Skip to content

City fathers strike again

Why then, the necessity for a painted and designated bike lane you might ask?

In the past, as we all know, there have been some weird and wonderful projects undertaken by various councils. In most cases, there were value lessons to be learned.

Some of these projects were meaningful and well-planned while others were, in essence, wasted time, effort and money better termed as make-work projects.

They were all justified by various administrations over the past few years. Through all of that time, one would think that there were lessons learned.

Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case if a project that I am about to describe goes through.  This project centres around cyclists and cycling.

Having said that, in no way am I speaking out against people who ride bicycles as I have a bike too and occasionally, I have been known to ride it.

Word has it that the city is planning to put in bicycle lanes from Dartmouth Road on to Dartmouth Drive up past the SPCA and to the intersection of Dartmouth Drive and Pineview Road.

There are already bike stamps in the road to indicate that there is sometimes bicycle traffic. Why then, the necessity for a painted and designated bike lane you might ask?

Having seen a cyclist in this area on occasion, I am wondering what justifies the need for bicycle lanes as the majority of cyclists do not ride up the hill, but instead walk their bikes up the sidewalk.

If you have driven that strip of road, you realize how narrow each traffic lane is.  The volume of traffic on the road is remarkable.  I travel the road on average of two to three times per day for various reasons.  Many others coming down from the Wiltse area use this corridor as well.

To put bicycle lanes on this road would greatly impact on the traffic pattern and greatly increase the probability of car accident occurrence.

I wonder if the city has done its homework here?  Has there been a bicycle count for a week to see what the pattern of bicycle traffic is like? Has there been a vehicular study done? I suspect not.  If there were surveys done, no results were made public to my knowledge. Yet, in spite of this, it would appear that there have been monies ear-marked for this bicycle lane incorporation.

The big question is why? Could these allocated funds be better channeled into some other worthwhile, meaningful project? I think that most of us know the answer to that question.

Ron Barillaro

Penticton