Alberta’s transportation minister was in Edmonton to speak against the city’s construction of bike lanes along 132 Avenue in north Edmonton.
Minister Devin Dreeshen and Coun. Karen Principe teamed up to share their concerns over a road project along the avenue that includes building bike lanes between 66 Street and 97 Street.
Dreeshen called it “irresponsible planning” to reduce the avenue by two lanes considering Edmonton’s recent population growth and the thousands of cars that use the avenue daily.
“Alberta’s position is simple. We support bike lanes when they make sense, but we will not support tax dollars being used to reduce road capacity,” he said, adding the province is concerned about how bike lanes will impact traffic flow from provincial roads like the Yellowhead onto Edmonton arteries.
Principe said she’s heard concerns from residents over the bike lanes and she’s excited to work with the province to address those concerns.
One area resident said he didn’t feel the city’s public consultations about the bike plans were done in good faith, and asked how the province could “get involved with reigning in some of this process.”
Dreeshen said Thursday was the start of the process, with the province wanting to sit down with Calgary and Edmonton and talk about current or future plans that could reduce driving lanes in those cities.
Not everyone who attended the event shared the same worries.
“I’m concerned about the province’s potential overriding of Edmonton decisions on bike lanes,” said one woman. “Designated bike infrastructure is not only safer and more affordable to maintain than car infrastructure, but it also reduces traffic congestion and traffic related injuries and fatalities.”
At one point, Dreeshen was booed when he was asked if the province would also like to remove existing bike lanes and responded with, “I think that’s on the table.”
‘Sabotage’
Construction on the roadway renewal, which includes the bike lanes, began two years ago.
Coun. Aaron Paquette asked who is going to be footing the bill should the province decide to step in and put a stop to the project.
“We’ve already got contracts entered, the work has already begun. Is it going to be the taxpayer, the property taxpayer, who has to pay for that? Or is the province going to come in with money in order to help us do a redesign?”
Paquette added that the province has not reached out to the city with its concerns, with few councillors aware of Dreeshen’s visit that afternoon.
“Why didn’t they say, ‘Hey, we’ve got some concerns. Can we work it up together in a good way?” Paquette said. “Instead of the sabotage that, frankly, I think might be a distraction from some of the other problems that they’re having on a provincial level.”
In an email to CTV News Edmonton, Coun. Michael Janz said research shows traffic calming measures, which include shared-used pathways and bike lanes, save lives.
He called the traffic calming and road safety work being done by the city a matter of public safety, pointing to 26 traffic deaths and 129 serious injury collisions on Edmonton roads last year.
“I don’t know what this is about, to be writing a letter as the minister of the province to one city councilor,” Janz said after the meeting. “We don’t tell them where to buy their Tylenol. I don’t know why they’re telling us how to build our roads.”
Bike Edmonton also issued a response to Dreeshen, accusing the minister of “parachuting” himself into a local issue.
In a press release, Bike Edmonton said the Yellowhead conversion has increased car capacity just 350 meters from the proposed bike lanes and that the city has spent years consulting with affected communities on the road work.
“Earlier this month, Bike Edmonton surveyed Edmontonians if they would prefer reallocating taxes if it came at the expense of bike lane implementation,” Bike Edmonton president Keith Heslinga said in the release.
“The results are overwhelming: 81 per cent of survey respondents are not interested in cancelling or delaying the Bike Plan to save a couple of bucks on property taxes.
“Karen Principe and her fellow councillors were elected to decide on the priorities of the City of Edmonton’s capital construction. She is certainly entitled to be upset that council did not agree with her on that priority, but to bring in the MLA from Sylvan Lake to change our local decision making is insulting to Edmontonians.”
The City of Edmonton approved $100 million in the 2023-26 budget to expand its active transportation network, including bike lanes.
