SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
City councillor Dan Wong moved aggressively this week to revive a proposal for bike lanes on the city's main drag. But the rest of council says he may be peddling too fast if he wants action by this spring's street repainting.
"I would like to see this council give Yellowknifers the roads and transport network that will make cycling really, really attractive to huge amounts of people," said Wong during Monday's municipal services committee.
He said after two reports recommending more bike lanes in the city in 2007 and 2008, it is high time the city moves ahead this summer with a pilot project for seasonal bike lanes, particularly along Franklin Avenue.
"This is something we have been talking about for the last five years but this is something I would like to see done in three months. This is a 'get 'er done council' and I would like to see these bike lanes done."
Bike lanes have been a big priority for Wong since running in last fall's municipal election, and was something he lobbied heavily for during council's strategic planning meetings earlier this year.
Wong said he would ideally like to see "one continuous route" from Latham Island to the Multiplex, and bike lanes from Somba K'e Park to Tin Can Hill, but he left administration to provide potential options and details to council.
The discussion comes on the heels of a debate over whether to create a helmet bylaw for all "self-propelled" vehicles in the city. Other councillors seem to feel creating bike lanes and having a helmet bylaw are two separate debates.
Coun. Bob Brooks said he likes the idea, but said he wants to ensure administration has time for the workload, given some of the public works projects slated for this summer. He also said he is worried about potential "cost implications" of having to remove metered parking areas to make way for the bike lanes.
Brooks said he would ideally like the bike lanes included in next year's budget.
"Your proposal is to task administration to take all of those reports, synthesize that, and then do all of their own research," said Brooks. "All of that would have to be done with a new initiative not in their current pile of work. It would have to all be completed within a month just to be able to start the public presentation that would then have to go to the public and be ready for the summer."
Wong's idea comes after Ecology North transportation issues committee members Dawn Tremblay and Lloyd Thiessen received a cold reception from the city last August when they tried to implement a week-long pilot project for bike lanes on Franklin Avenue leading up to International Car Free Day, Sept. 22. Tremblay and Thiessen called for narrowing the street by half a metre on either side between the Multiplex and 44 Street.
"It never was a big priority for the last council," said Mayor Mark Heyck on Monday.
"There was a presentation last summer to try a pilot project but the time frame was too short to implement it safely."
Other councillors were less enthusiastic about seeing bike lanes stretching the entirety of Franklin Avenue.
"I would want to see other streets investigated early, 49 Avenue and 52 Avenue, primarily," said Coun. Adrian Bell.
"It strikes me as unlikely that there is room for a bike lane on Franklin if we are to try to solve circulation issues and parking at the same time. I just don't think we can meet all of these objectives on that one street."
Wong rejected moving the bike lanes to side streets, arguing cyclists are not "secondary street users."
Administration is to come back to the municipal services committee meeting next week with cost estimates and time lines that might be required to have the lanes constructed.
