Cycling and Active Transportation in Edmonton

[cliffapotamus]

Jasper Ave between 82 street and 102a Ave would benefit hugely from a nice wide well-used MUP to connect to the Oliverbahn/102Ave/102a Ave bike lanes.
I've got a coworker that lives around 84 street that would bike to work along either 105 Ave or 102 Ave further west, but she doesn't feel safe getting to those lanes on the LRT MUP.

Jasper Ave from about 95 street to 82 street has space along it for a 3m SUP. it's either top of bank directly, or there's space in the existing ROW for wider sidewalks (wide parking lanes that no one can park in anymore anyways, that kind of thing) and I think it's a huge oversight that there isn't something there already. I live on 83rd, right by stadium LRT. Jasper Ave is physically a much more direct route to downtown (and by extension, all the river crossings) than the LRT SUP or the smaller neighbourhood roads, but it's too busy to ride safely on the road. I agree completely, there oughtta be something there; I've thought about it myself lol

 

[Kurayba]

Haven't seen a post for this yet, but the Ada Blvd. bridge over Gretzky has re-opened!
Most of the crew are now working on Ada Blvd. and the MUP east of the fork down to Capilano pedestrian bridge. The roadway between Gretzky/Capilano Ped. Bridge was not quite finished when I was there Saturday, best to stick to the new path if you don't wish to bend a rim.

Little disappointed there is only a sidewalk on the north edge of the bridge when all the new MUP is on the south edge of Ada.
I also feel like the south edge of the bridge could benefit from a short railing on top of the low concrete barrier. By 2021 standards it doesn't seem very safe considering loads of people like to take in the view over the river valley there.

 

[TAS]

Angus Reid poll on how residents in Canada's big cities feel about current bike infrastructure.

Edmonton's standing here probably speaks to the fact we are a largely suburbian city. I'm guessing Vancouver is lower here because it has a lot of infrastructure already.

The following graphic illustrates the 4 levels of traffic stress for people who chose active transportation - it's based on vehicle volumes and speeds as well as people's proximity to traffic.

Given that many people do not chose active transportation because they feel it is unsafe, LTS 1 (Gold Standard) or LTS 2 are considered necessary infrastructure to significantly increase ridership for the most amount of people including children.

The above info was taken from here:

 

[Platinum107]

"We don't need bike lanes, they just cause more traffic because barely anyone bikes anyway!!"

1: We're not the traffic, you are.
2: We see few people biking for year-round commuting in our city because there is such a lack of safe infrastructure that is maintained well year-round. They are underutilized because of lack of coverage and poor land-use planning in our city, not because everyone wants to drive.

@TAS The info you posted is very important, and by God, I'll keep shouting it to the moon if I have to: Bike lanes, wider sidewalks, better transit, and most importantly density in our inner city is what we need now more than ever if we as citizens of Edmonton want to be financially solvent and socially and environmentally conscious. In my eyes, we as citizens have to ask ourselves what we believe a "city" actually is: a culturally significant space in which people are moved as efficiently as possible and actually gather and do their business, live and play? Or a never-ending collage of houses, strip malls and wide roads which eats everything in its way, eventually turning on us until we move father and farther away from each other?

 

[TAS]

@TAS The info you posted is very important, and by God, I'll keep shouting it to the moon if I have to: Bike lanes, wider sidewalks, better transit, and most importantly density in our inner city is what we need now more than ever if we as citizens of Edmonton want to be financially solvent and socially and environmentally conscious.

Amen

 

[TAS]

One more thing to share this morning as it relates to above - a recent report from the Conference Board of Canada called Keep Moving: Sustainable Mobility After the Pandemic

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www.conferenceboard.ca

From the report:

Sustainable cities face very real challenges in a post-pandemic world. The essential objective for sustainable mobility remains unchanged: weaken the dependency of our cities on the personal automobile.

To meet this objective, stakeholders need to do three things:

1. Orient transit infrastructure around the vision of a 15-minute city.

2. Prioritize active transportation planning and investment.

3. Commit to allocating curb space away from on-street parking.

To realize this vision, we also need to understand and nudge the behaviour of individuals.

 

[thommyjo]

One of the great tragedies in Iveson's era was his poorly planned and aggressive role out of dozens of kms of painted biker gutters. It still is giving ramifications for today.

It pissed people off. They put bike lanes in every suburb on so many streets. But it was just paint. Not even parking protected. So no one wants to use them. And they did them in quiet suburban areas with low need...where people are already comfortable to ride on the road or where they choose the sidewalk or no riding at all.

So the city spent millions to paint those and then millions to go back and rip them out. It lost public trust, was bad for bikers, bad for financials.

95ave is an example. They painted a bike gutter there instead of real sepersted and protected lanes. The pavement was so bad I popped 2 tires. The sense of stress and danger was high. Its decently busy, so drivers were pissed. So they removed it. But 95ave needs bike lanes. It is a major artery between the downtown lanes and the whole west side including 2 of our largest high schools, a half dozen other schools and churches. Multiple retail centers including West edmonton mall. And intersects with the future LRT.

But getting a bike lane back in there now will be extremely controversial.

So as much as I like iveson, he really hurt us there. Winnipeg hasn't had that history.

I'm hoping the next capital budget approves the west side network from the Bike Plan. We badly need it built. So much potential there.

 

[Edmonchuk]

Where in the suburbs did the city put bike lanes? lol I personally didn't see any.

Most of the bike lanes built in the core are protected, if its a busy street.
Bike lanes are controversial in the heads of some stupid people. And most of them drive and will never go for a run/walk, let alone bike lol

Do you have the source for "spent millions to paint"?

 

[northlands]

I couldn't find the cost to install those 95th ave bike lanes, but it did cost an apparent $500,000 to remove them.

 

[thommyjo]

This is the 95 ave one. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmo...to-remove-bike-lanes-on-95th-avenue-1.3142737

I lived in terwillegar, and all along the roads leading to schools and the rec center and bus station they did lanes (painted bike gutters).

This was all done before the downtown network was created. You can still see the remnant of the lanes in some neighbourhoods that kept a few secrions, or where just the edge of a roadway has been repaved after paint removal.

This article from 2009 pegs about 35million for painted bike lanes. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmo...-100m-plan-for-bike-lanes-and-trails-1.817889

This one from 2014 highlights 3 painted gutters on arterial roads that failed and were removed: https://edmontonsun.com/2014/10/15/gunter-city-needs-to-give-up-on-bike-lanes

 

[thommyjo]

Here's the section close to my house growing up. You can see in the first image where they were removed. Then in the 2nd image you can see further down the road where they chose not to remove them.

Not sure why you were so confident I was making something up or lying? Lol. Just caused you didn't "see" them doesn't mean it didn't happen. Haha. It's a big city

 

[Edmonchuk]

^^ There are bike lanes around the rec centre in Terwillegar, but that's it. I live in Terwillegar and walked everywhere and didn't see any painted bike lane.

The article is from 2009. The city was learning how to build a proper bike infrastructure.

How did it piss people off? I don't get it. How is it bad? You need to start somewhere. A lot of bike lanes in Europe/Asia just painted, not protected. It's obvious that Edmonton was copying what already had existed somewhere.

I heard enough from people, who never biked once in their entire life, how much they hate bike infrastructure, protected or not, it doesn't matter. They just don't want to see it.

 

[ChazYEG]

^^ There are bike lanes around the rec centre in Terwillegar, but that's it. I live in Terwillegar and walked everywhere and didn't see any painted bike lane.

The article is from 2009. The city was learning how to build a proper bike infrastructure.

How did it piss people off? I don't get it. How is it bad? You need to start somewhere. A lot of bike lanes in Europe/Asia just painted, not protected. It's obvious that Edmonton was copying what already had existed somewhere.

I heard enough from people, who never biked once in their entire life, how much they hate bike infrastructure, protected or not, it doesn't matter. They just don't want to see it.

The biggest difference between painted lanes here and in Europe is the culture, my friend.
Whereas in Europe, a lot of drivers also bike, or have family/friends that do, and biking a part of their daily lives, one way or another, here the vast majority sees bikes either as a kids' toy or a nuisance to cars.

This cultural and social difference makes painted, unprotected lanes safer in Europe then here, because there the drivers will, most of the time, respect the space, speed and distance to keep bikers safe (and most of the roads are also narrower, with more obstacles anyways).

Maybe in a few years, if we invest in protected bike paths and make people feel safe using them to commute, drivers will get used to them and we'll be able to ride safely in painted, unprotected bike lanes, like they have in Europe.

We don't even need to go out of our way to create some degree of protection. Take 121 St, for example. Instead of having the on-street parking at the curb, with bike lanes painted between driving lanes and the parking, we could just put the parking between the cars and bikers. Simple change, would make a great difference. Now imagine doing that in all of the streets where you put painted bike lanes and you have yourself an environment that is a little bit safer, but with the exact same cost as the lanes that were painted (and then removed) in some suburban areas in Edmonton. I believe that some of the critique here was in this sense, that parking protected bike lanes cost the same thing as unprotected, and is a lot safer for riders, especially when the road environment is so hostile to them.

 

[Edmonchuk]

This cultural and social difference makes painted, unprotected lanes safer in Europe then here, because there the drivers will, most of the time, respect the space, speed and distance to keep bikers safe (and most of the roads are also narrower, with more obstacles anyways).

And how do you change the culture? By introducing bike infrastructure.
Europe hasn't always been a bike paradise land. It took a lot of time to change the mentality.

There are many cities in Europe that are not bike friendly at all. You wouldn't want to bike in Rome.

 

[The_Cat]

The expanded Terwillegar Drive will include a shared-use path on the east side.