summertime temporary MUPs on Victoria Park Road and Saskatchewan Drive as of 2026?
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I'm sorry to tell you there will be no summertime temporary MUP on Victoria Park Rd in 2025 because.... a permanent MUP will start construction (hopefully by late spring) on Victoria Park Road from 116 Street to River Valley Road. This is part of the $100 million network expansion and fills in another missing link. 🥳
109 to 116st is the next missing piece in this area, but that is a few years away still.
Rather unfortunate we can't get all these core parts linked up sooner but there is some progress happening ND planning.
 
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TAS said:
I'm sorry to tell you there will be no summertime temporary MUP on Victoria Park Rd in 2025 because.... a permanent MUP will start construction (hopefully by late spring) on Victoria Park Road from 116 Street to River Valley Road. This is part of the $100 million network expansion and fills in another missing link. 🥳
109 to 116st is the next missing piece in this area, but that is a few years away still.
Rather unfortunate we can't get all these core parts linked up sooner but there is some progress happening ND planning.
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It probably goes without saying, but a permanent MUP on Victoria Park Road is actually a good thing! 😁
Will Saskatchewan Dr have a permanent MUP under construction in 2025 as well?
 
thommyjo said:
does anyone understand our snow clearing for active transportation? Why are routes like the 127th street bike lane not done, yet the majority of suburban MUPs are. Any commuter reliant on 127th st today can't use it, but we have arterials outside the henday cleared?

Is this a deployment issue? Prioritization strategy? Equipment restrictions? Map inaccuracy?

Also, 102ave west of 130th street not being cleared continues to piss me off beyond belief. Finish the last 10 blocks to 140th please!!! The vast majority of users of 102ave west of 124th street are entering it from west of 140th. It'd be like randomly stopping snow clearing on the Whitemud at 111st. I've submitted this request to 311 and Knack multiple times the last 2 years. If you care to help, please also send an email.

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I asked a buddy who works for the City about this. He said there are priority spots (which are defined here) but the issue he figures is they re-assigned a lot of snow removal duties from various areas into one big general snow removal group and they're completely swamped while others who used to do also do snow removal duties have had their scope narrowed to focus solely on their duties and not snow removal. So you have days like today after a snowfall where you have snow removal crews scrambling, while other crews who used to contribute to snow removal are just sitting around or doing other less important tasks.

The other issue is training and the City's workforce moving consistently toward seasonal employees vs long time permanent guys. Every year the City brings on a bunch of temp seasonal guys, who eventually leave after a season or two because as a temp you get no benefits (or days off and no pension obvs) and then they have to rehire new people. Problem is, City policy states you cannot operate anything beyond a shovel unless you receive formal training from the City, which has a miles long backlog. So they hire all these new people who then can't operate the toolcats, broom machines, trucks with plows, trucks larger than F250, trucks with trailers, etc and all the other snow removal equipment.
 
Here's the map of 2025 plans (in red) so nothing changed on sask drive atleast as far as the 100million dollars.

1737559484111.png


It'll be interesting to see how the scale up the program, they didn't complete the less ambitious 2024 plans *blue = complete, green= still underway. 2025 will include a mix of MUP's, bi-directional bike lanes, local bikeways (is that just sharrows? Or does it include more traffic calming?) and contra-flows.

I'm most excited for that kingsway connection, the happy beer street bike lane (that should get connected up to east bound 76th ave renewal) and all the stuff going on in Montrose. Will be fun to follow the next couple years.

I also noticed they removed the 2027 lanes they had previously planned, maybe wanted to have a re-think on those?
 
They added some much needed connections on the west side as well, in purple.

I think local bike ways are sharrows with traffic calming. Low value routes great for experienced riders but won't draw in new riders.

I found out some designated existing and previously proposed new bike paths are those local streets immediately parallel to arterials. I think I dislike that more than sharrows. I can't remember where they were but I'm glad they removed those.

So this is a living document and we have a chance to identify and advocate for more missing links.
 
There is a real risk to all the purple routes - even though those routes have good potential to bring many more active transportation users into the network. Ironically, many of the new purple routes are in Salvador's ward, and she was a leader in securing the money. Her ward's routes were mostly designated to 2026 which is why they are at risk.
And not at risk because of the province, but at risk if Cartmell and his team form majority of council. Cartmell supported recent motion to cancel the remaining 2025/26 projects in the last budget vote so he would likely be canceling the 2026 projects (in purple) if he is mayor and has majority support. The 2025 projects are safe, though.
 
TAS said:
There is a real risk to all the purple routes - even though those routes have good potential to bring many more active transportation users into the network. Ironically, many of the new purple routes are in Salvador's ward, and she was a leader in securing the money. Her ward's routes were mostly designated to 2026 which is why they are at risk.
And not at risk because of the province, but at risk if Cartmell and his team form majority of council. Cartmell supported recent motion to cancel the remaining 2025/26 projects in the last budget vote so he would likely be canceling the 2026 projects (in purple) if he is mayor and has majority support. The 2025 projects are safe, though.
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I wouldn't say all the 2025 projects are safe, it seems alot of them are delayed. For example the 82nd st and 111 ave one involves some significant changes to a major intersection, and we have yet to see the proposed design plans. I am sure the community will have a lot to say no matter what the design is, there is no way this one gets done this summer.
 
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